KYOCERA SLC Technologies Breaks Ground in Kyoto, Japan

Kyocera Corporation's wholly-owned subsidiary in charge of the production of high-density wiring boards for servers and network equipment, Kyocera SLC Technologies Corporation (herein "KST"), announced that on Friday, May 17 it had broken ground on a second manufacturing facility at its Kyoto Ayabe Plant (Ayabe City, Kyoto Pref., Japan) in order to further expand its business.

With the widespread implementation of LTE networks, there is an increasing demand for smaller, lower profile FC-CSP*1 substrates for use in highly functional smartphones and tablet PCs. In the new Kyoto Ayabe Plant facility, KST will manufacture FC-CSP substrates for which the compound annual growth rate is expected to exceed 30 percent.

With increased production in the second facility at the Kyoto Ayabe Plant, the Kyocera Group hopes to contribute to economic development and create employment opportunities in the Kyoto area while expanding its business.

Outline of the New Facility

Name: KYOCERA SLC Technologies Corporation

Kyoto Ayabe Plant, Second Facility

Location Ayabe City, Kyoto Pref. (Japan)

Facility size: Building area: 12,230m2 (steel-framed, two floors, 140×84m)

Floor space: 24,260m2 (261,038 sq. ft.)

Construction plan Completion: December 2013 (planned)

Start of operations: Summer of 2014 (planned)

Operations: Manufacture of FC-CSP (flip-chip chip scale packaging) substrates

Production: Annual production target of 20 billion yen within several years

Note: The factory building will be designed with environmental consideration in order to realize energy conservation, for example, by reducing use of electricity and water.

*1 FC-CSP (flip-chip chip scale packaging) substrates are organic packaging substrates applied as core components in application processors or baseband processors for smartphones and tablet PCs.

Materion Breaks Ground on Class 1,000 Cleanroom

Materion Barr Precision Optics & Thin Film Coatings has initiated the construction of a 3,000 ft2 Class 1,000 cleanroom outfitted with infrared coating chambers and 3D patterning equipment. The work cell will enhance Materion's capability to manufacture low-defect coatings in high volume for the infrared wafer level, defense, and consumer electronics markets.

The Wafer Level Coating Cell, located at Materion's facility in Westford, Mass., is designed to be self-contained with a semiconductor manufacturing layout to handle 200 mm wafers. The multi-million dollar investment will assist in decreasing the cost of uncooled micro bolometer detectors and ultimately facilitate major growth throughout the commercial infrared camera industry. The Wafer Level Coating Cell enhances competencies across many other technologies such as gesture control filters, arrays, and gas sensing filters.

Completion of the work cell is expected to finish in the third quarter of 2013 and will include a 3D photolithography deposition tool, semiconductor wet etch and alignment processing tools, semi-automated inspection tools, and several custom-designed high-volume 200 mm coating deposition chambers. The long-range plan foresees a total of 20,000 to 40,000 wafers per year when fully built out. Initial work will be composed of multiple volume production lines along with current projects aimed at the defense, commercial infrared, and consumer electronics markets. In addition, Materion is continuing to invest in its coating technology for the next generation micro-bolometer devices (less than 12 micron) and plans to unveil this new technology in 2014.

Materion Barr Precision Optics & Thin Film Coatings provides technologies including optical filters, filter arrays, lens coatings, and optical thin film component assemblies. Markets are composed of life sciences and medical, commercial, defense, thermal imaging, automotive, and space, science and astronomy industries.

Proserv Adds Cleanroom

Energy technology services company Proserv has expanded its subsea test and assembly center in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, U.K. New features at the facility, which has doubled its capacity in the last 18 months, include a cleanroom within the workshop for sampling and testing of control fluids, as well as two surface test bays.

Additional features include quality driven flow processes, additional communication tools, tool bay upgrades to minimize downtime, a cell for tubular and riser testing, 200-ton SIT areas fully serviced for stack-up testing, upgrades to the existing test pit facilities with all controls at surface, and new offices.

Proserv’s facility, complete with large test pits and 75-ton internal craneage, is used for the design testing, maintenance, and installation of subsea equipment including tree assembly, system integration tests, factory acceptance tests, and blow-out preventer re-certifications prior to deployment offshore or subsea.

The company’s market activity spans a range of the oil and gas industry, particularly in the drilling, production, subsea, and decommissioning market sectors.

Trumpf Laser Marking Systems Expands

Trumpf Laser Marking Systems of Grüsch, Switzerland is expanding the floor space for its product development and manufacturing activities. The 10,800 ft2 expansion for the new building comes to about $17.8 million, and doubles the production floor space and adds an isolated cleanroom.

All the work is now carried out on a single level, making for easier control of the procedures. More than 30 employees will be manufacturing marking lasers in the new building.

Trumpf focuses on manufacturing technology, photonics, and medical technology. The company deals sheet metal processing, laser-based production processes, electronic applications, and hospital equipment.

Penn Prepares for Nanotech Center Opening

The University of Pennsylvania is preparing to dedicate its new Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnlogy on Oct. 4. The center will house a 10,000 ft2 cleanroom and a suite of laboratories.

Mark G. Allen has been selected as the inaugural scientific director. Allen is the executive director of the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology at Georgia Institute of Technology, where he is the J.M. Pettit Professor of Microelectronics. He joined Georgia Tech's faculty after earning a Ph.D. in microelectronics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989 and has a B.A. in chemistry and a B.S.E. in chemical engineering and electrical engineering from Penn.

The center is named after Krishna P. Singh, who gave $20 million towards its construction. Singh is the founder, president, and CEO of Holtech International, an energy technology company based in Marlton, N.J.

The center "will not only enable world-class academic research and teaching using state-of the art facilities but also have economic impact in the region through corporate relations, entrepreneurship and innovation," says Eduardo Glandt, dean of Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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