SEMICONDUCTOR
UPDATE
August 2006
McIlvaine Company
AMD Opens New Research Center in Shanghai
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) officially opened a multi-million dollar R&D facility in Shanghai to "drive next-generation AMD processor-powered platform innovation through increased technology partner and customer collaboration."
Initially, the engineering staff of the Shanghai Research and Development Center (SRDC) will focus on the development of AMD's next-generation mobile platforms, but will also provide an important role in the validation and testing of AMD's broad range of current and future microprocessors, the company said.
"This opening, which is the largest single expansion of system design and customer support resources in AMD's history, represents both our deep commitment to China and to moving more of our center of gravity closer to customers and technology end-users," said Dirk Meyer, president and chief operating officer of AMD. "The SRDC will dramatically improve our ability to help our customers create highly advanced, next-generation platform designs and help accelerate time to market."
Located in the Zhang Jiang technology complex, the company plans to employ hundreds of staff at the newly constructed facility, making the center its largest system design hub outside of the United States.
AMD said the opening of its new center in Shanghai will benefit its key OEM and ODM customers in the region, including such as Lenovo, Tongfang, Flocity, HP, IBM, Sun, Acer, Asus, BenQ and Fujitsu.
AMD-ATI Relationship with TSMC and UMC Not to Change
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) expects its cooperation with IBM and Chartered Semiconductor, as well as ATI Technologies' business relations with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), to remain unchanged following AMD's acquisition of ATI in October, said AMD company president and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Dirk Meyer recently in Shanghai. With AMD having its own foundry facilities and additional capacity support from IBM and Chartered Semiconductor, market sources speculate that AMD-ATI may gradually reduce its wafer-start orders with TSMC and UMC following the completion of the AMD-ATI merger.
Inotera Memories
Completed the Construction and Cleanroom Installation
Inotera Memories has recently completed the construction and cleanroom installation of its second 300mm fab that is estimated to handle in the region of 80,000wspm when at full capacity. Mattson is a preferred supplier at Inotera's first 300mm fab and a long-standing supplier to Qimonda, Inotera's Joint Venture process and production partner
Bain Capital, Apax Join
Consortium Buying Philips Semiconductor
Two more companies have signed definitive commitments to join an expanded private equity consortium that has agreed to acquire an 80.1 per cent stake in the semiconductor division of Royal Philips Electronics. Philips announced early this month that it had signed an agreement to sell the majority stake in the business.
The two private investment groups, Bain Capital and Apax Partners, join the expanded consortium of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Silver Lake Partners and AlpInvest Partners NV. Bain and Apax joining the consortium is a further vote of confidence in the company's prospects and in the management team. The entire consortium shares an extensive track record of investments in technology and semiconductor businesses.
Philips' semiconductor unit is a supplier of silicon system solutions for mobile communications, consumer electronics, digital displays, contactless payment and connectivity, and in-car entertainment and networking. The business employs about 37,000 people worldwide, and had sales in 2005 of $5.9 billion. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 of 2006, and is subject to closing conditions, including governmental and regulatory approvals.
Researchers Partner on 'First' MEMS Integrated on CMOS
Advanced Diamond Technologies Inc. (ADT), a spin-off from the U.S. Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory, partnered recently with micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) pioneer Innovative Micro Technology and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. They will supply the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) with RF MEMS oscillators and resonators by next year as these institutions co-develop the world's first MEMS directly integrated onto a CMOS chip.
MEMS devices will be integrated with CMOS chips using the ultra-nano-crystalline diamond thin films patented by Argonne National Laboratory and licensed to ADT. Low-temperature processing required for diamond films enables MEMS circuit components to be fabricated in pre-designated areas on finished CMOS chips.
The Darpa Phase II program is being funded at $1.4 million for one year. The partners will then deliver prototype chips with a MEMS resonator and oscillator fabricated alongside CMOS circuitry. The Wisconsin researchers will use atomic force microscopy tools to characterize the MEMS device's performance. According to the press release, if the prototype proves successful, Darpa would likely fund a third and final phase.
The prototype device will aim for a modest 100MHz benchmark, but MEMS oscillators made from ultra-nanocrystalline diamond should be able reach 3GHz within a few years, according to ADT CTO John Carlisle.
Carlisle said commercialization of diamond is also being driven by cost since it is cheaper. The technique could also help designers add venerable quartz crystal oscillators that sell for 50 cents directly to chips.
SemiSouth and II-VI Prime Mississippi Fab
The state of Mississippi is to get its first taste of high-volume semiconductor manufacturing as SiC specialist SemiSouth and wafer supplier II-VI prepare for the grand opening of their new state-of-the-art facilities.
SemiSouth Laboratories, the spin-off company from Mississippi State University (MSU) that specializes in SiC chips, is to formally open its new manufacturing facility on August 24, 2006
According to SemiSouth, the fab does not simply represent the dawn of the company as a volume manufacturer; it also marks the emergence of the semiconductor industry in this part of the US. As well as SemiSouth’s new fab, the facility will also house a cleanroom dedicated to wafer processing and operated by SiC substrate supplier II-VI.
Spun out from MSU back in 2001, SemiSouth now boasts 45 employees and is actively hiring. It expects the semiconductor fab to provide jobs for more than 250 people within five years as the market for energy-efficient high-power electronic components gathers pace.
SemiSouth also aims to generate annual revenue in excess of $100 million from the production of more than 50 million SiC-based components in the same time-frame.
We anticipate production to begin in the fourth quarter of 2006," said the company. "[We are] developing proprietary products and have secured contracts with both governmental and commercial customers."
As well as high-power applications in hybrid electric vehicles and electrical grid transmission components (see related stories), SiC wafers look to have a bright future in the RFIC industry as the base material for GaN transistors in next-generation base stations that will be used to provide broadband wireless services.
1H06 Top 15 Semiconductor Supplier Ranking Released
IC Insights released its 1H06 ranking of the worldwide top 15 semiconductor suppliers. (Figure 1) As shown, pure-play foundry TSMC, which ranked eighth in the full-year 2005 listing, moved into the fourth position in 1H06. Further illustrating the success of the foundry business model, for the first time ever a fabless semiconductor supplier (Qualcomm) moved into the top 15 ranking. In total, the top 15 semiconductor companies' sales increased only 1 percent in 2Q06 as compared to 1Q06.
Caused in part by their on-going price war, Intel and AMD registered the largest 2Q06 sequential sales declines of any of the top 15 semiconductor suppliers. It should be noted that although Intel and AMD each displayed significant 2Q06 sales declines, IC Insights expects full-year 2006/2005 semiconductor sales at Intel to be down at least 10 percent while AMD is on pace for a 42 percent surge.
As shown in Figure 1, Freescale (ranked tenth in 1H06) and Philips (ranked eleventh in 1H06) were essentially tied in 1H06 semiconductor sales with only $1 million difference between the two! However, using the 3Q06 outlooks from Freescale and Philips, in addition to IC Insights' estimates for fourth quarter revenue, Philips is expected to finish 2006 ahead of Freescale in semiconductor sales and hold the tenth position.
One of the hottest applications for semiconductors in the first half of 2006 was for cellular phones. In fact, IC Insights forecasts that worldwide cellular phone shipments in 2006 will reach about 950 million handsets, up 18 percent over 2005. As shown, CDMA/WCDMA semiconductor supplier Qualcomm took advantage of the strong cellular phone market to move into the 1H06 top 15 ranking. Moreover, IC Insights estimates that Qualcomm's full-year 2006 semiconductor sales will reach at least $4.5 billion, up 30 percent from 2005.
As compared to the full-year 2005 top 15 semiconductor supplier ranking, the top three positions are highly unlikely to change when the full-year 2006 results are posted. However, the number 4-6 positions are truly "up for grabs" this year. In 1H06, less than $60 million separated the fourth ranked supplier, TSMC, from the sixth ranked company, ST! As mentioned, there will also be stiff competition for the tenth spot between Freescale and Philips.
Cree Opens New Facility
Cree Inc. has officially opened its new 230,000-square-foot engineering and production facility in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The new facility is producing the company's advanced electronic devices based on silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) technologies. "The building has been there for awhile, but has been unused. Cree just opened [the] site and the fab in the building," said Gregory Merritt, director of corporate marketing for device maker Cree (Durham, N.C.). "We are currently manufacturing 3-inch wafers, and the plan is to move to 4-inch. The plant was built with 4-inch in mind."
"The new Cree site houses one of the first commercial SiC and GaN production facilities in the world devoted to serving the power and wireless infrastructure markets," said John Palmour, Cree executive vice president for Advanced Devices, in a statement.
Propelled by a new wave of commercial and military applications, a growing number of device makers are scrambling in what is becoming the next gold rush in the industry: GaN. Cree is one of those device makers that is ramping up GaN parts.
Japanese Electronics Makers Back With a Vengeance
Japan’s Toshiba has started building its fourth Flash memory plant, to begin operating in 2008. The plant will cost 600 billion yen (W6 trillion), with California-based SanDisk shouldering 50 percent of the cost. Toshiba was the first to develop Flash memory chips in the 1990s but was later overtaken by Samsung Electronics. Now it plans to catch up with its Korean competitor by investing more than 1 trillion yen by 2008. Flash chips are used to store data in MP 3 players, cell phones, digital cameras and other portable IT products.
The big Japanese electronics firms are making massive investment in semiconductors, plasma display panels and liquid crystal displays to recover their leading position in IT sectors they had to concede to Korean companies. Japan’s second largest memory chip maker Elpida Memory said early this month it will build a 1 trillion yen next-generation semiconductor production line. By investing more than four times last year’s total sales of 240 billion yen, Elpida reportedly hopes to start mass production there before March 2009. Matsushita Electric and Pioneer, Japan’s no. 1 and no. 2 PDP panel makers, are also expanding manufacturing facilities.
Matsushita overtook LG Electronics and Samsung SDI to claim the no. 1 position in the global PDP market in the second quarter by boosting production at its plant in Amagasaki to 3.4 million units a year last June. The company is now building a second factory there, where mass production is to start in 2008. Pioneer, meanwhile, will build a new 30 billion yen PDP TV factory in Yamanashi Prefecture.
The world’s fourth largest LCD maker Sharp Electronics starts mass production at its eighth-generation LCD production line earlier than planned near the end of this month. The cutting-edge production line will give the Japanese electronics giant an edge in producing LCD panels over 50 inches.
Philips to Sell Business Unit
Dutch giant Royal Philips Electronics has reached an agreement on the US$10.6 billion sale of its semiconductor unit, which has a major presence in the Asia-Pacific region
Philips announced from the Netherlands on Thursday evening (local time) that it would sell an 80.1 per cent stake in its semiconductor business to a consortium of three private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, Silver Lake Partners and AlpInvest Partners NV. Philips will hold the remaining stake.
The deal valued the semiconductor unit at 8.3 billion euros (US$10.6 billion), including the purchase price, debts and liabilities, and Philips' stake.
Philips' semiconductor business employs about 35,000 people, with 18,000 of them in the Asia-Pacific region. It has major facilities and production co-operation in China's Taiwan Province, the Philippines, Malaysia, and to a lesser extent in Hong Kong and South China.
As much as 70 per cent of Philips' semiconductor unit's sales come from Asia; the unit is one of the biggest revenue pools for Philips China.
Byron Wu, a research director with the global technology market consultancy iSuppli, which ranks Philips the 11th biggest semiconductor business in the world, said it may be better for the semiconductor unit to split from the Dutch firm so that the new company can focus on its core business.
Philips is also expected to exit from the world's largest semiconductor foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp and LG Philips, an LCD panel-making joint venture with the South Korean electronics firm.
Although Philips is spinning off a US$5 billion business unit, the company has spent US$3.5 billion buying eight companies in the past year, which brought 5,000 people and almost 1 billion euros (US$1.28 billion) in new revenue.
New Facility is Key to Marvell's Strategic Investment in Asia Pacific
Marvell, a leader in storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions, conducted a groundbreaking ceremony at its new Tai Seng Link site at the Paya Lebar Industrial Park. Scheduled to be completed in mid-2008, the seven-story building at Tai Seng Link will have 10,000 square meters of space. This state of the art building will house the Company's regional headquarters and a host of other facilities, including, IC assembly and test operations, integrated circuit (IC) design teams, sales and technical support. Marvell has Asia-Pacific operations in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan, Taiwan and India. Marvell Singapore operations were first established in 1997.
Currently employing over 200 people at its New Tech Park facilities in Singapore, Marvell’s headcount is planned to increase to more than 500 employees within the next five years; with IC designers and test and assembly engineers forming the bulk of the staff to be recruited
Belgium's Melexis to Make Bulgarian Unit Growth Driver
Melexis plans to invest in their Bulgarian semiconductor facility with over 30-million euro. By 2008, Melexis plans to triple the production and research capacity of the unit in Sofia, Bulgaria, by investing in more new facilities, hi-tech equipment, recruitment, university programs and brand positioning. Melexis plans to employ another 150 to 200 specialists within two years, up from the current 200 staff. The company is currently building another plant in the area that will be 129,120 sq. ft. with a cleanroom of 13,000 sq. ft., the largest cleanroom in Bulgaria.
DuPont Sets up R&D Center in Taiwan
Expanding its semiconductor materials business, DuPont Electronic Technologies has established another R&D center in Taiwan.
Located in the Hsinchu Science Park, the new Semiconductor Materials Technical Center is DuPont Taiwan Technical Center's (DTTC's) third facility in Taiwan.
In the design and construction phase for two years, the facility includes single wafer processing capability and metrology tools. The Semiconductor Materials Technical Center in Taiwan will focus on materials research for advanced semiconductor processes.
DuPont (Wilmington, Del.) also has semiconductor materials research facilities in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Samsung Electronics and Siltronic Announced Plans to Build a Joint 300-mm Fab
Samsung Electronics and Siltronic, a leading maker of silicon wafers and a unit of German chemicals group Wacker Chemie, announced plans to build a joint 300-millimetre wafer factory in Singapore. The factory would be a 50-50 joint venture and would be called Siltronic Samsung Wafer. It marks the first time that a semiconductor maker has teamed up with a silicon wafer manufacturer, a partnership represented by an investment of US$1 billion.
Big Korean Firms Put Their Money into China
Big Korean corporations invested US$350 million in China in the first quarter of this year, a whopping 75 percent increase from a year ago, the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea said Monday. The Samsung Group raised its investment in China this year by 60 percent to US$800 million from last year’s $500 million. Samsung Electronics is to invest $240 million in expanding its liquid crystal display/semiconductor module factory at its Suzhou LCD facilities in China to meet sharply increasing global demand. Samsung Heavy Industries, whose investment in China had been sluggish since 1996, also started in March to build a hull block factory with 500,000 tons annual capacity in Rongcheung, Shandong Province. The company is to invest a total of US $350 million in the project and aims to complete it by the end of 2008.
By contrast, big corporations’ investment in facilities here rose a mere 4.3 percent during the same period, the National Statistical Office said. Their investment in China peaked between 1995 and 1996 but shrank during the financial crisis of the late 90s. It has been on the rise again since 2003.
The increase is due to the fact that the Chinese economy is recovering after two years of contraction due to belt-tightening policies. In big cities, high-end LCD and PDP TVs sell like hot cakes, and sales of passenger cars are also growing fast. The LG Economic Research Institute expects that China will see sales of flat screen TVs more than double from last year’s 1.9 million to 5 million this year. Ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, China is increasing investment in social overheads, and there are signs of a recovery in its real estate market, which contributes to a sharp rise in sales of construction equipment and machinery.
Korean corporations are investing in two ways. First, IT companies and carmakers are boosting their investment to benefit from Chinese demand. Samsung Electronics and LG
Philips LCD’s plan to expand their LCD module factories there, to meet increasing demand for high-end home appliances and telecommunications devices in China.
Hyundai Motor is building a second factory in Beijing by investing $1 billion to benefit from rising demand there. SK Telecom Co., the nation’s largest mobile-phone operator, completed an agreement to buy $1 billion of bonds convertible into a 6.7 percent stake in China Unicom Ltd, the nation’s second largest mobile phone operator, to tap the world’s biggest wireless market by subscribers.
Second, domestic, heavy industry steel makers, shipbuilders and energy companies are moving their manufacturing base to China to avoid the effects of the strong won. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries announced plans to build hull block factories there both last year and this year. POSCO is considering buying into one or two steel makers there, and SK Corp is reviewing plans to buy coal mines in China.
They turn to China because they cannot find attractive investment targets here, experts say. Strict regulations, widespread anti-corporate sentiment, acrimonious labor relations and weakened export competitiveness are all pushing them out of the country.
Toshiba and SanDisk Joint Venture Operations, Flash Alliance, Build 300-mm Fab
Toshiba and SanDisk through there Joint Venture operations, Flash Alliance, Ltd., have announced the construction of a new 300mm fab in Yokkaichi, in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Fab 4 is set to have a 524,000 sq. ft. cleanroom with a capacity of 67,500 wafer starts per month and cost of over $2.5 billion US dollars over the next two years. Construction is to begin today and the cleanroom finished in July 2007. Production ramp is planned for in the fourth quarter (Oct-Dec) of 2007, with an initial capacity of 2,500 wafers per month and will use a 56nm process.
However, the companies have stated that they expect to reach 67,5000wspm the fourth quarter of 2008, which indicates that the average monthly ramp rate will be over 4,000wspm, making it one of the most aggressive 300mm ramps so far seen. Few 300mm fabs that have reached capacity, exceeded 1,000wspm average ramp rates, according Semiconductor Fabtech's own 300mm Activity Report.
Fab 4's six story structure will use the latest developments in earthquake-absorbing construction techniques that are expected to dampen quake force by almost two-thirds. It will also deploy superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) that is designed to be triggered instantaneously by any sudden, momentary loss of power supply, from a lightning strike for example, to prevent any impact on production, according to the companies.
Chips are the Oil of the Information Age says Chirasrota Jena
New technologies have driven the semiconductor industry from the beginning and will continue to drive it. Most of these technologies have been incremental developments, but disruptive technologies also exist with an unpredictable effect on the industry.
India has been playing an important role in the global growth of the industry. Though we don’t have a dedicated semiconductor hub we can contribute to the industry. IT hardware has been the major segment for semiconductors in India till recently. However, the growth of telecom equipment manufacturing and the entry of EMS companies will certainly drive the semiconductor industry in future. Major global players in the semiconductor field have set up R&D facilities, and with positive signs from the Indian government, these players have expressed an interest to further invest in India.
The total available market for semiconductors in India for 2005 was $1.14 billion, which represents the actual semiconductor usage through manufacturing of electronics in the country. The total market for the semiconductors in India for 2005 was $2.82 billion, which represents the semiconductor consumption by way of manufacturing, assembly and imports of electronics. According to ISA, the increased flow of international companies setting up their offshore design and development base, and the ramping-up of engineering human resources in the existing set-up (including non-captive companies) is expected to drive the revenues for the total design market in India.
The country today has almost 130 semiconductor-related companies, and, as reported by ISA, market trends suggest that the development of this industry is now taking centre-stage. Apart from the manufacturers there are other players related to semiconductors who have an R&D presence in India. These companies are also contributing significantly to the growth of the industry as a whole.
Cadence is a player in the field of integrated circuits and electronic systems. Semicon-ductor manufacturers use Cadence software and hardware to design and verify advanced semiconductors. ARM is another player in the field of semiconductor IP solutions, and a supplier to manufacturers such as Freescale, Samsung and TI. These companies use ARM’s core designs to create and manufacture microprocessors, peripherals and SoCs (System on Chips). Though different forms of 65/45 nanometre chips are available in the market, R&D activities are still going on to bring more sophisticated chips to the market.
Building the Ecosystem
There is always a demand for smaller chips with higher capacity and lower power consumption. These factors have further added fuel to the growth of the industry in India.
As semiconductor chips become more powerful and less expensive, they are becoming ubiquitous. Also, new capabilities are being added to chips. These include micro-electromechanical systems (MEMs) such as sensors, actuators and digital signal processors that enable cost reduction and extend IT into new types of devices. Notes Sabarinath, “Technology trends such as analog to digital are resulting in the growth of processor and controller companies, while discrete companies are facing the challenge to survive. The growth of embedded technology holds huge potential for embedded processor companies. This area is attracting even traditional microprocessor companies such as Intel and AMD.”
The growth of the semiconductor industry in the country will provide a further impetus to the local chip designing industry through increased domestic demand. This in turn will have a significant multiplier effect on the growth of the software industry in the country. Explains Narendra Bhandari, Director, Software Solutions Group, Global Developer Relations Division, Asia Pacific, Intel, “The ecosystem around semiconductors in India is likely to develop as consumption grows. Design facilities, along with assembling, testing and manufacturing, will boost the whole system.”
MEMs is one of the fastest-growing technology areas, with sales of around $5 billion. Informs Ganesh Guruswamy, Country Manager and Director, Freescale Semiconductor India, “MEMs integrate silicon-based micro-electronics with mechanical components on a single chip. MEMs-based sensors are a crucial component in automotive electronics, health-care monitoring equipment, cell phones, PDAs, hard disc drives, computer peripherals and wireless devices.”
Intellectual Property (IP) is one of the hottest commodities in the semiconductor industry. It is defining the new generation of electronic devices, and is driving innovation in the microprocessor sphere. ARM is a provider of IP licences to its network of partners across the globe. Says Atul Arora, President, Commercial Operations, ARM, “Our company has pioneered the concept of openly licencable IP for the development 32-bit RISC microprocessor-based SoC. Instead of manufacturing, the company has been able to make its presence felt in the wider market.”
Bumps in the Road Ahead
The semiconductor industry has evolved to a model with two value chains: design and manufacturing. The emergence of fabless semiconductor firms as opposed to vertically integrated firms has energized the entire ecosystem, thereby growing the size of the semiconductor industry. (The fabless model detaches design from manufacturing.) Points out Ajesh Kapoor, General Manager and Country Head, Semiconductor and LCD Division, Samsung Asia, “These days companies face the challenge of rapid price erosion and faster introduction of technically superior products.”
Smaller and Smarter
Convergence, connectivity and intelligence are some trends that are driving innovation in the semiconductor market. There is a preference for feature-rich devices and increasing intelligence in a wide array of semiconductor markets like auto, digital media, consumer and wireless. Analyses Bhandari, “End products are becoming smaller in size.” This has prompted a shift from discrete-based designs to microcontroller-based designs. The manufacturers of traditional discrete components such as diodes and transistors are striving hard to survive this onslaught. End-applications are becoming smaller and portable. The growth of mobile applications (such as media players) has been driving the marriage of microprocessors and digital signal processors in order to take advantage of the best of both technologies i.e. number crunching and signal processing.”
According to Arya, convergence, high performance and low power are some of the key trends. “The ‘electronics play’ has significantly increased in products across segments such as auto, consumer, wireless, communication and industrial, resulting in the proliferation of semiconductors. Today’s consumers want more functionality such as cameras and MP3 in a cellphone — and they want their instruments to be easy to use and affordable.”
Semiconductor Statistics
(Source: Indian Semiconductor Association)
Brand India
India is well recognized in the international chip design services market for its technical The Indian semiconductor ecosystem is evolving rapidly with integrated device skill, domain knowledge and access to a large talent pool. The growing consumption and production of electronics across sectors is driving the growth of semiconductors in India. Kapoor says that the major growth drivers are the huge domestic consumption of mobile computing devices and consumer products, the Indian telecom sector, and handset manufacturers.
The use of microprocessors in a wide range of electronic devices has escalated to the extent that the use of microprocessor IP is now ubiquitous in SOC. Strong IP laws have detached the risk associated with IP protection, and are encouraging outsourcing from large semiconductor companies. Comments Arora, “The ever growing complexity of chips is demanding increased efforts in verification and validation, which are largely outsourced to Indian non-captive companies. The embedded market, along with Bluetooth-enabled computers, is also driving growth.” These technology innovations are creating windows of opportunities for product companies to offer integrated solutions. Guruswamy says that the adoption of electronic motor controls in UPSs, inverters and energy meters is propelling the growth of electronic systems in the industrial segment. Finally, consumerism in India has resulted in increased spending in the consumer electronics market.
Corporate Plans
eInfochips is working with multiple customers to develop integrated solutions for digital homes, collaborative computing, and networking solutions. Continuous semi-conductor innovation targeted at wireless / cellular devices, automotive electronics, and medical and process control electronic devices is fuelling the growth of the industry.
Be they manufacturers of chips or suppliers of hardware / software components to manufacturers, they are all eyeing the growing Indian semiconductor market. Intel is a major player on the manufacturing side which has a direct presence in India. Though the company does not have any manufacturing facility here, it recently announced its intention to invest more than $1 billion in India in the next five years. Says Bhandari, “Both the large enterprise and the SMB are important for us in India. We are also targeting the healthcare sector here. We plan to expand to reach to the heart of rural India, and will enhance our presence across the country by realising the concept of the Community PC.”
Meanwhile, Freescale has announced the commercial production of a 4 MB Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM) device. According to the company’s Guruswamy, “Freescale India is focussed on sales and support for all its business groups like networking and computing systems, transportation and standard products, and wireless and mobility systems. Our sales team also extends complete technical support to various customers during development of any product or application in India.”
The new paradigm in the semiconductor industry is the interplay of design, manufacturing and software. India has excelled in semiconductor design and on the software front. Investment in manufacturing will take the country to the next level, helping to address the domestic demand and also the need to import an increasing number of chips for electronic goods.
Chips are the oil of the information age. In this scenario, India has tremendous potential to become the next preferred hub for global excellence in the semiconductor industry.
