Samsung Electronics said it would invest 5.4 trillion won ($4.3 billion) in green research and development and facilities to make the world's largest memory chip maker a leading eco-friendly company by 2013.

Of the total, 3.1 trillion won will be spent to develop products which cause less damage to the environment, and the remainder on energy-saving technologies and the environmental improvement of manufacturing facilities, the company said in a statement.

Samsung Electronics did not detail how it would finance the initiatives but had around 5.3 trillion won in cash and cash equivalent at end-March.

"This eco-management initiative will encompass all of our global operations, supply chain, and the complete lifecycle of Samsung products, and by achieving these goals we aim to lead the way in tackling the environmental problems that are facing our planet," Samsung Electronics' vice chairman and CEO Yoon-woo Lee said.

Samsung's plan includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing facilities by 50 percent, cutting total indirect greenhouse gas emissions from all products by 84 million tons through 2013, and ensuring all of its products are more environmentally friendly by increasing energy efficiency through measures such as cutting standby power consumption.

Samsung's chip and LCD businesses, major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, will invest "significant" sums to reduce pollution, it said.

South Korea has made a major push on environmentally friendly investment in recently.

The South Korean government said it would invest 107 trillion won, or 2 percent of its annual GDP, in environment-related industries over the next five years. It also separately said that it aimed to raise 2 trillion won for so-called "green industries" from the private sector.

HSBC estimates that of Asian government's stimulus packages against the recent credit crunch, spending on green-related investments will account for 20 percent, or $272 billion. That means more than double the amount earmarked for green projects in the Americas and five times bigger than Europe's.

A survey last week showed over 80 percent of 105 South Korean CEOs at major companies plan to invest in environmental technologies and see them as a major business in the long-term.

By 2020, Samsung's competitor LG Electronics Inc. is also aiming to lower its greenhouse gas emission from the production process by 150,000 tonnes compared with its 2008 emission levels, and it will cut the gas emission caused by using LG Electronics' products down by 30 million tonnes per year.

Intel Awarded Maman Group with Special Logistics Award

The award was given for high quality logistic services rendered during the construction of Intel's Fab28 project which lasted two yeas

Maxine Fassberg, Intel's Vice President and Intel Israel General Manager, awarded Maman Group with a special outstanding logistics award for high quality logistic services rendered during the construction of Intel's Fab28 project.

Intel's wafer Fab28 covers an area of 130,000m² (1,398,800 sq. ft.) in four buildings, with 20,000 square meters (215,200 sq. ft.) of Class 10 (ISO Class 4) cleanroom space.

The completed Fab 28 structure measures 283 dunam. 770,000 meters of cables were put during the construction which is 1.7 times the length of the State of Israel.

350 tons of cables and other accessories were installed in the factory (equivalent of 2 Jumbo, 747 airplanes) as well as 45,000 lighting fixtures which produce 1.8 million watt, the equivalent of the lighting of 5 football stadiums.

The wafer Fab28 received an investment of around US$1 billion from Intel, with additional support worth about US$525 million coming from the government of Israel.

Fab 28 is set to manufacture at the 45-nanometer manufacturing node on 300-mm diameter wafers. The Fab28 is expected to generate exports worth US$3 billion annually.

A spokesman for Maman added that Intel expressed not only their full satisfaction with Maman's team and their flexibility but also noted that supply chain solutions offered by Maman throughout the project were later applied by Intel around the world.

Albany NanoTech Site of Chip-Packaging Center

The University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering will be the site of a new computer-chip packaging center that is expected to create 200 jobs.

The center is part of a state initiative with IBM Corp. originally announced last year.

The $125 million, 120,000-square-foot semiconductor packaging and research center will be owned and operated by Albany NanoTech. “Packaging” in the semiconductor industry refers to the final stages of assembling a semiconductor.

The state will contribute $50 million, IBM will fund the balance.

The Center for Advanced Technology at the SUNY Institute of Technology in Marcy, Oneida County, was chosen as a support location for the center, Gov. David Paterson said.

The state will invest $27.5 million for the SUNY IT support center, which is expected to create 475 contractor, supplier and support jobs.

Another $15 million from the state will be split between the two locations, bringing the state’s total contribution to $92.5 million.

The project is called the Computer Chip Hybrid Integration Partnership (CHIP).

The initiative will advance innovation, education and commercialization of computer chips in upstate New York, Paterson said.

The Albany research center will partner with companies such as IBM and SEMATECH to develop “system on a chip” (SOC) technologies. SOC systems are contained on a single computer chip. They are used in the telecommunications, automotive, biomedical, defense and consumer electronics industries.

The project was announced a year ago as part of a combined investment with IBM Corp (NYSE: IBM). At that time, the parties did not announce a location for the center.

Alain Kaloyeros, CEO of the College of Nanoscale Science, told The Business Review in January that the research center should be built on the Albany campus. He said it would cost more than $200 million to duplicate research facilities that already are available at Albany NanoTech.

Mohawk Valley EDGE, an economic development group in Rome, Oneida County, pushed to have the entire project built at SUNY IT.

The 60,000 square foot facility at SUNYIT will act as a commercialization center and business incubator to attract chip suppliers and contractors. It will also house class labs, faculty offices and other support space for the college’s School of Information Systems and Engineering Technology.

Ground Broken for APSU Facility Hemlock Semiconductor Gives $2 Million for Lab Equipment

Austin Peay State University is $2 million richer after formal groundbreaking for a new chemical engineering technology facility.

But, that gift presented by Rick Doornbos, president and CEO of Hemlock Semiconductor Group, is already designated. The money will fund the acquisition of new laboratory equipment for the building, which the state kicked in $6.4 million to build.

"This fall we at Austin Peay are pushing at the doorstep for the first time of reaching 10,000 students," said Austin Peay President Tim Hall.

The new 20,000-square-foot facility — as yet unnamed — will be at Eighth and College streets across from the Sundquist Science Complex.

A new associate degree program in chemical engineering technology has been approved for APSU by the Tennessee Board of Regents and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

The decision by Hemlock to build a $1.2 billion manufacturing plant in Clarksville highlighted the need for a work force training program to equip potential employees with specialized skills necessary for a growing solar cell technology industry.

Many specialized jobs will be created at the plant, requiring specialized education and training from APSU. The first phase of construction — expected to be complete in 2012 — will provide 400 to 500 new local jobs requiring expertise ranging from chemical engineers and chemical processing technicians to skilled pipefitters.

In December, Doornbos estimated the first year payroll at the Clarksville plant will pump $30-plus million into the local economy. Those local paychecks will turn over in the local economy several times. Not only will the new plant jobs provide high salaries, but Hemlock officials stress the employment opportunities provide long-term security because Hemlock has a strong reputation for employee retention.

Since the December announcement about the new degree program and Hemlock setting up in Montgomery County, Austin Peay has received more than 300 inquiries from potential students specifically interested in the chemical engineering technology program. Hall stressed his profound gratitude for the $2 million from Hemlock, saying: "Generations from now, this gift will continue to be benefiting students and our community."

GlobalFoundries Chip Plant Clock Ticking

GlobalFoundries builder says useful life of computer facility is typically about 20 years

That's the useful life of a computer chip factory, according to Rick Whitney, the man in charge of building GlobalFoundries Inc.'s $4.2 billion chip fab here.

Whitney is head of U.S. operations for M+W Zander, the German company that is designing and overseeing construction of the 1.3 million-square-foot facility, also known as Fab 2, at Luther Forest Technology Campus.

Whitney spoke Thursday morning at Hyatt Place at a breakfast event organized by the The Chamber of Southern Saratoga County. About 250 people attended.

"We see the life of a fab is typically in the 20-year range," Whitney said.

Whitney should know. His company has built many of the fabs worldwide that use the same current 300-millimeter manufacturing technology Fab 2 will depend on to build chips on 12-inch silicon wafers.

GlobalFoundries last month began clearing a 223-acre site at Luther Forest for Fab 2. The building shell is expected to be finished in two years, with the clean room manufacturing floor fully operational by 2012. An official groundbreaking will take place July 24.

Local economic development officials have said the project will transform the regional and state economy, providing future generations with well-paying jobs and keeping them close to home.

Whitney said that in his experience, chip companies will typically replace the manufacturing equipment with the latest generation of technology after 10 years. That is what GlobalFoundries is doing now at one of the two fabs it acquired in Dresden, Germany, as part of its spinoff from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. earlier this year.

GlobalFoundries spokesman Travis Bullard said fabs that AMD built in the mid-1990s are no longer making chips, but they have been readapted for use by other technology companies.

"Those buildings are still operational," Bullard said.

Although 20 years provides jobs to just one or two generations of workers, GlobalFoundries could be here a lot longer than that because it has space at Luther Forest for two additional fabs.

And although the company has never committed to building more than one facility, Whitney said that in his experience, chip companies rarely build just one fab at any one location.

For instance, Intel Corp. has multiple fabs at its locations in Oregon and Arizona, and Samsung Electronics has two fabs in Austin, Texas. The building of those facilities is staggered over time because of the extremely high cost of the facilities and because the technology evolves so rapidly.

"Usually within several years, you'll see a second," Whitney said, although he wasn't speaking for GlobalFoundries. "At all of these sites, one follows another."

NXP and Siemens Collaborate on Pharmaceutical RFID Innovation

NXP’s Unique Application and System Center Provides High Frequency Gen2 Standard-ready RFID System Know-how

NXP, the independent semiconductor company founded by Philips, announced collaboration with Siemens on an RFID-based supply chain pharmaceutical project designed to improve efficiency from manufacture to retail. Using NXP’s Application and System Center (ASC, formerly known as RFID Reference Design Center), a facility that provides real-life conditions for evaluating and optimizing RFID applications, the Siemens IT Solutions & Services team created a customized RFID system to ensure a high read accuracy throughout the supply chain.

The project focuses on creating a system based on NXP’s ICODE high frequency (HF) RFID technology incorporated into the labels of pharmaceutical products. The whole system is configured to already comply with the latest edition of the HF Gen2 standard, which is currently under final review by EPCglobal. The aim of the installation is to accurately bulk read several hundreds of labeled packages quickly, allowing the manufacturer to keep a thorough stock inventory at all points along the supply chain. The ASC enabled the Siemens IT Solutions and Services team to achieve industry benchmark HF read accuracy results. This was accomplished through the use of an advanced high speed anti-collision concept and the optimization of the entire system.

"We selected NXP as the chip supplier for our innovative RFID pharmaceutical project. During project planning, NXP offered us the services of its highly sophisticated ASC,” said Matthias Bruckschen, Principal Consultant SCM / RFID, Siemens IT Solutions and Services. “The facility supported our engineers, enabling them to evaluate and tune the design of the HF RFID labels. By simulating the interactions between the readers and samples, we were able to obtain first qualitative results and calibrate the solution accordingly. The support provided by NXP's ASC saved us a lot of development time and we look forward to a renewed cooperation between NXP and Siemens IT Solutions and Services in future."

Based near Graz, Austria, the ASC was created with the aim of driving the adoption of RFID technology. NXP’s team of engineers based at the ASC can help systems engineers tackle common problems and support the development of RFID projects. In addition, the facility can be used to build and test full scale supply-chain scenarios to evaluate the robustness of an RFID-based system – enabling the development of a business-ready solution and reducing development time.

“NXP’s aim in founding the ASC was to create an environment which would spur the advancement of RFID and industry-wide research through methodological analysis, test and validation of all elements of an RFID system,” said Dirk Morgenroth, Director Marketing, RFID, NXP Semiconductors. “We are pleased to support Siemens IT Solutions and Services in the optimization of their implementation for pharmaceutical supply chain management, by delivering a future proof RFID system set-up prepared for HF Gen2-specified solutions.”

End customers integrating RFID solutions in their businesses are demanding a fully integrated, turnkey solution which provides them with a high-level of business intelligence. NXP’s systems level approach and leadership in RFID technology enables systems integrators to design and build business ready solutions and reduce the complexities of the technology.

South Korea Hynix to Cut New Capacity Investment by 45 Percent

South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said it will reduce investment in a new production facility by 45 percent to 2.1 trillion won ($1.64 billion) and extend the investment period by two years to 2011.

In a filing to the stock exchange, the world's No.2 chipmaker said it would invest 24.6 percent of its capital between April 2007 and December 2011 to expand 12-inch wafer production capacity in Chungju, south of Seoul.

Originally, it had planned to invest 3.8 trillion won or 44.5 percent of its capital between April 2007 and July 2009, in a board decision made in April 2007.

The company said the revision was made because of changes in the business environment.

GlobalFoundries Plant Gets Final OK

GlobalFoundries received the final town approval for one of the biggest projects upstate New York has recently seen — construction of a $4.2 billion computer chip fabrication factory at the Luther Forest Technology Campus.

The town Planning Board unanimously granted final site plan approval to the design details of the 1.3 million-square-foot building, which GlobalFoundries officials say will be “the world’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility.”

The approval ends months of town review of the plans.

“This is great. We’re closing this preliminary planning chapter just as construction is ready to start,” said Steve Groseclose, head of GlobalFoundries’ regulatory team.

Land clearing began last month at the 223-acre site on the Malta-Stillwater border. A groundbreaking for the building itself is tentatively slated for July 24.

“We’ve cleared roughly about 50 acres. It is going along fairly well,” said Art Kaplan, community liaison for M+W Zander, the construction management company.

Construction is expected to take two years, including installation of the complex chip-manufacturing equipment that will go inside the plant. Full production at the plant GlobalFoundries has designated Fab 2 isn’t expected until 2012.

More than 1,000 people will be employed during construction, and there will be about 1,400 permanent factory jobs.

GlobalFoundries is the new company formed in March to take over the chip manufacturing operations previously owned by Advanced Micro Devices, including the plans for Luther Forest that were first announced in 2006.

GlobalFoundries, a partnership between AMD and Abu Dhabi investors, plans to make computer chips for AMD and also by contract for other customers.

Long-range plans call for up to three computer chip factories to be built by GlobalFoundries at the Luther Forest site.

GlobalFoundries will be the first and anchor tenant for the 1,414-acre Luther Forest Technology Campus, where road, water and sewer infrastructure is currently being built.

The campus has about 400 more acres that could be developed, and those sites are being actively marketed to other companies.

GlobalFoundries also announced the appointment of Ron Dickinson as vice president for enterprise quality, completing the GlobalFoundries senior management team.

Dickinson will initially be based at the GlobalFoundries Fab 1 plant in Dresden, Germany, but is expected to move to New York within the next few months and oversee the assembly of the support organization for Fab 2.

Dickinson has spent nearly 30 years in semiconductor manufacturing. Most recently, he served as director of operations and general manager for Freescale Semiconductor’s fab plant in East Kilbride, Scotland. There, he was responsible for implementing major performance improvements, including reducing operating costs and increasing direct labor productivity.

OKI Acquires Renesas

OKI Data Corporation and Renesas Technology Corp. announced the conclusion of a basic agreement under which OKI Digital Imaging Corporation (ODI) will acquire the land, buildings, and utilities of the former semiconductor front-end process line (Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture) of the Gunma Development Design and Device Division of Renesas Eastern Japan Semiconductor, Inc.

OKI Data’s medium-term business plan adopted in FY2008 calls for a doubling of the current level of LED printer sales by FY2011, and to accomplish this, the company must increase the scale of its LED production operations. ODI is an OKI Data subsidiary that develops and manufactures print heads for LED printers. Development and LED front-end process production work currently take place at ODI’s Hachioji facility. These operations will be transferred to the new facility acquired from Renesas, which will go on-line in its new capacity in April, 2010.

The cleanroom at the new facility covers approximately twice the area of the cleanroom presently in use and is built to a high-level degree of cleanliness. Boosting production line efficiency, it is expected that production capacity will be increased fourfold. This provides additional room for expanding production in response to future business growth. The new plant is also situated near OKI Data’s Takasaki facility, where printer development work takes place. The anticipated shortening in product development time due to this close proximity was a key factor in the decision to make the acquisition.

Renesas is now working to optimize its production structure. As part of this process, the former semiconductor front-end process line of the Gunma Development Design and Device Division of Renesas Eastern Japan Semiconductor was closed in October 2007, due to its limited production capacity. The semiconductor manufacturing equipment had already been removed from the plant, and plans were underway to revitalize it as a cleanroom facility by transferring it to a new owner. The present transfer was decided upon after a suitable offer was made by OKI Data. Renesas will continue to move steadily toward the completion of currently planned measures on its production structure, with the aim of further boosting production efficiency.

OKI Data and Renesas plan to complete the transfer procedure by November 30, 2009.

Peregrine Expands Foundry Alliances

Continuing its fabless push, RF-chip maker Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. has completed the final qualification phase in the process transfer of its silicon-on-sapphire technology to foundry provider MagnaChip Semiconductor Ltd.

Peregrine (San Diego) is also working with another, undisclosed foundry.

Meanwhile, Peregrine and South Korea's MagnaChip began the final qualification phase of the technology transfer in 2008 and released it to production eight weeks ago. The process was installed in MagnaChip's Cheongju wafer manufacturing facility.

Now, Peregrine has three foundry partners: MagnaChip, Oki and Sapphicon Semiconductor.

Last year, Sapphicon Semiconductor, a privately-funded company, acquired the semiconductor fabrication facility of Peregrine Semiconductor, which is located in Australia.

Sapphicon will transition from being a captive fab that manufactures integrated circuits solely for Peregrine, to a product and technology development and manufacturing company.

Sapphicon also licensed the silicon-on-sapphire process technology from Peregrine and will design a range of high performance mixed signal and analog devices. The company will offer low cost IC prototyping services, custom chip design capability and foundry services.

As part of the acquisition Peregrine will continue to source manufacturing services from Sapphicon.

Peregrine has been moving toward the fabless business model for many years now. ''MagnaChip expands our overall global manufacturing capacity, and continues our efforts to expand our supply chain to meet the strong demand for UltraCMOS products around the world,'' a spokeswoman said. ''This demand is evidenced by a recent manufacturing milestone: last quarter we shipped our 400 millionth unit, likely making us the fastest growing new semiconductor technology in the industry.''

Taiwan LED Chipmaker Huga to Joint Venture with Seoul Semiconductor and Seoul Optodevice
Taiwan-based LED chipmaker Huga Optotech is going to set up a joint venture with Seoul Semiconductor (SSC) and Seoul Optodevice (SOC), according to a company filing at the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE).

Huga will have a 49 percent stake in the joint venture, while SSC and SOC together will have 51 percent. Huga indicated that the joint venture will help it obtain long-term orders from overseas clients through the partner companies.

Huga will add 10 MOCVD sets in the second half of 2009, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report, which also said Huga's current monthly capacity is 800 million LED chips.

Huga has posted May revenues of NT$120.64 million, up 15.47 percent from NT$104.48 million for April, but down 48.82 percent from NT$235.73 million for May 2008, according to data from TSE. Revenues for the first five months totaled NT$470.55 million, down 49.03 percent on year.

Semilab Has New President and New Head Quarters

Semilab, one of the world’s largest metrology companies, announced it has named Dr. Chris Moore, President and CEO of Semilab USA. Dr. Moore will be responsible for the strategic direction and operations of all Semilab divisions within the United States. Moore joined Semilab through its acquisition of Advanced Metrology Systems (AMS) in March of 2009 where he also served as president and CEO.

“These are exciting times for Semilab. Through the strategic acquisition of some of metrology’s leading companies we have not only strengthened our presence within the United States, but have bolstered our ability to serve our customers on a global basis with the most advanced metrology solutions possible,” said Dr. Tibor Pavelka, one of the founders, President and Chief Executive Officer of Semilab. “Semilab will benefit greatly from Chris’ leadership of the Semilab USA group. These are challenging times for the semiconductor industry, but we believe that our continued investment in the best technology and personnel will pay dividends for Semilab when the market rebounds.”

In addition to naming Dr. Moore as president and CEO, Semilab USA is also announcing the relocation of its corporate headquarters which will now be located at 47 Manning Road in Billerica, Mass. The new 23,000 sq. ft. facility will offer state-of-the-art capabilities for researchers, including a cleanroom, allowing for the further improvement and development of the next generation of metrology solutions.

Lastly, Semilab USA is announcing a new corporate structuring for its divisions within the United States. Semilab AMS, Semilab SSM and Semilab SDI (announced in a separate release today) will operate as separate entities under the Semilab USA group headed by Moore. Semilab AMS, acquired in March of 2009, will be co-located with corporate headquarters in Billerica, Mass. with Moore serving as general manager, while Semilab SSM LLC under the direction of GM Nikos Jaeger and Semilab SDI LLC under the direction of GM Andrew Findlay will continue in their current locations of Pittsburgh, Pa. and Tampa, Fla. respectively.

Ground to Be Broken in July on New CET Building at APSU in Tennessee

Austin Peay State University will break ground for the new Chemical Engineering Technology building.

Under a $6.4 million grant from the state, APSU will build the new lab facility on campus and work with both the Tennessee Board of Regents and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to offer an associate degree program in chemical engineering technology.

The new facility and degree program culminate from the announcement in December 2008 that Michigan-based Hemlock Semiconductor Corp. (HSC) will build a new production facility in Commerce Park. HSC is a leading manufacturer of products used in the growing solar cell technology industry.

Between 500-800 specialized jobs will be created at the HSC plant, requiring specialized education and training from APSU.

Intel Switches Gears, Plans 65-nm in China

In a change in strategy, Intel Corp. plans to make 65-nm devices--not 90-nm products--within its new fab in China.

Intel announced two years ago its intention to invest $2.5 billion to build a 300-mm fab in the northern Chinese city of Dalian. The fab, to be the No. 1 chipmaker's first in China, was initially slated to use 90-nm technology to make chipsets.

''We originally announced it at 90-nm, but said there was a chance that we'd go to 65-nm. We have the U.S. government license, so that when we start we'll be on 65-nm,'' according to a spokesman at Intel.

Intel may have missed the market window for 90-nm, considered an older technology by the company's standards. Intel itself is ramping up 45-nm devices, with 32-nm products due by year's end.

Intel has denied rumblings within the semiconductor equipment community that it has pushed out plans for a 300-mm fab in China, saying that the company remains on schedule to have the facility in production next year.

Taiwan's AUO to Buy Japanese Solar Silicon Wafer Maker

Taiwanese LCD panel manufacturer AU Optronics Corp. announced plans to turn a Tokyo-based solar cell silicon wafer producer into a subsidiary.

AUO will acquire a roughly 51 per cent stake in M.Setek Co. for US$125 million, or about 12 billion yen, in a private placement of new shares, aiming to make a full entry into the solar power systems market.

M.Setek was founded in 1978 and supplies Sanyo Electric Co. as well as major solar cell manufacturers in China and Taiwan, with overall sales totaling about 42 billion yen (US$438 million) for the year ended Sept. 30, 2008.

AUO will keep M.Setek's current management structure intact for the time being.

The LCD panel maker established wholly owned subsidiary AUO Energy Taiwan Corp. last month with an eye toward providing such services as installing rooftop solar power systems at factories, commercial facilities and homes.

McIlvaine Company,

Northfield, IL 60093-2743

Tel: 847-784-0012; Fax: 847-784-0061;

E-mail: editor@mcilvainecompany.com;

Web site: www.mcilvainecompany.com