SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
October 2010
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Plans for an Arab Silicon Valley
New Semiconductor Fab Comes to Oregon
TI Acquires Chengdu Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing
Freescale Guadalajara Expands Operations
CSTG Completes Qualification of Hamilton Wafer Fabrication Facility
Intel Gets Israeli Backing for Fab Upgrade
ON Semiconductor to Expand Wafer Production
University of Sheffield Research Facility Receives Funding
Genesis Breaks Ground for Kunshan Joint Venture
Cree to Produce Next-Generation LED Wafers
A chip company's plan to open a manufacturing plant in Abu Dhabi has experts worried about the supply of essential computer processors. Should a war or even a serious political disagreement arise, they say, a foreign power could stop or corrupt the flow of computer chips from its plants to the U.S.
Intel Corp. plans to spend up to $8 billion on state-of-the-art plants in Oregon and Arizona, meaning most of its central processing units (CPUs) — the brains behind every computer — would continue to be manufactured in the U.S. The company's CEO, Paul Otellini, said the plants would "create 6 to 8,000 construction jobs, and about 1,000 permanent new jobs working in manufacturing."
But Intel's sole competitor has its sights set on a new Silicon Valley — a Mideast country that experts say could take jobs from Americans and create serious security issues for the U.S.
"National security is based on innovation," James P. Dougherty, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the think tank's Cyberconflict and Cybersecurity Initiative, told FoxNews.com. "We need to ensure that we keep control over some of those CPUs ... and ensure that they're made in the U.S."
While companies in the U.S. have designed and built the CPUs for nearly every desktop and laptop computer for decades, it seems that America's dominance may be waning.
More and more, computer chip manufacturing has already moved overseas. Now GlobalFoundries, originally part of No. 2 CPU manufacturer AMD, is looking to build a competing plant in Abu Dhabi, the first in an Arab country in the Middle East.
GlobalFoundries — born in 1979 when AMD opened its first manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas -- is now owned by Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), which is solely owned by the government of Abu Dhabi. Among ATIC's goals: to develop a semiconductor industry in the United Arab Emirates.
That location is alarming to some industry analysts.
"One might worry that another country might someday turn hostile to us," and cut off computer components necessary to national security, noted Jim Turley, editor-in-chief of the tech-industry bible The Microprocessor Report and the founder of the industry research firm Silicon Insider.
Dougherty and others worry that hostile governments could build software or hardware into chips that could transmit confidential information. "We need to ensure that there is enough of a capacity in the U.S. to supply our government agencies — at a minimum," he said. "This has to be our top national security priority."
This issue was underscored recently when the CEO of ATIC, Ibrahim Ajami, revealed in a Wall Street Journal interview that the company plans to spend $7 billion on a new chip fabrication facility (called simply a "fab") in Abu Dhabi. Since GlobalFoundries' biggest client is still AMD, such a plant could eventually supply chips for PCs from Dell and Hewlett-Packard.
So does GlobalFoundries' plan mean high-tech jobs will leave the U.S. for the Middle East -- a new form of high-tech outsourcing? Should America be worried about yet another brain drain? Turley doesn't think so — at least not any time soon.
"GlobalFoundries is building an enormous plant in the Northeast, and it will be humming along for 10 or 20 years," Turley told FoxNews.com. Indeed, the company is sinking $6.5 billion into its Fab 8 plant, which should go into full production in upstate New York in 2012, ahead of Intel's Oregon plant.
"It will be the world's most advanced semiconductor facility," Jason Gorss, a spokesman for GlobalFoundries, told FoxNews.com. The fab will encompass some 300,000 square feet of cleanroom space completely devoid of even specks of dust — precision necessary for making pristine microprocessors. That's the equivalent of six football fields. Fab 8 will also create about 1,400 direct manufacturing jobs in the Saratoga County area, as well as thousands of related jobs. To attract those jobs, New York State provided $1.3 billion in incentives.
Fab 9 will be a similar facility in Abu Dhabi, the first step in a plan "to develop a research and development hub in Abu Dhabi for semiconductors," the Wall Street Journal reported.
Indeed, Intel's Otellini emphasized to Fox News that the single biggest factor in deciding where such plants are built is government incentives in the form of tax breaks and grants. Because of such enticements overseas, he said, "it costs about $1 billion more to build a plant here." That's one reason chip plants, and their attractive high-tech jobs, have been moving overseas. The other has to do with the changing nature of the computer chip business.
"GlobalFoundries and its competitors, like (Taiwan's) TSMC, are the new wave of semiconductor manufacturing," Turley explained. These companies don't actually design chips themselves, but rather build them to customers' specifications. In addition to AMD, GlobalFoundries has about 150 such customers, including IBM, Motorola spin-off Freescale, and Qualcomm. The company creates chips for everything from cell phones to cars to computers, and its plants, like its clients, stretch around the world, including locations in Singapore and Germany.
"So Silicon Valley doesn't really deserve the name any more," Turley said, pointing out that most of Intel's fab plants in the U.S. are now in Arizona and Oregon, where they enjoy state incentives and are far from the threat of earthquakes.
Nevertheless, some critics worry not only about the loss of jobs on American soil but also about the potential loss of intellectual property, as companies that fulfill chip orders in other countries gain more knowledge of cutting-edge design. The issue is most often raised when it comes to manufacturing goods in China.
But analysts point out that processor design details are generally kept from chip fabricators like GlobalFoundries — meaning that they can build CPUs but can't figure out how they work.
"It's like giving someone a slice of cake, but not giving them the recipe," Turley said. So another key concern is not the theft of sophisticated designs but rather the possibility that an unscrupulous manufacturer in another country might make extra chips and then sell them on the black market.
For the moment, at least, security concerns have been put on the back burner. With major fabrication plants situated in a variety of countries -- including the U.S, Europe and the Pacific Rim -- Turley says the industry is truly a global enterprise. And it means no single country can threaten the world's supply of chips.
Assuming, of course, that a company such as GlobalFoundries and its backers in Abu Dhabi doesn't become as dominant a player in CPUs as the area now is in supplying the world's oil.
Intel announces plans for a leading edge 22nm chip development facility in Oregon, while upgrading other manufacturing plants in the U.S.
The large, white tent near the D1D development fab parking lot belied the importance of coming announcement. Oregon’s leading congressmen and governor had assembled under this tent to share their support for Intel’s staggering investment in the U.S.
The event began with Bill Holt, Senior VP and GM at Intel, announced that Intel would be investing up to $8 million in U.S. facilities. Of particular interest to the Oregon high-tech community were plans for D1X, a new 22nm semiconductor fab. This fab would provide processor and related chip for the PC, mobile and embedded markets. Holt also said that two existing Oregon fabs – D1D and D1C – would be updated.
This is welcome news for Oregon, which is struggling with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. Holt said that the new 22nm fab would result in 6,000 to 8,000 construction jobs over the next several years. Perhaps more important was that these projects would require 800 to 1,000 new permanent high-tech jobs at the company.
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI), a company engaged in the designing and making of semiconductors that it sells to electronics designers and manufacturers worldwide, announced it has acquired Chengdu Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition marks the third major expansion of analog production capacity for TI this year. In July, TI announced it acquired two fabs from Spansion Japan, the former Japanese subsidiary of Spansion. Last year, TI began ramping its RFAB facility in Richardson, Texas, using 300-mm production equipment purchased from bankrupt memory supplier Qimonda AG. Lowe said that facility has recently been qualified and is now in production.
The company bought a 200-millimeter wafer facility from Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu and will use it to make analog chips, Texas Instruments Senior Vice President Gregg Lowe said in a telephone interview. Texas Instruments didn’t disclose how much it paid for the factory, which was operated by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.
The purchase adds to an expansion push by Texas Instruments that included buying plants and equipment in Japan and fitting out another facility in Richardson, Texas, near its headquarters. The move underscores the chipmaker’s determination to increase its market share at a time when rivals aren’t adding capacity, Lowe said yesterday.
“It was at a price point that made it very interesting for us,” he said. “I am unaware of any other analog company that has made an announcement of any significance” regarding new facilities, Lowe said.
Texas Instruments is the largest maker of analog chips, semiconductors that convert physical inputs such as touch and sound into electronic signals and are used in products from washing machines to supercomputers.
The Chengdu plant, which employs about 700 people, will be used to make power-management chips. It comes with an additional empty space that can be equipped later to expand production, Lowe said.
Texas Instruments rose 41 cents to $28.72 in New York Stock Exchange trading yesterday. The shares have climbed 10 percent this year. Intel Corp., the world’s largest chipmaker, has declined 5.3 percent.
This important milestone puts manufacturing close to the company's growing customer base there. Located in the Chengdu High-tech Zone (CDHT), which is considered by many to be China's next major technology hub, TI Chengdu will further expand TI's analog production capacity.
The fab is a fully equipped 200mm manufacturing facility and was purchased from Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It includes an operating 120,000-square- foot fab that can support more than $1 billion in annual revenue and a 134,000-square-foot fab reserved for future production needs.
"TI has been committed to serving the China market for 25 years," said Gregg Lowe, TI senior vice president for Analog. "Increasingly, customers there are using TI's analog chips for the real-world functions in their electronic applications. This fab in Chengdu will strengthen our ability to support customers' growing requirements and deliver analog products when and where customers need them."
In a demonstration of its continued commitment to its operation in Mexico, Freescale Semiconductor is growing its engineering, business process operations and software design capabilities in Mexico to serve global markets. Growth at the site will be focused in multiple areas, including analog and mixed signal design, business processes, and systems and applications.
'Our Guadalajara team continues to be an outstanding contributor to the global growth of Freescale,' said Henri Richard, senior vice president and chief sales and marketing officer at Freescale. 'It is a credit to efforts of the team that we plan to expand our growth there from both an employee and business perspective in the coming year. We also want to thank the State of Jalisco and Federal governments, which have continuously supported our efforts in Guadalajara through support and economic incentives.' 'We are very pleased with the investment Freescale continues to make in the state of Jalisco and also with the mutually beneficial relationship the city of Guadalajara has with a technology leader like Freescale,' said Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez Marquez. 'By having global companies such as Freescale build on their commitment to the region, we are strengthening our core competences in semiconductors, BPO and IT.'
The new Freescale Mexico Business and Technology Center is three times larger than the company's previous facility in Guadalajara and offers nearly 22,000 square feet of additional space for future expansion. The facility will end the year with more than 250 Freescale employees and more than 80 partners and is large enough to accommodate more than 500 people with state-of-the-art laboratories for the medical, automotive, appliance and multimedia markets.
Freescale engineers at the facility develop applications using embedded processors and microcontrollers, sensors, RF, analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the networking, automotive, consumer and industrial markets. The facility also houses customer service and post-sales support, direct and channel sales, field quality engineering, finance, information technology computer integrated manufacturing, supply chain, marketing and Mexican government relations staff. 'Our expansion in Guadalajara this year is evidenced by the creation of two additional software groups; one for inertial sensors and one for touch sensing and software design application-specific integrated circuits,' said German Hernandez, Mexico country manager for Freescale. 'We are also creating a customer care center in Mexico to support the Americas and continue the alignment of key business process operations.' Freescale has maintained a strong presence in Mexico since its first Latin American facility opened in Guadalajara in 1968. Over the decades, the company has continued to expand its technology and sales presence throughout Mexico. In 2004, Freescale consolidated its IC design center operations in Guadalajara.
Freescale has an additional world-class design center in Campinas City, Brazil, near Sao Paulo. The Brazil Semiconductor Technology Center (BSTC) plays a key role in the company's advanced microcontroller designs for automotive and industrial applications and serves as a strategic design resource for the joint development program between Freescale and STMicroelectronics. About Guadalajara as a technology center Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, is known as the 'Silicon Valley of Mexico' because of its flourishing electronics industry. A center for software and informatics development, Guadalajara is considered to be Mexico's high-tech capital. Leading high-technology companies such as Freescale, General Electric, IBM, Intel, Hitachi, Hewlett Packard, Siemens and Flextronics have facilities in Guadalajara or its suburbs. In its 2007 survey 'Cities of the Future,' fDi Magazine ranked Guadalajara as No. 1 among major Mexican cities and lauded it for having the second strongest economic potential of any major North American city behind Chicago. fDi also ranked Guadalajara as the most business-friendly Latin American city in 2007.
The Freescale Latin America University Program works with more than 100 universities to align businesses and educational institutions to help prepare graduating computer science and engineering students for their entry into the professional arena.
The program is designed to influence curricula, provide insight into advanced technologies, and enhance the skills and marketability of the future engineers. Freescale collaborates with Latin American universities by implementing its tools in new courses or upgrading existing courses, providing on-campus training, and involving students and faculty in conferences and company events, such as the Freescale Technology Forum and Freescale Academy Mexico. Universities also receive support through sponsorships on robotic electronic competitions, campus events and student projects. About Freescale Semiconductor Freescale Semiconductor is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets. The privately held company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations around the world.
Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global announces that it has completed the qualification of its Hamilton wafer fabrication plant, following the acquisition of the facility from Intense Ltd in January 2010.
In addition to providing continuity of supply of all high power laser products to Intense throughout the qualification period, transfer of all products from the former facility on the West of Scotland Science Park was completed at the end of September.
The Hamilton facility is now engaged in the manufacture of a wide range of GaAs and InP foundry products including high power 650nm-1.6um lasers, 1310nm-1550 single mode lasers and gain elements, semiconductor optical amplifiers, super luminescent LEDs, quantum cascade lasers, InGaAs detectors and custom monolithic chip solutions.
CEO Neil Martin commented, ‘We set ourselves a very aggressive timetable of an exit from the former facility within 6 months which included equipment transfer and staff consolidation. I am pleased to report that the Hamilton acquisition will fulfill its aim in allowing us to continue our expansion with both enhanced capacity and capability to service growth in all sectors of the compound semiconductor markets.’
Engineering focus is now shifting to expanding the portfolio of foundry processes into materials technologies such as Gallium Nitride and Antimonides, and device technologies such as Quantum Cascade lasers, VCSELs and high speed edge emitting lasers.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) approved an application by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to upgrade its chip manufacturing process at its plant in China.
It marked the first time the MOEA has given the green light to the introduction of the 130 nm manufacturing process in any Taiwan-funded chip foundries in China since the government eased restrictions on China-bound investment in the semiconductor wafer industry in February this year.
The following are excerpts from the local media coverage of the issue:
United Daily News:
The MOEA has issued a go-ahead for TSMC to upgrade the wafer manufacturing process at its foundry in Shanghai's Songjiang district from 180 nm to 130 nm.
The approval will allow the world's largest contract chipmaker to draft a new business expansion plan in China. Despite its leading status in the global semiconductor arena, TSMC only commands an eighth ranking in the Chinese wafer foundry market because Taiwan previously prohibited its foundries from relocating the most highly advanced production facilities to China.
Now that its tech upgrade plan has been approved, TSMC will be able to enhance its market share and influence in the Chinese semiconductor industry, a development that could eventually change the chip foundry trade map, according to market analysts. (Sept. 30, 2010).
Commercial Times:
TSMC's first operation in China — its Songjiang plant — was opened in 2003. However, it was only allowed to use the less advanced 0.18 micron process because of Taiwan government restrictions. As a result, the plant was operating in the red until April this year.
Over the past seven years, China has emerged as the world's largest semiconductor market, where demand for advanced memory chips that require more sophisticated manufacturing processes is very strong.
Since the U.S. government has even allowed Intel Corp. to use the cutting-edge 90 nm process in its China-based fab, the MOEA finally decided in February to allow Taiwan-funded companies in China to use technologies more advanced than the 180 nm process.
The TSMC's Songjiang plant can now produce up to 45,000 memory chips per month and its monthly capacity is expected to be expanded to 50,000 chips by the end of this year and to further increase to 60,000 chips next year, as the company has already approved a US$225 million expansion project to build a 130 nm fab.
After learning of the MOEA's approval of the TSMC tech upgrade, AU Optronics Corp. (AUO) Chairman Lee Kun-yao said he hopes the MOEA will accelerate screening of his company's application to set up a 7.5-generation TFT-LCD plant in China.
"The application was filed more than six months ago... We are frustrated by the ministry's procrastination in approving it, " Lee complained, adding that the delay has affected development plan of the AUO, one of Taiwan's largest flat panel makers. (Sept. 30, 2010).
The Israeli government is giving Intel hundreds of millions of dollars to infuse its 300mm/45nm semiconductor fab in Kiryat Gat -- but it's a lot less than Intel had been hoping for.
The Ministers of Finance and of Industry, Trade, and Labor reportedly have approved an eight-year, up to 678M shekel ($187M) grant to help upgrade Intel's Fab 28, which opened in the southern city of Kiryat Gat two years ago, from 45nm to 22nm process technologies (plus another 63M shekels/$17M for R&D expansion or local research). The deal also stipulates that Intel must increase its Kiryat Gat workforce by about 22% (570 workers) to 3100 total, and add another 50 workers to its development center in Jerusalem. (The company currently employs about 6300 workers in Israel across two plants and four R&D centers.) The deal still needs signoff from Israel's Knesset Finance Committee.
The ministries statement called the move "a significant step in the state supporting industry," and representing the government's view of "great importance in the cooperation between Intel and Israel."
It's something less of a step, though, than Intel had wanted -- the company originally lobbied for a $400M grant to bolster its planned $2.7B upgrade of Kiryat Gat, with 400 new hires. (Note the Ministry's Investment Center has a 500M shekel/$151M annual budget.) Nevertheless, Intel reportedly has pledged to "make every effort to see that Intel's next investment in upgrading technology will be implemented in Israel." That statement begs a question: what are Intel's near-term plans for other possible 22nm fab investments? One hopeful candidate is its facilities in Hillsboro, Oregon; Intel's site in Leixlip, Ireland, has also been in the running for a 22nm upgrade. Some clarity is expected later this month with Intel's quarterly results announcement.
ON Semiconductor has announced plans to expand production capacity at its 6-inch (150mm) wafer manufacturing facility in Oudenaarde, Belgium, by approximately 40 percent with a total equipment investment in 2010 of €12.3 million (or US$15.78 million). The Belgium factory specializes in the manufacture of application specific high-voltage technologies for the automotive and industrial industry, and in integrated and discrete standard products for a wide range of market segments.
The €12.3 million being invested in additional manufacturing equipment at the Belgium facility is part of the company's overall plan to maximize its in-house manufacturing operations. The additional production equipment being installed at the Oudenaarde facility will assist ON Semiconductor in meeting the increasing customer demand for its semiconductor components utilized by the automotive and industrial industries. Equipment installation efforts are underway, and are expected to increase production at the Belgium wafer fab by 40 percent by early 2011. The company expects to locally hire additional blue collar and white collar labor in support of the expansion.
"Our customers have had great success in utilizing products fabricated in ON Semiconductor's Oudenaarde facility in order to gain market share over their competitors," said Brent Wilson vice president of European manufacturing operations for ON Semiconductor. "We have seen quarter-on-quarter demand increases during the previous four consecutive quarters and the forecast continues to show strong growth. Here in Belgium, the majority of the expansion funds are aimed at the most complex products produced in this facility – which continue to be well received by our customers for new designs."
ON Semiconductor's Oudenaarde, Belgium, site employs approximately 500 people. In addition to the manufacturing teams, there are local teams focused on product research and development, IC design, sales and marking for the company's Automotive, Industrial and Foundry business units, as well as business and support staffs. ON Semiconductor also operates a site in Vilvoorde, Belgium, where an additional 50 automotive business unity employees work.
A University of Sheffield research facility, which studies advances in semiconductors used in the internet, solar cells, DVD players and gas detection, has received a £10 million renewal contract, enabling academic experts throughout the UK to continue making technological breakthroughs.
The EPSRC National Centre for III-V Technologies, based in the University's Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, is set to benefit from the cash over the next five years, to support research in III-V semiconductor materials and devices, which play a fundamental role in many of the technologies which transform everyday life.
A semiconductor is a crystal which can be changed in a chemical way to alter its electrical properties, so that it can then be made into electronic devices, such as lasers.
The class of semiconductor materials known as III-Vs are used in a number of ways. The internet would not be possible without these semiconductors. Internet and telephone data is sent down a fiber optic cable in the form of a light pulse produced by tiny semiconductor lasers, enabling a huge amount of data to be sent. In addition, mobile phones use devices from these materials to boost the transmission signal, and in CDs or DVDs, semiconductor lasers are able to read and reconstruct the sound and video that is put into a code using grooves on the disk.
On a wider scale, III-V semiconductors can also help address some of the most important challenges faced by society. Their applications include developing renewable energy sources through high efficiency III-V solar cells, controlling climate change via reduced energy demand for electronics, improvements in healthcare through real-time breath analysis, and counter-terrorism measures using the technology for explosives and weapon detection.
Research into these semiconductors has been taking place at the University's facility - which benefited from a University-funded £6.5 million cleanroom in 2006 - for 32 years. Nearly 800 scientific publications have been produced from Facility output over the last 10 years. The Facility serves all Universities and researchers across the UK, enabling top-rate scientific research in the physical, engineering and biomedical sciences. Current applied projects include studies of solar cells via QuantaSol, a spin-out company from Imperial College and the University of Sheffield, which uses a technique for the production of high efficiency solar cells.
The Facility is also highly active in the development of a more efficient production technique for quantum cascade lasers. These are used for gas detection, pollution monitoring and oil exploration as the technology can detect very small quantities of gases given off by oil deposits. Possible other uses for this technology in the future include its use in car exhausts to monitor pollutants and feed back to the engine to adjust fuel flow, reducing emissions and improving efficiency.
Professor Peter Houston, Director of the EPSRC National Centre for III-V Technologies at the University of Sheffield's Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, said: "We are extremely pleased to receive this investment which will enable us to continue our long tradition of enabling very high quality UK academic research in this field. Much of the research will result in improvements in quality of life for everyone in the future."
LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker Genesis Photonics, on September 23, broke ground for its joint venture with the Kunshan city government in China.
The initial design of the joint venture will allow the plant to host 50 sets of MOCVD machines.
Genesis will account for 51% of the joint venture, and the Kunshan city government will account for the rest.
The joint venture is scheduled to start production in the third quarter of 2011 and is expected to be the largest LED chip and lighting manufacturing base in China.
Genesis indicated that the company currently has one production plant in Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) with a capacity of 35 MOCVD machines, and plans to add another 20 sets to the second plant at the STSP. Total MOCVD machines will reach 55 sets by the end of 2010 with a monthly capacity of 120,000 LED chips. Genesis will also build a third plant at the STSP at the same time as the Kunshan joint venture.
Lighting business including high-power LED chips and modules now accounts for over 20% of its total revenues. Channels for its products are fully established, including B2B, B2C and B2G, Genesis noted.
In terms of B2B, Genesis is cooperating with Japan-based JFE Engineering for market and lighting product development in Japan. For B2C, Genesis has entered the Japan retail channel and plans to enter Taiwan's retail channel in the fourth quarter of 2010, and the company's cooperation with Kunshan city government is the result of its B2G strategy.
Cree, Inc. continues to lead the LED Lighting Revolution with the announcement of a new 150mm LED wafer production facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP) that is targeted to create hundreds of green jobs in North Carolina. The new LED wafer production line will be located in Cree's existing RTP production facility, and will allow Cree to produce 150mm LED wafers that are more than double the size of current ones, increasing the number of LEDs from a single wafer, helping to make LED lighting more cost-effective. The new production line is scheduled to be installed over the next several quarters with a target of having the first products qualified on this line by June 2011.
Energy-efficient LED lighting is being installed in more places, in more countries every day. Companies, cities, universities and the federal government are saving energy and money by joining the LED Lighting Revolution. To keep pace with the growing market for energy-efficient LED lighting, Cree has added more than 600 jobs since early 2009, surpassing the company's 2012 hiring goals set last fall. Cree anticipates hiring nearly 250 more employees by 2013 to staff the new wafer production line expansion.
"150mm LED wafers are an important step in enabling the next phase of LED lighting," said Cree CEO and Chairman, Chuck Swoboda. "These new larger wafers are the result of Cree's relentless focus on innovation, demonstrating our commitment to leading the LED Lighting Revolution."
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