SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
January 2011
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
IBM and Samsung Join in Semiconductor Research Alliance
TSMC to Build Two Advanced Wafer Fabs
Sony to Buy Back Nagasaki Chip Plant from Toshiba
Semiconductor Fab to Make Solar Cells
Abu Dhabi Seeks Bids for Microchip Plant
Fairchild goes to 8-inch Facility
ON SEMI Completes SANYO Purchase
TSMC Buys Facilities from Marketech
Altatech Receives Order from Soitec's Facility in Singapore
Building of New Semiconductor Plant
Samsung, Pyeongtaek Semiconductor Plant Agreement
Russia Produces Polysilicon in Siberia
IBM and Samsung are expanding their partnering to jointly develop new semiconductor process technology through the Semiconductor Research Alliance at the Albany Nanotech Complex, Albany, NY.
The move marks the first time Samsung researchers will join IBM researchers at the center. There they will investigate new materials and transistor structures, as well as interconnect and packaging solutions for next-generation technology nodes. The companies said the research developments from this joint activity are planned to enable the delivery of silicon solutions optimized for performance, power consumption, and size.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) announced its acquisition of a mothballed construction site from PowerChip Semiconductor Corp.
TSMC will build two advanced 300mm wafer fabs on this site, which sits in the Hsinchu Science Park, as part of its “GigaFab” project, which highlights the fabs that each can put out 250,000 wafers of chips a month.
TSMC will develop sub-20nm process technologies in the planned factories to meet next wave of demands. Currently, the chipmaker`s advanced process capacities are completely inundated by swarming foundry contracts, pressing it to seek additional capacities.
Suppliers of chip-making equipment reported that the land would be convenient for TSMC to quickly deploy production capacity to deal with excessive demands for 28nm and 40nm process foundry services in 2011 as beam structures for factory building have been completed on one of the lands. The land with completed beam structures was originally designed by PSC to turn out 60,000 wafers of chips a month.
Sony Corp. will buy back a semiconductor plant in Isahaya, Nagasaki Prefecture, from Toshiba Corp. to boost production of image sensors used in digital cameras and smartphones.
The acquisition is estimated to cost 50 billion yen.
Sony sold the plant to Toshiba in 2008. Sony will buy it back and raise its production capacity for complementary metal oxide semiconductor, or CMOS, image sensors to meet surging global demand.
Sony is also considering an expansion of the western Japan plant after the acquisition, by using a subsidy program of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the sources said.
CMOS sensor is a key component of digital cameras. The company has developed proprietary highly sensitive CMOS sensors.
Amid growing sales of digital single-lens reflex cameras and smartphones embedded with cameras, Sony announced plans in September to expand its plant in Kumamoto. But continued supply shortages have pressed it to consider an additional measure.
For its part, Toshiba will concentrate its CMOS sensor production at its plant in Oita as part of a reorganization of its semiconductor business. The company will withdraw from production of the high-performance Cell microprocessor, used in game consoles, which it has undertaken at the Nagasaki plant.
BluGlass has commissioned the foundry services of Rainbow Optoelectronics Materials Shanghai to provide device fabrication and processing services for the purposes of creating a nitride solar cell prototype designed by BluGlass.
The arrangement enables BluGlass to outsource the processing of its Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) solar cell designs to an expert group-III nitride company without the need to invest in additional capital equipment during the research phase.
BluGlass non executive director Alan Li is the general manager of Rainbow, a semiconductor device manufacturing company that provides nitride semiconductors (primarily LED displays) to more than 25 countries.
InGaN solar cells, if successful, promise to be long lasting, relatively inexpensive and the most efficient ever created. BluGlass is developing solar cell structure designs and now is now seeking to develop cell prototypes as part of its Climate Ready grant.
Globalfoundries, a subsidiary of the UAE's Advanced Technology Investment Co, has asked firms to bid by January 16 for the contract to design and build its proposed $6bn-plus semiconductor factory at Abu Dhabi, Meed has reported. When completed the plant will be owned and operated by Globalfoundries and will be located on a 3 sq km site next to Abu Dhabi International airport. It will be the first facility of its type in the Middle East.
Fairchild Semiconductor has announced that it will close the 6in manufacturing line in its manufacturing plant in South Portland, Maine and move production to its 8in fab in the same facility.
Aimed at reducing costs, the transfer will mean the loss of about 120 jobs at the facility over a nine-month period.
The South Portland site manufactures products including analog switches, offline power switches, power factor controllers and interface devices for end applications such as mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, DVD players, games, notebook computers and other highly integrated compact devices.
The company employs approximately 800 people in Maine.
In 2009, Fairchild closed two fabs and eliminated at least 200 jobs in an effort to cut costs. San Jose-based Fairchild closed its wafer fabrication plant in Mountaintop, Penn., and will shutter that site. In addition, roughly 200 jobs were eliminated at the Mountaintop site. It also closed one of its fabs in Bucheon, South Korea.
ON Semiconductor Corporation has announced the completion of the acquisition of SANYO Semiconductor Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of SANYO Electric, and other assets related to SANYO Electric’s semiconductor business, by ON Semiconductor. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, ON Semiconductor paid approximately ¥11.8 billion ($144 million) in cash to SANYO Electric and drew down approximately ¥31.7 billion ($378 million) under a loan agreement with SANYO Electric.
“The combination with SANYO Semiconductor represents an important step in the continued transformation of ON Semiconductor into a premier global supplier of high-performance silicon solutions for energy efficient electronics,” said Keith Jackson, president and CEO of ON Semiconductor. “This acquisition enables us to expand wholeheartedly into the Japanese market and to capture growth on a global basis. We believe this acquisition will create immediate value for customers, partners and investors, and we are excited to welcome the employees of SANYO Semiconductor to the ON Semiconductor family.”
With the addition of SANYO Semiconductor, ON Semiconductor expands its product portfolio, adding new capabilities ranging from microcontrollers and custom Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) to integrated power modules and motor control devices for the consumer, automotive and industrial end-markets.
Teruo Tabata – who will continue as president of SANYO Semiconductor – added, “Similar to ON Semiconductor, we have a rich history that dates back more than 50 years. SANYO Semiconductor’s internally created mixed signal process technologies and ON Semiconductor’s strong history of operational excellence with cost competitive manufacturing will enhance our ability to deliver next generation products and technologies to customers in Japan and abroad. The combination with ON Semiconductor is a great opportunity for customers, partners and employees of SANYO Semiconductor.”
“In addition to the strategic benefits, the acquisition of SANYO Semiconductor greatly enhances ON Semiconductor’s scale and improves our long-term earnings and cash flow generation capabilities,” said Donald Colvin, ON Semiconductor executive vice president and CFO.
ON Semiconductor plans to operate SANYO Semiconductor as an independent division; utilizing the SANYO logo for up to three years. However, plans are already underway to begin offering both ON Semiconductor’s and SANYO Semiconductor’s products and technologies to all worldwide customers.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co or TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker by revenue, announced that it has purchased NT$686 million or around US$23 million worth of facilities from Taiwan-listed Marketech International Corp. The acquisition started on Nov. 6, 2010 and ended on Dec. 29, 2010, according to a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Established in 1988, Marketech International is a support service provider of marketing and technology integration. TSMC also said last month that it has entered negotiations with memory chip maker Powerchip Technology Corp for property acquisition in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan. The buyer hopes to build a 12-inch wafer plant in the park, said Elizabeth Sun, a spokesperson of TSMC, adding that no formal agreement has been signed. At present, TSMC, which operates two 12-inch wafer plants, is building the third plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park.
AltaSight to Perform 360-Degree Wafer Inspection in High-Volume Production
MONTBONNOT, France, Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Altatech Semiconductor S.A. has received an order for its AltaSight® 300 full-wafer inspection system from Soitec (Euronext Paris), the world's leading supplier of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and advanced solutions for the electronics and energy industries.
Capable of detecting and classifying defects on the frontside, backside and edges of substrates, the AltaSight system is scheduled for delivery by the end of January to Soitec's 300-mm SOI wafer facility.
"AltaSight gives us a complete, integrated inspection solution that is compatible with fully automated defect-analysis tools," said Paul Boudre, COO of Soitec. "It's the only tool that can capture specific bare wafer defects during front, back and edge inspection, and this tool has been designed for the right cost of ownership."
The AltaSight 300 platform conducts holistic, 360-degree inspection in a single wafer pass, enabling high throughput of 100 300-mm wafers per hour. Altatech Semiconductor's patented phase-shift illumination technology generates topographical maps with nanometer resolution. In addition, a global light-absorption analyzer measures the amplitude of multiple wavelengths of light to locate any non-topographical defects. Ultrafast dark-field technology is used to inspect each wafer's surfaces for particles and scratches, while the company's patented EyeEdge® optical sensors search for defects along a wafer's edge. The compiled data is analyzed to pinpoint and classify all defects, and then used to produce a comprehensive wafer map in less than 25 seconds.
"With its ability to fully inspect wafers' surfaces and internal crystalline structures, AltaSight is ideally suited to address the needs of engineered-substrate suppliers such as Soitec," said Jean-Luc Delcarri, president of Altatech Semiconductor. "Since we began our partnership with Soitec, AltaSight's detection and classification capabilities, reliability and throughput have been demonstrated over thousands of substrates."
Officials say 1,150 workers are currently being employed to build a polysilicon plant in Clarksville and that number is expected to increase.
The $1.2 billion Hemlock Semiconductor facility is scheduled to be finished in 2012 and production is expected to start later that year.
Meanwhile, officials say the construction work force at the site is expected to peak at 1,500 by the middle of next year.
Hemlock has also started a training program for production operators.
Michigan-based Hemlock Semiconductor is a joint venture between Dow Corning Corp. and two Japanese companies, Shin-Etsu Handotai Co. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp.
Polysilicon is a raw material used to make solar cells and semiconductor devices.
Choi Gee-sung, Chief Executive and Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, stated that a new semiconductor plant preliminary agreement would be signed with Pyeongtaekm, Yonhap News reported. The CEO said that the new plant would probably be located in a city 70 miles south of Seoul. This comes as Pyeongtaek has been looking for new investments in an industrial complex.
Nitol chemical company has produced Russia's first polysilicon on its new plant in the Siberian Irkutsk region, the company said in a statement.
"This is Russia's first polysilicon produced on a large-scale facility with a total design capacity of 5,000 tons per year," the statement said.
Polysilicon is the key material used in the solar power engineering and microelectronics.
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