SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
August 2012
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Albemarle to Expand Manufacturing Plant
UMC’s Semiconductor Fab in Taiwan Certified LEED
GLOBALFOUNDRIES to Extend Fab 8 New York Plant
Microsemi Marks 20 Years in Ireland and Names Ennis as its European Headquarters
DYNEX Launches Power Chip R&D Centre in Lincoln
Imec Cleanroom Wins Support of Flemish Government
The expansion will enable the production of high purity trimethyl gallium and trimethyl aluminum used in the MOCVD manufacture of compound semiconductor wafers.
Albemarle Corporation's board of directors has authorized the expansion of its facility in Yeosu, Korea.
The Yeosu facility, which is currently in the final stages of construction, will produce commercial quantities of finished catalysts and components used in the polymer industry.
The additional manufacturing capacity that has been authorized by the board will be dedicated to producing Albemarle's PureGrowth products. These include high purity trimethyl gallium (TMG), triethyl gallium (TEG) and trimethyl aluminum (TMA). These materials are used in the MOCVD process to manufacture compound semiconductor chips such as LEDs, III-V multi-junction solar cells, PINS, lasers and APDs.
The Korean expansion will complement Albemarle's existing capacity for these products, as well as trimethyl indium (TMI), at its facility in Baton Rouge, Loisiana.
"This expansion further strengthens Albemarle's position as the global leader in metal organic chemistry," says Amy H. Motto, Vice President of Albemarle's Catalysts global business unit. "More specifically, these new assets will enable us to meet both existing and future demand in the rapidly expanding electronic chemicals market."
"Over 80 percent of the global demand for LED products is in Asia," adds Jenny S. Hebert, Global Product Manager for Electronic Materials. "Expansion of our Korea facility will ensure security of supply in this high-growth region while reducing transportation risks. These state-of-the-art facilities will also allow us to consistently maintain the high purity standards required of electronic-grade metal organics."
Property for the expansion has been acquired and infrastructure plans have already been finalized and approved. The project is planned for completion in 2013.
Global semiconductor foundry United Microelectronics Corporation gained LEED-NC (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - New Construction) Gold recognition for its 300mm Fab 12A P3 & P4 in Tainan, Taiwan, from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The semiconductor fab P3 & P4 was awarded the EEWH Gold certification from Taiwan in 2011.
Dr. Shih-Wei Sun, CEO of UMC, noted that the company will “further incorporate green initiatives” on the future P5 and P6 fab builds. Fab 12A manufactures 28nm node semiconductors on 300mm wafers, with capacity for 55,000 wafers/month.
FAB 12A P3 & P4 is UMC's most advanced 300mm production fab. Green, low-carbon concepts have been introduced into all aspects of the facility, from fab design, construction, and process development to operation. Several structural measures to increase energy efficiency were adopted, including energy-saving vacuum pumps, an advanced solid cooling system that recycles vent gas, state-of-art energy management, monitoring and consolidation systems, etc. Reduction in energy consumption is estimated at 8.5 percent over Fab 12A P1 & P2, which is a further 29.3 percent below the standard set by ASHRAE. For water conservation, UMC implemented a sophisticated water recycle design and technique that will raise water recycling rate to 90 percent. For the Fab 12A complex, recycled water amount reached 6 million tons in 2011, equivalent to the water consumed by 65,000 people over the course of a year.
Environmental co-existence is UMC's core value within its CSR vision. UMC actively assists the Taiwanese government to establish green building and clean production evaluation systems while continuously promoting green concepts to the public. Going forward, UMC will continue to fulfill its responsibility as a corporate citizen, based on green building concepts to promote the formation of a low-carbon, sustainable society.
IC Insights ranks UMC in the top 20 semiconductor companies globally. UMC is a global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced technology and manufacturing for applications spanning every major sector of the IC industry.
The company is expanding its cleanroom facilities to meet increased customer demand
GLOBALFOUNDRIES is moving forward with the final construction for the extension of Module 1 at its Fab 8 campus in New York.
GlobalFoundries said it is proceeding with a planned $2.3 billion expansion of the cleanroom at its Fab 8 computer chip factory in Malta, with construction set to begin next month.
The project will add 90,000 square feet of manufacturing capacity, bringing the total capacity for Fab 8 Module 1 to 300,000 square feet. Construction activities are scheduled to begin in August and work is expected to be completed in December 2013.
“During the construction of Fab 8, we extended the shell of the Module 1 building with the expectation that our business would continue to grow. Today we see increasingly strong demand from our customers, especially at the 28nm node, and we are excited to be moving forward with this next phase in the development of the Fab 8 campus,” said Eric Choh, vice president and general manager, Fab 8, GLOBALFOUNDRIES.
“By continuing to expand our investment in the project, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is delivering more options to our global customers, while helping to redefine upstate New York as a premier hub of the global semiconductor industry, creating thousands of new advanced manufacturing jobs, and contributing billions of dollars to the regional economy,” he continued.
Consisting of approximately two million square feet, Fab 8 is aimed at becoming the world’s most advanced semiconductor foundry manufacturing facility. Construction on Fab 8 began in July 2009 and GLOBALFOUNDRIES began moving people and equipment into the facility in mid-2011. Initial wafer production began earlier this year and the facility is on track to begin risk production by the end of the year, with volume production in early 2013.
Extending the Fab 8 cleanroom is expected to increase the Fab 8 capacity to approximately 60,000 wafers per month and increase the capital budget by approximately $2.3 billion, taking the total capital budget from $4.6 billion to approximately $6.9 billion, once tools and equipment are installed.
Since breaking ground on Fab 8 in 2009, GLOBALFOUNDRIES has created more than 1,500 new direct jobs, developing a unique and diverse workforce drawn from local talent in the region as well as experienced professionals from across the United States and more than 30 countries.
In addition, the project has created an additional 4,300 construction-related jobs and has been established to generate hundreds of millions of dollars of economic development throughout upstate New York during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Construction on Fab 8 began in July of 2009 just months after GlobalFoundries was created as a spin-off of Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale, Calif. AMD had first proposed building the factory in Saratoga County back in 2006 but later decided it wanted to get out of manufacturing chips to solely designing and selling them.
GlobalFoundries is what is known as a "foundry" that makes chips for other companies. Companies use foundries if they do not own their own factories or if they need extra production beyond their own capacity.
Microsemi Corporation, a leading provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, today officially named its Ennis, Ireland facility as its European headquarters.
The announcement represents a significant endorsement of the work of the Ennis facility and its contribution to the wider Microsemi global network. Ennis has been a world class facility and a key contributor in the manufacturing processes of the company's high reliability products, and is well-poised to contribute to Microsemi Corporation's planned expansion and growth strategy. The Ennis facility has recruited an additional 50 staff so far in 2012, taking headcount at the site to approximately 300. The continued availability of skilled staff in the region will assist the Ennis facility to develop new products and grow key research and development functions.
The announcement was made at a celebration commemorating the company's 20-year anniversary in Ireland, which was attended by several senior company executives including James J. Peterson, Microsemi's president and chief executive officer.
In conjunction with naming Ennis its European headquarters, Peterson announced the inaugural Microsemi Scholarship in Engineering at the prestigious University of Limerick. In addition, the company funded a high-profile science and aerospace engineering program in St. Flannan's school in Ennis.
"We have been impressed at Microsemi with the caliber of engineering graduates in Ireland and we are confident about the future of the skill base in Ireland, hence our decision to make Ennis our European headquarters," said Peterson. "Naming Ennis our European headquarters is a
testament to the hard work and talent of the many employees who have built this facility into a world-class manufacturing, sales and engineering center and gateway for our European operations."
"As part of our commitment to Ireland, we are proud to sponsor an engineering scholarship at the University of Limerick and a program at St. Flannan's to cultivate interest in science and innovation," continued Peterson.
Microsemi works closely with the Industrial Development Authority (IDA Ireland), which is responsible for attracting and developing overseas investment in Ireland. According to Peterson, support from IDA Ireland was a key factor in the company's decision to invest in the region.
Microsemi: Committed to IrelandMicrosemi established its presence in Ireland in 1992 through the acquisition of a facility in Ennis Co. Clare. Over the past five years, Microsemi has made a significant investment in its Ennis operations and now employs approximately 300 people, making it one of the largest employers in the area. Microsemi's annual spend in Ireland is in excess of US $25 million annually and it continues to recruit engineers and other technical professionals.
The Ennis facilities key competencies are the development, manufacturing and high reliability testing of semiconductors to meet stringent aerospace, satellite, medical and security standards and it is now one of the largest such facilities globally. Microsemi also has a design group in Dublin which is focused on advanced system-on-chip (SoC) software and solutions with an emphasis on ARM processor-centric designs.
Dynex Semiconductor announced that it held an opening ceremony for a new Lincoln-based 1.8 million R&D centre. The centre is a part of an 11.25 million investment which will generate up to 40 engineering jobs and safeguard its 315-strong workforce in the city. The project is a partnership with Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric, the majority shareholder of its parent Dynex Power Inc., Canada
Dynex’s president and CEO, Dr. Paul Taylor said, our major investment program started in May 2010, when we announced the start of the R&D project to expand that team, by forming a joint operation with CSR. We are still recruiting, with the aim of having 50 engineers working in the new building.
Dr. Taylor added, the power semiconductor device is at the very heart of all modern power electronic systems. Whether wind, solar, tidal, wave, coal, gas or nuclear energy, we need safe, smart and reliable interconnection to the electric grid and safe, smart and reliable power transmission and power quality.
Dr. Taylor said, whether for driving motors and power equipment for cars, locomotives, metros and manufacturing, for powering our communications, aircraft, keeping the lights on or for keeping us warm in winter and cool in the summer, the power device is the workhorse that enables the control of electric energy to drive these sectors and more.
Dynex s R&D teams work jointly with university groups, such as Nottingham, Loughborough, Warwick and others, on advanced research topics and knowledge transfer projects.
Dr. Taylor added, we are now building relationships with the new Engineering School at the University of Lincoln and we have benefited for many years from educational links with Lincoln College.
Dynex designs and makes high power bipolar semiconductors, insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules and electronic assemblies.
Maxim Integrated Products Inc is making a $200 million multi-year investment to upgrade its U.S. wafer fabrication facilities (fabs) in Beaverton, Oregon; Dallas and San Antonio, Texas; and San Jose, California.
The company, which employs 9,300 employees worldwide, including approximately 1,000 manufacturing cleanroom workers in its four U.S. fabs, says manufacturing staff will be added over time as expansions are completed and production ramps to capacity.
The company will use the multiyear investment to upgrade manufacturing equipment, improve process technologies, convert to newer technology nodes, and assimilate production from recently acquired companies.
“Maxim has an extremely talented workforce doing technology development in Silicon Valley and cost-competitive manufacturing in our U.S. wafer fabs, where we make about 50 percent of our products,” said Tunç Doluca, president and CEO of Maxim Integrated Products. “We are investing in our US infrastructure to build intellectual property and enable a competitive edge.”
The company's U.S. manufacturing facilities have been recognized for their energy efficiency and conservation of natural resources. The Energy Trust of Oregon acknowledged the Beaverton facility’s energy-conversation program, which has saved over 3.7m kW hrs of electricity annually and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1400 tons. Beaverton site management is evaluating additional energy-efficiency opportunities in solar-electric power, lighting automation, and boiler plant upgrades.
In Texas, the San Antonio Water System recognized the company has saved 55 million gallons of water annually through changes such as condensation harvesting, third-stage reverse osmosis, and analytical reclaim.
Imec plans to move into the processing of 450mm wafers by building a new €100 million cleanroom at its pilot wafer fab in Leuven, Belgium with the support of the Flemish government.
Imec plans to spend a total of €1 billion over the next five years with the goal of opening the new 450mm cleanroom facilities in 2015.
The firm is negotiating a support package with the European Commission and its industrial partners: the foundries, fabless and fablite companies, equipment and material suppliers.
The Belgian firm wants to continue to play a leading role in the research of semiconductor processes and technologies, which it says will require a transition of its 300mm cleanroom to 450mm.
Luc Van den hove, president and CEO at Imec, said: “We are very thankful for the extra support of the Flemish Government for our 450mm cleanroom initiative.”
Imec has also announced a deal with KLA-Tencor, in which the Milpitas, CA, US-based firm will install the first 450mm capable wafer defect inspection system at Imec.
Van den hove said: “This tool will be essential for detecting ultra-small defects which have a substantial impact on yield when scaling to the (sub)-10nm technology nodes.”
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