SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
January 2012
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Nocilis Materials Launches Foundry
Jenoptik to Invest in Berlin Plant Extension
JCAP, Enpirion Partner on MEMS Manufacturing
TSMC Expands Investment in Taiwan with New Milestone for Taichung GigaFab
Nocilis Materials, a spin-out from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH, Sweden), opened its silicon foundry service globally. Nocilis Materials AB provides epitaxy service of advanced Si-Ge-Sn-C alloys for both electronic and photonic applications.
The foundry supplies advanced Si-based composed materials, with niches in IR & THz uncooled detectors and thermoelectric structures based on group IV materials. Its epitaxy services are based on RPCVD and epitaxy layers are provided on 4”, 6” and 8” substrates.
Nocilis Materials AB uses silicon epitaxy - and characterization equipment.
Jenoptik has laid the foundation stone for the €10m expansion of its semiconductor production.
Jenoptik Group of Jena, Germany will more than double production capacity at its gallium arsenide (GaAs)-based high power semiconductor laser production site in the Berlin-Adlershof technology park.
“Germany is and remains a location for high-tech manufacturing even though we in the Jenoptik Group are currently pushing forward the process of internationalization in Asia and North America,” said Jenoptik chairman Dr Michael Mertin at the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone, which was attended by more than 80 guests.
The existing production facility in Berlin has reached its capacity limit and is being expanded as a result of rapidly increasing demand, particularly from Asia, as well as for future projects, including progressing internationalization of the firm’s Lasers & Material Processing division.
The expansion will increase the gross floor area by around 1,400m2 (15,064 sq. ft.) to around 3,400m2 (36,584 sq. ft.). The production area, including a cleanroom area, will increase from 540m2 (5,810sq. ft.) to 930m2 (10,006 sq. ft.) and should be available for production from 2013.
The manufacturing facility will be equipped and automated with state-of-the-art production technology. Gallium-arsenide wafers (GaAs) will be structured and processed to create high-power laser bars in a typical semiconductor manufacturing process. The various work areas will be fitted out with Class 100–1,000 cleanroom facilities, depending on the requirements of the specific process step. The complete process line from epitaxy, wafer processing and facet coating through to the manufacture of GaAs components will be installed in the cleanrooms.
Financing for building will be provided by the Hoesch Dortmund pension fund. The internal fittings (including the cleanrooms) and production equipment will come from Jenoptik. Including the existing production facility, the total investment at the Jenoptik Berlin-Adlershof site will be about €24 million.
Laser bars from the Berlin-Adlershof plant will be shipped to customers worldwide and will also be processed to create high-power diode lasers at Jenoptik in Jena, where it has the entire technology chain at its disposal – from the manufacture of high-power diode lasers, through to laser processing systems for material processing.
Jenoptik has had its own production facility in Berlin-Adlershof since 2006. The optoelectronic base material and its production have been developed by Jenoptik in cooperation with the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut for Ultra High Frequency Technology (FBH).
The general contractor was YIT Germany, based in Stuttgart.
Fab 8, the $4.6 billion computer chip factory under construction at the Luther Forest Technology Campus, has started making its first chips.
GlobalFoundries had said it would start running its first "silicon" in early 2012, referring to the 12-inch silicon wafers on which the microprocessors are produced.
But GlobalFoundries said it had "recently" started making chips for research and manufacturing partner IBM Corp., confirming that the first chips already are being produced — at least in small volumes. It typically takes about 10 weeks for a batch of wafers to be completed.
The chips GlobalFoundries is making are cutting-edge 32-nanometer devices originally developed by IBM and GlobalFoundries at the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. IBM will be making the new chips at its East Fishkill fab at the same time.
"This is the start of the process for producing the first wafers at Fab 8 for IBM, which is our first customer at Fab 8," said GlobalFoundries spokesman Travis Bullard. "The first wafer is a significant milestone in the ramp of the new fab, but we have a long way to go before we are producing chips in any volume for customers."
Volume production is expected in the second half of the year. The new 32-nanometer chips are made using IBM's silicon-on-insulator technology that IBM used in its Watson computer that won the "Jeopardy!" quiz show last year.
The new chips also are designed to speed performance of graphics in gaming, networking and multi-media devices. IBM spokesman Michael Corrado declined to name which manufacturers would use the new chips.
F. Michael Tucker, president of the Center for Economic Growth in Albany, said the running of wafers is the first step toward the commissioning of the factory for full-scale production. When fully operational, Fab 8 will be able to process 60,000 wafers a month in its 300,000-square-foot cleanroom. Hundreds of chips are made on each wafer.
"It's another exciting milestone in the GlobalFoundries evolution," Tucker said.
GlobalFoundries has 1,000 employees already in Malta, and it is looking to hire an additional 400 more by the end of the year.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based GlobalFoundries was spun off from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., and Malta's "Fab 8" was built to keep up with Intel Corp., the world's dominant microprocessor company. Intel and AMD have been in a race to continually shrink the circuitry on chips and make more powerful processors.
New York committed the $1.2 billion to the Malta plant to add high-tech luster to the region and bolster middle-class employment in a state that has bled manufacturing jobs for decades.
The plant is a cornerstone of the state's push to brand the Hudson Valley high-tech hub called "Tech Valley." The valley also is home to the Albany's NanoTech Complex and IBM's East Fishkill fab, which also has begun producing the 32-nanometer chips.
Enpirion, Inc. entered into a strategic partnership agreement with JiangyinChangdian Advanced Packaging Co., Ltd. (JCAP) for the manufacturing of silicon-based magnetics utilizing Enpirion's proprietary microelectronic magnetic silicon (MEMS) technology. Earlier in 2011, Enpirion demonstrated that its MEMS technology achieved all necessary application performance figures-of-merit at record frequencies of 18 MHz in its DC-DC power system-on-chip (PowerSoC). This announcement marks another key milestone in Enpirion's leadership and commercialization efforts using low-cost silicon-based magnetics partnering with JCAP with its specialized, high volume wafer level packaging manufacturing capabilities. JCAP is implementing and fully qualifying Enpirion's innovative magnetic material processes.
Enpirion, the leading provider of integrated power management solutions, simplifies design complexity while addressing the space constraint and efficiency needs faced by designers of enterprise, telecom, storage, industrial and embedded applications.
JiangyinChangdian Advanced Packaging Co., Ltd. (JCAP) is a subsidiary of Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co., Ltd. (JCET) a leading manufacturer of discrete semiconductor devices, the largest indigenous packaging subcontractor for discrete and IC packaging assembly and test in mainland China.
The second and third largest foundries in China, Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd and Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. have announced the completion of a merger between the two companies.
Hua Hong and Grace entered into a legally binding agreement to effect a merger between the two companies on Sept. 13, the companies said. The merger was completed with a stock-for-stock transaction, with Hua Hong issuing new shares to the existing shareholders of Grace in exchange for all Grace outstanding shares. Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Reuters news service reported early this month that the two companies had agreed on a merger that was awaiting regulatory approval.
"Hua Hong and Grace are two of the leading players in the Chinese semiconductor foundry industry, both of which have fabs in Shanghai Pudong area," said Fu Wenbiao, now chairman of both Hua Hong and Grace. "By integrating their manufacturing facilities, process technologies and human resources, Hua Hong and Grace are able to leverage their complementary strengths to further expand their combined product range and customer coverage and to improve economies of scale."
Wenbiao said the combined company would be able to provide a broader range of services to customers and have increased capacity and R&D capabilities.
The combined pro forma revenue and net income for 2011 is expected to be around $600 million for Hua Hong and $100 million for Grace, the companies said.
TSMC held a groundbreaking ceremony in Taichung’s Central Taiwan Science Park for Phase 3 of its Fab 15 GigaFabTM, setting a new milestone for the company’s commitment towards continued investment in Taiwan.
TSMC began construction on Fab 15, Phase 1, in July 2010, and completed equipment move-in in mid-2011 with volume production scheduled for early 2012. At the same time, Fab 15, Phase 2 started construction in mid-2011 and is expected to begin volume production next year. Fab 15 Phases 1 and 2 are forecast to generate as much as US$3 billion in revenue per year once they enter volume production, and Phase 3 will also reach a similar scale in the future.
Fab 15 currently employs approximately 1,400 employees, and is expected to create a total of 8,000 high-quality job opportunities, developing talent for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and bringing more high value-added growth opportunities to TSMC.
The groundbreaking ceremony was led by TSMC Chairman Dr. Morris Chang. “With a strong foundation in Taiwan, TSMC continues to fortify its trinity of strengths: technology leadership, manufacturing excellence, and customer trust,” Chairman Chang said. “We aim to be the most trusted partner for our customers around the world and to form a powerful competitive force in the semiconductor industry with them. What’s more, we hope that our leadership will make Taiwan a pivotal player in global semiconductor industry, and that TSMC continues to be a world-class company that everyone in Taiwan can take pride in. Fab 15, Phase 3 plays an important role in our plans for advanced technology development and capacity expansion, and once again demonstrates TSMC’s ability to satisfy customer demands.”
Fab 15, Phase 3 will be TSMC’s second GigaFabTM equipped for 20nm process technology, and the company’s third “green fab” following Fab 12 and Fab 14. Fab 15, Phase 3 applies numerous pollution prevention and energy conservation methods, including classification of process wastewater into 25 categories, an effective process water recycling rate of 90%, water use reduction of 62%, and 5% less power consumption than earlier facilities. In addition, Fab 15, Phase 3 has a rainwater collection surface of 40,000 square meters (430,400 sq. ft.), and all collected rainwater is used in landscaping, consuming no water from public utilities. In addition, we aim to create a benchmark in high-quality green buildings with treatment effectiveness of cleanroom exhaust reaching as high as 98%, innovations in recirculation of waste heat, as well as application solar power and LED lighting technology. The construction of Fab 15, Phase 3 will continue to push forward the development of green factories by creating a green environment with comprehensive functionality.
As TSMC continues to expand Fab 15 in the Central Taiwan Science Park, the company will closely monitor industry trends and make decisions for future capacity expansion at Fab 12 in Hsinchu and Fab 14 in Tainan to strengthen its competitiveness and to support its growth.
Fab 15 Phase 3 Background Information:
Process Technology: 20nm and more advanced
Capacity: 40,000 300mm (12-inch) wafers per month
Product Applications: Includes application processors (APs), baseband, graphics processing units (GPUs), central processing units (CPUs), and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)
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