SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
October 2012
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
imec to Begin 450mm Cleanroom Construction
Turner Wins Chip Plant Contract for GlobalFoundries
Samsung Breaks Ground on Chinese NAND Fab
The firm's recent expansion into a new CIGSolar marketing and technology demonstration facility is on the fast track completion schedule
XsunX is on target to complete the assembly of its CIGSolar TFPV cell evaporation system in October.
"CIGSolar" is the company's patent-pending solar cell manufacturing process offering a capital-efficient, low-cost alternative to the use of silicon solar cells.
The company has implemented a fast track completion schedule to expedite its technology demonstration and marketing efforts.
In July, XsunX announced receiving equity financing through Ironridge Energy, an institutional investor financing small cap public companies in the energy sector. The cash will enable the company to focus on assembling and configuring a demonstration of the CIGSolar TFPV cell evaporation system while also establishing technology marketing operations in its new facility in Irvine, California.
John C. Kirkland, Managing Director of Ironridge Global comments, "We are pleased to have had the opportunity to help facilitate the development of XsunX's unique TFPV cell evaporation system. The CIGSolar system offers the potential to improve operating efficiencies for the TFPV industry, and thereby assist in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels."
"The last few months have been a busy and exciting time for XsunX. We have been anxious to launch the start-up, testing, and calibration of our patent pending CIGSolar technology so that we can begin customer demonstrations as quickly as possible," adds Tom Djokovich, CEO of XsunX, Inc.
"The industry's obvious need and the focus of our CIGSolar TFPV cell evaporation technology, is to provide cost reductions and an opportunity to restore operating margins for manufacturers. How to achieve these goals has been an elusive challenge for the industry, but we believe that CIGSolar's new approach is the right solution to this challenge."
The company's method, unlike other CIGS manufacturing technology, uses individual thin stainless steel substrates sized to match silicon cells to be used as an alternative to silicon cells in existing or new solar module assembly lines.
Another significant improvement the company made is the use of a multi-small area thermal co-evaporation technology. This improves control of the complex management of the CIGS layer deposition process.
XsunX says this feature provides a more precise deposition environment. Together, these improvements help to avoid performance losses experienced when cells are either cut from rolls of CIGS material or mismatched electrically in monolithic large area deposition assemblies.
"Some of our loyal customers have been working with us each step of the project, including monitoring our progress and assessing each of our milestones. They are very excited about the system's potential as we approach our start-up and preparation for demonstrations," says Joseph Grimes, COO of XsunX, Inc.
imec, the research consortium in Leuven, Belgium, plans to start construction of a 450mm pilot line next year. It is to be installed next to an existing 300mm line that houses more than $1 billion in tools, including an ASML EUV lithography tool.
imec first announced the 450mm plan in July of this year, noting that the support of the Flemish Government will enable the building of the 100 million euro cleanroom infrastructure, and help imec to further extend the investment to a total of 1 billion euro in the next 5 years. This further investment is needed for the installation of the 450mm compatible tools and equipment in the new cleanroom. The aim is to open the new 450mm cleanroom facilities in 2015.
At the recent International Technology Forum Press Gathering, Luc Van den hove, President and CEO at imec, gave an update, including the projected timing of the two phases of the operation. Phase 1 is already underway in the 300mm cleanroom, which was designed to be 450mm compatible. Phase 2 is the installation of a new cleanroom next to the current 300mm facility. “These two cleanrooms will be physically connected so that you can very easily extend the space. The plan is that we’ll then transition our core program gradually into 450mm from 2015 onward, and that’s when we’ll ramp up the full flow capability in this (450mm) facility,” Van den hove said.
He went on to note that, in the future, it’s likely that the most advanced process technologies will be introduced only on 450mm tools. “It’s clear that our role is to push the technology to enable the scaling. It is equally clear that the most advanced technology will be executed on 450mm wafers. That means that if we want to continue our role as the primary technology provider, we have to do the research also on 450mm,” he said, adding that work on 300mm will continue. “Our core focus of our 450mm plan is really to be the primary provider for the process and device R&D at the sub-10nm domain,” he said.
When asked how many semiconductor manufacturers would be served by the 450mm effort, he said that it will be “all the companies that want to play in this leading edge domain. If I have to guess today, it will be around 5, 6, 7 companies that will really do the fabrication.” He added that leading fabless companies will also have an interest since their chips will fabricated on 450mm wafers. “They are equal partners in our program. You cannot separate the design from the technology any longer. The times that those communities were living apart is gone.” Equipment suppliers will also be quite involved. “They of course need to understand much better than ever before how their process modules fit with the rest of the process modules,” Van den hove said. “If you talk about the number of partners that we will have in this ecosystem, it will still be a tremendously large number.”
GlobalFoundries Inc. picked Turner Construction Co. over M+W U.S. Inc. as the general contractor for a $2.3 billion expansion of the computer chip factory’s cleanroom in Malta.
Construction started and is expected to be finished in December 2013.
Although Turner built the shell of the massive chip fab, M+W U.S. was responsible for the 210,000-square-foot cleanroom inside, the hyper-hygienic space where computer chips are manufactured.
Now, Turner’s office in Albany will build the 90,000-square-foot cleanroom expansion—beating out M+W U.S. and another competitor, LeChase Construction Services, for the contract.
September 26, 2012 - X-Fab Silicon Foundries says it will invest more than $50M over the next three years in cleanroom space, equipment, R&D, and staff for its microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) operations, reflecting an anticipated growth in MEMS services as the company.
The move will consolidate all the company's MEMS business and activities, rebranded as X-Fab MEMS Foundry, on the company's campus in Erfurt, Germany. It's the "next step towards our goal of becoming one of the top three worldwide suppliers of MEMS foundry services," according to CEO Rudi De Winter.
"The MEMS sector is a strategic field of X-FAB’s overall activities to serve the growing needs of our customers," De Winter noted in a statement. "Our customers will benefit from the dedicated resources and expertise of a foundry focused solely on advanced MEMS technology, and built on X-FAB’s solid foundation of technical excellence."
Among X-Fab's company's recent MEMS accomplishments:
The first open-platform MEMS 3D inertial sensor process available directly from a high-volume pure-play foundry;
Completion of a dedicated noble metal facility for MEMS;
Produced MicroGen Systems' first MEMS energy harvesters;
200mm MEMS capabilities;
High-volume manufacturing of bulk and surface micromachined technologies, with and without CMOS integration;
In-house technology platforms for mainstream MEMS applications such as pressure sensors, inertial sensors and infrared sensors; and Ready-to-use IP design blocks for MEMS accelerometers.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new leading-edge NAND memory fab line in Xi'an, China, to be fully on line by 2014 making 10nm-class process technologies. ("10nm-class" is defined as "a process technology node somewhere between 10 and 19," the company explains.)
Initially Samsung will invest $2.3B in the fab, with a projected total investment of $7B in phases. No details were offered as to the site's capacity or output or what the phase-in periods would be. The new site will help ease the load on Samsung's Line 16 in Hwaseong, Korea which opened a year ago at 10,000 WPM capacity (300mm wafers).
Once completed, the new facility will make use of advanced 10-nm class (i.e. a process technology node somewhere between 10 and 19 nm) technology in producing NAND flash memory chips. These are a vital component powering IT and mobile applications for high-speed and large-density data storage.
Xi'an is home to 37 universities and 3000 R&D centers focused on advanced IT technology, the company noted, adding that it has begun collaboration programs with several local universities including scholarships to nurture local talent.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and CEO Dr. Oh-hyun Kwon said, "It is a great honor to announce our groundbreaking at Xi'an, a city of tremendous historic and academic significance, as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and China. At this time, our memory semiconductor business also marks its 20th consecutive year as the leader of the memory industry. The new Samsung China Semiconductor fab will lay a solid foundation for continued supply of leading memory components, enabling Samsung to further spearhead the advancement of the IT industry and enhanced user experiences."
The Samsung China Semiconductor complex has a target timeline for achieving full-fledged operation in 2014. Initially, Samsung is investing US$2.3 billion in the Xi'an fab. Samsung China Semiconductor will mark the single largest investment by Samsung in China with a phased total investment of US$7 billion.
The capital of multiple dynasties spanning over a thousand years, Xi'an is at the centre of development of advanced electronics technology as a primary location in China’s Western Region Development. Xi’an’s industrial landscape supports all key considerations in the production of advanced IT infrastructure such as basic resources including water and power, and a solid employee base for IT research, development and manufacturing. Xi'an is home to 37 universities and 3,000 R&D centers focused on advanced IT technology.
Samsung has also kicked off a program for close academic collaboration with several renowned local universities, which will include scholarships to nurture skilled talent locally. Just one year after commencing operations at its Line 16 in Hwaseong, Korea, the new Xi'an production facility will help to balance Samsung’s global production network. Reinforcing the company’s support for its customers worldwide, the China facility will improve Samsung’s global supply chain, making it easier for many of its customers to expand in the region.
McIlvaine Company
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