SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
October 2013
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Toshiba Celebrates Opening of New Semiconductor Facility in Thailand
Intel Closing Plant in Massachusetts
Two India Semiconductor Fabs Approved by Government
IBM, ST Micro to Build Two Semiconductor Wafer Facilities in India
CNSE Develops Nanocenter Site for Chip Manufacturing
ON Semiconductor Expands Irish R&D Facility
Toshiba Opens New Semiconductor Facility in Thailand
AMS AG Invests in Wafer Fab Cleanroom
SK Hynix Suspends Cleanroom Operations after Fire
Toshiba Corporation has announced that its Thailand based Group company, Toshiba Semiconductor (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (TST), has completed its relocation to a new semiconductor manufacturing facility and started mass production, marking the company's full recovery from the devastating flooding of 2011.
The new factory is located 140km north-east of Bangkok, representing a state-of-the art facility in the 304 Industrial Park in Prachinburi. Construction started in July 2012, limited production began this April, and the facility is now operating at its current target capacity. At 1.4 times the size of the flood-damaged plant, the new facility and its cutting-edge production equipment will allow TST and Toshiba Group to secure greater operating efficiency and higher productivity. With currently approx. 40,000 m2 floor area (430,400 sq. ft.) built on a 135,000 m2 ground area the new site offers room for expansion that will allow the company to respond quickly and flexibly to growth in market demand.
TST carries out back-end processes, the assembly and packaging of small signal devices (logic and linear ICs, transistors, diodes) and photocouplers, both product areas where strong demand growth is anticipated.
TST was forced to halt production in October 2011 when its factory in the Bangkadi Industrial Park in Patumtani, immediately north of Bangkok, was inundated by flood waters. During this forced suspension of operations, Toshiba transferred production to its facilities in Japan and Malaysia, and utilized outsourcing. With the opening of the new TST facility, Toshiba plans to gradually reintegrate these relocated operations.
Toshiba Group is revitalizing its discrete device business by boosting efficiency to secure improved profitability. Measures to date include adopting larger wafers and securing higher output in the front-end process, and accelerating the overseas transfer of the back-end process. The new TST facility will improve cost competitiveness in the back-end process, strengthen the bottom line and contribute to the overall strength of the discrete business unit.
Computer chip maker Intel Corp. has announced that it is closing its only manufacturing facility in Massachusetts, a move expected to cost the state about 700 jobs.
Intel, the world's biggest chip maker, announced that it is closing the Hudson plant because it is using outdated technology to make older generation computer chips that are being phased out.
A company spokesman says the plant will close by the end of next year.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel invested more than $4 billion in the former Digital Equipment Corp. plant since it acquired the 149-acre site from DEC in 1998 under a patent infringement lawsuit settlement.
Intel will continue to employ about 850 workers at its separate microprocessor and technical design facility at the site.
Setting up of two semiconductor fabrication facilities are approved by government of India. Each one of this facility is proposed by a team of companies.
The one fab which is going to be established near Noida, U.P. is proposed by Jayprakash associates in partnership with IBM and ToweJazz. Technology nodes proposed by this group are 90, 65 and 45 nm nodes in Phase I, 28 nm node in Phase II with the option of establishing a 22 nm node in Phase III.
The other fab that is going to come up near Gandhinagar, Gujarath is proposed by Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation in partnership with ST Microelectronics and Silterra. Technology nodes proposed by this group are 90, 65 and 45 nm nodes in Phase I and 45, 28 and 22 nm nodes in Phase II.
Government is still open for any further proposals from other leading companies to establish chip fab in India.
Comment by industry executives on chip fab in India:
“Setting up of such a high value manufacturing industry as semiconductor chip fabrication will have truly transformative effect, on the overall Electronics industry. This will have a very strong multiplier effect that will result in major strides forward in the value generated from all sectors within the semiconductor ecosystem. While we eagerly await the formal news of the cabinet approval via the appropriate government sources, the historic significance of this approval will be felt for many years to come. Manufacturing in India will soon witness a new frontier.” said Aninda Moitra, President & Managing Director, Applied Materials India.
Applauding fab approval by Government, manufacturers' Association of Information Technology (MAIT) releases a statement saying “Considering the fact that IT Hardware industry is highly depended upon imports, homegrown chip would help strengthen the electronics ecosystem in the country. The decision will promote manufacturing of indigenously designed and manufactured chips and help the country to reduce dependence on imports. This would also help the existing IT hardware manufacturing to obtain essential IT components at a much lesser cost”.
Mr. PVG Menon, President, IESA said “Semi conductor industry is 100% import based and last year alone India consumed semiconductors worth $ 8 billion. Now in order to be self sufficient, FAB will play an essential role towards this as it can give India the technological edge in the global markets.”
On the latest investment proposals received recently by the government in the ESDM sector, Dr. Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Communication & Information said “As always, India offers a great opportunity in electronics system design and manufacturing. With the country looking to be an economic powerhouse on the global platform, sectors like ESDM will play a vital role. We have received investment offers to the tune of around 11,000 crores in this sector. The main focus this year will be on Mobile Handset Manufacturing, Automotive Manufacturing, Consumer electronics and LED manufacturing as these are the areas of interest in the market,” at the inaugural ceremony of the trade expo, electronica India 2013 and productronica India 2013, which concluded recently in New Delhi.
Global chip giants IBM and STMicroelectronics have revealed plans to invest $8bn for the proposed construction of two semiconductor wafer fabrication (FAB) manufacturing facilities in India, together with their domestic partners.
The proposals have been approved by the Government of India, and the two projects will be executed through respective consortia of IBM and STMicroelectronics.
As per the government approved concessions, the first consortium of IBM together with Jaiprakash Associates and Israeli firm Tower Jazz would build a FAB facility in Greater Noida, near Delhi.
The facility would use advanced CMOS technology, while would have a monthly production capacity of 40,000 wafers of 300 mm size.
Another facility would be built by a consortium of Franco-Italian chip maker ST Microelectronics together with Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Malaysia's Silterra.
Proposed for construction at Prantij, near Gandhinagar, Gujarat, the second facility will have a capacity of producing 40,000 wafers per month of 300 mm size.
India Minister of Communications & Information Technology Kapil Sibal said that the move would help set up a critical pillar required to promote Electronics System Design and Manufacturing in the country.
"The Semiconductor Wafer FABs when set up will stimulate the flow of capital and technology, create employment opportunities, help higher value addition in the electronic products manufactured in the country, reduce dependence on imports and lead to innovation," Sibal said
"The proposed FABs will create direct employment of about 22,000 and indirect employment of about one lakh."
Global semiconductor market is expected to grow 3% by the end of 2013 and reach $298bn, according to a new report from ABI Research.
The Government had in 2011 constituted an Empowered Committee to identify technology and investors and to recommend incentives to be provided to set up two FAB facilities in the country. The Empowered Committee had issued a Global Expression of Interest inviting technology providers and investors to set up the FAB facilities. This Committee submitted its recommendations to the Government in March 2013.
The details of the two FAB facilities proposed to be set up are as follows:
(i) M/s Jaiprakash Associates along with M/s IBM (USA) and M/s Tower Jazz (Israel). The outlay of the proposed FAB is about Rs 26,300 crore for establishing the FAB facility of 40,000 wafer starts per month of 300 mm size, using Advanced CMOS technology. Technology nodes proposed are 90, 65 and 45 nm nodes in Phase I, 28 nm node in Phase II with the option of establishing a 22 nm node in Phase III. The proposed location is Greater Noida.
(ii)M/s Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (HSMC) along with M/s ST Microelectronics (France/Italy) and M/s Silterra (Malaysia). The outlay of the proposed FAB is about Rs 25,250 crore for the fab facility of 40,000 wafer starts per month of 300 mm size, using Advanced CMOS technology. Technology nodes proposed are 90, 65 and 45 nm nodes in Phase I and 45, 28 and 22 nm nodes in Phase II. The proposed location is Prantij, near Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
The Government has also approved the package of incentives for the two consortia. This package includes incentives already available under the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) and deduction available for expenditure on R&D under the Income Tax Act. In addition, FAB facilities will also be eligible for investment linked deduction under Section 35AD of the Income Tax Act. The Government will provide Viability Gap Funding (VGF) in the form of an interest free loan for a period of 10 years.
The Government has also required the technology providers to take equity of at least 10% in the proposed projects. The Government will also get 11% equity in the said projects. The details of the incentives will, however, be worked out based on appraisal of Detailed Project Reports to be submitted by the two consortia within a period of two months.
An Expression of Interest would be published inviting proposals from other leading companies intending to establish FAB in India to be submitted in 4 weeks. Government of India would extend the special package of incentives to the qualified proposals.
Giving these details here today while interacting with the Media, Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications & Information Technology , said that all this will help set up a critical pillar required to promote Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) in the country. The Semiconductor Wafer FABs when set up will stimulate the flow of capital and technology, create employment opportunities, help higher value addition in the electronic products manufactured in the country, reduce dependence on imports and lead to innovation. The proposed FABs will create direct employment of about 22,000 and indirect employment of about one lakh.
The SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and Mohawk Valley EDGE have announced an expanded partnership through which CNSE will lead development of the Marcy Nanocenter site by serving as the site end user.
The EDGE-SUNY CNSE partnership is designed to accelerate the attraction of next-generation 450mm computer chip manufacturing to the Mohawk Valley by deploying Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s publicly-led and publicly-managed public-private partnership model that he first introduced with the CNSE Global 450mm Consortium (G450C).
With this announcement, CNSE is broadening its partnership with Mohawk Valley EDGE and SUNYIT to further the historic agreement announced in 2011 by Gov. Cuomo to establish the G450C at CNSE. Spearheaded by CNSE, the $4.8 billion G450C has brought together five leading global high-tech companies – Intel, IBM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, TSMC, and Samsung – at CNSE as part of a first-of-its-kind wafer and equipment development environment that will enable a cost effective and timely transition from the current 300mm wafer technology to the new 450mm technology.
Through the leadership and investment of Gov. Cuomo, and as a critical component of G450C, CNSE built NanoFab Xtension (NFX) to provide state-of-the-art cleanroom facilities, tools, and infrastructure to support the research, development, and pilot prototyping for 450mm wafer technology. Similarly, with the Marcy Nanocenter site, CNSE will lead development of a full-scale manufacturing facility designed to serve the world’s leading high-tech companies and enhance New York’s position as a global semiconductor hub.
A new Wetlands Permit application will be filed with the Buffalo District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that names CNSE as the end user to develop the site for semiconductor manufacturing, satisfying one of the requirements under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. Concurrently, an application for Preliminary Development Plan approval is being filed with the Town of Marcy. Securing these local and federal approvals will enable site development and infrastructure improvements that are required before CNSE can undertake plans for initial phases of development.
CNSE and EDGE expect that a new Wetlands Permit will be issued within the next few months so that work can commence on development of the site and support critical time-to-market requirements.
As part of the CNSE development plan, the potential full build-out of the Marcy site would include up to 8.25 million ft2 of facilities, with up to three 450mm computer chip fabs, each with a cleanroom of approximately 450,000 ft2; a total public and private investment of $10 billion to $15 billion for each phase of development; and the creation of approximately 5,000 direct jobs and approximately 15,000 indirect jobs.
ON Semiconductor Corp. has moved its Limerick Design Center into an expanded and technically upgraded campus. The newly acquired state-of-the-art facilities, located at Limerick’s Raheen Business Park, now boast over 6,500 ft2 of office space and engineering laboratories that are ISO 9001:2010 and ISO 9001:2012 certified.
“The new design center facility is a valuable expansion of ON Semiconductor’s research and development activities in Europe, as we continue to strive to deliver highly integrated, energy efficient power semiconductor solutions to the market,” says John Blake, director of ON Semiconductor’s Limerick Design Center. “The engineering staff here now has ready access to a greater array of sophisticated technical resources than were available at our previous 900 m2 location. We are now better equipped to develop leading-edge products that are differentiated from our competitors’ – solutions possessing higher energy efficiency levels and superior performance characteristics.”
As part of the company’s Power Solutions Products business, the Limerick design center team is responsible for developing power and thermal management integrated circuits (ICs) primarily for use in computing and consumer electronics applications. The local operations house a technically-focused staff consisting of integrated circuit (IC) design engineers, IC layout engineers, application engineers, test engineers, design evaluation engineers, and product marketing engineers.
The Limerick operations became a part of ON Semiconductor’s global product development operations in early 2008 when the company acquired the CPU Voltage and PC Thermal Monitoring business from Analog Devices Inc. ON Semiconductor formally established its Limerick Design Center in January 2008 with the support of IDA Ireland. The team based in Ireland has steadily grown from an initial complement of 26 people to a team of almost 50.
ON Semiconductor offers a portfolio of energy efficient power and signal management, logic, discrete, and custom solutions to help customers solve their design challenges in automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial, LED lighting, medical, military/aerospace, and power supply applications.
Toshiba has announced that its Thai-based Group, Toshiba Semiconductor (Thailand) (TST), has completed its relocation to a new semiconductor manufacturing facility and started mass production, marking the company’s full recovery from the devastating flooding of 2011.
The new factory is some 140km north-east of Bangkok, a facility in the 304 Industrial Park in Prachinburi.
Construction started in July 2012, limited production began this April, and the facility is now operating at its current target capacity.
At 1.4 times the size of the flood-damaged plant, the new facility and its advanced production equipment will allow TST and Toshiba Group to secure greater operating efficiency and higher productivity, while at the same time offering room for expansion that will allow the company to respond quickly and flexibly to growth in market demand.
TST carries out back-end processes, the assembly and packaging of small signal devices and photocouplers, both product areas where strong demand growth is anticipated.
Small signal devices control current and voltage in digital consumer products and are essential components of such popular products as smart phones and tablets, and photocouplers are widely used in industrial products, including inverters.
Commenting on the new plant, Yasuo Ashizawa, president of TST said, “We have rebuilt capacity with more modern, more productive equipment, and we look forward to supporting a new round of expansion in Toshiba Group’s discrete business.”
TST was forced to halt production in October 2011 when its factory in the Bangkadi Industrial Park in Patumtani, immediately north of Bangkok, was inundated by flood waters.
During this forced suspension of operations, Toshiba transferred production to its facilities in Japan and Malaysia, and utilized outsourcing. With the opening of the new TST facility, Toshiba plans to gradually reintegrate these relocated operations.
Toshiba Group is revitalizing its discrete device business by boosting efficiency to secure improved profitability. Measures to date include adapting to larger wafers and securing higher output in the front-end process, and accelerating the overseas transfer of the back-end process.
The new TST facility will improve cost competitiveness in the back-end process, strengthen the bottom line and contribute to the overall strength of the discrete business unit.
AMS AG, a provider of analog ICs and sensor solutions, has invested over $32 million to create dedicated 3D IC production capacity at its wafer fabrication plant near Graz, Austria. The investment provides for the installation of new 3D IC equipment in cleanroom space available at the plant, situated at the company’s headquarters.
The additional production capacity comes in response to a surge in demand outlook for ICs fabricated with 3D IC integration technology developed exclusively by AMS. The technology enables the design and production of IC packages that are smaller than existing packages.
For instance, the TSV (Through-Silicon Via) interconnects in 3D ICs from AMS can replace the bond wires in conventional single-die devices. For optical semiconductors, clear packaging requirements are eliminated to enable production of chipscale packages that are smaller, cheaper, and less vulnerable to EMI (electro-magnetic interference).
The AMS 3D IC process also enables the production of stacked-die devices. Two die produced in different processes (such as a photodiode die and a silicon signal-processing die) are bonded back-to-back to produce a monolithic stacked-die device. This can replace two separate packages, has a far smaller footprint, and features much shorter interconnects, resulting in improved performance and reduced electrical noise.
The new equipment line, which will be fully operational by the end of 2013, will be available for production of 3D ICs for any AMS product or full-service foundry customer. Initially the line will produce devices for customers in the medical imaging and mobile phone markets.
South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc. recently suspended operations at its Wuxi, China plant, which produces around 12 percent of global computer memory chips, because of a fire. A spokesman for the company says that the fire caused no "material" damage to critical chip-fabrication equipment, and it expects to resume production shortly.
"Currently, there is no material damage to the fab equipment in the cleanroom, thus we expect to resume operations in a short time period so that overall production and supply volume would not be materially affected," says company spokesman Seongae Park.
The world's No.2 maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, which had a 30 percent of the market in the second quarter, said the China plant it has suspended produces around 40 percent of its total DRAM output.
Any prolonged suspension could tighten global supply of DRAM chips, widely used in computers and mobile devices. DRAM chip prices nearly doubled in the first six months of this year due to tight supply.
The fire started while installing chip equipment, and was extinguished in less than two hours. The incident had caused one minor injury and the firm is still assessing exact damages.
SK Hynix competes with bigger rival Samsung Electronics Co and the third-ranked Micron Technology Inc.
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