IQE and Cardiff Spearhead UK Compound Semiconductor Centre

A £50m investment will create new hub of excellence in South Wales as part of UK network of R&D centers.

Semiconductor wafer company IQE plc and Cardiff University will help spearhead a new £50m UK National Catapult to develop and build next generation compound semiconductors (CS).

Announcing the £50m funding following a meeting in South Wales with IQE and Cardiff University, Chancellor George Osborne said the investment will create a new CS hub of excellence in South Wales as part of a UK network of Research and Development Catapults.

In a speech to Cardiff's business leaders, Chancellor George Osborne said: "Wales is an innovative nation. The UK national center in South Wales will develop compound semiconductors that are at the heart of modern technology. It will bring together scientists and businesses with expertise. It will create jobs and bring investment."

IQE and Cardiff University have already established the Compound Semiconductor Centre, which will form a key resource for the new Catapult. The partnership will help transform leading edge research at Cardiff University's new Institute for Compound Semiconductors (ICS) - to be built on the University's new £300m Innovation Campus - into 21st Century technologies and products.

Drew Nelson, IQE CEO and President, said: "The launch of the £50m catapult is fantastic news for high-level manufacturing in Wales and for the Welsh economy. The Compound Semiconductor Catapult will help provide the critical mass to launch the first compound semiconductor hub of its kind in the World, taking great academic research and seamlessly turning it into high-volume manufacturing, securing a global industrial and manufacturing platform for Wales and the UK."

Colin Riordan, Vice-Chancellor Cardiff University, said: "The announcement is excellent news for innovation, industry and enterprise in South Wales and beyond. It offers a real opportunity for Cardiff University and IQE to help establish Europe's first compound semiconductor cluster and create a world-class powerhouse to develop and commercialize next generation technologies."

Welsh Government Economy and Science Minister, Edwina Hart, welcomed the £50m investment. "Compound semiconductors are the future key enabling technology driving advances across technologies including smart phones, energy, healthcare and transport. The funding will help create a compound semiconductor industry cluster of European scale and global reach in South Wales, and represents a real vote of confidence in Wales' universities, its semiconductor businesses and skills base."

In November, the Welsh Government announced a £12m funding package to support the construction, fit-out, and purchase of capital equipment for Cardiff University's Institute for Compound Semiconductors (ICS). The UK's Research Council Partnership Investment Fund has invested £17.3m to support the Institute.

Last year one of the world’s leading experts in CS technologies, Professor Diana Huffaker, was appointed to lead a new research laboratory at Cardiff University through the Welsh Government's £50m Sêr Cymru program.

China Halts Facility Expansion Plan

The downturn in China's economy prompted Phoenix Semiconductor Philippines Corp. (PSPC) to suspend its expansion program for a $170-million factory, according to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report.

PSPC, the local unit of South Korea's STS Semiconductor and Telecommunication Co. Ltd, initially planned to build its phase 2 manufacturing facility in the second half of 2015. The new factory was supposed to increase the production of memory chips, all of which are being supplied to Samsung under a six-year contract, and to serve new customers.

The electronics manufacturer intended to put up the new manufacturing facility beside its existing plant at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga.

"PSPC has already completed the engineering plans and the awarding of the project to general and specialty contractors," PSPC said in a release to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The decision to postpone the expansion project is "in line with the slowdown in the demand of semiconductors as a result of the downturn in the economy of China, a major global consumer market and downstream manufacturer of electronics products," the company said.

"However, negotiations by PSPC with potential new customers are still ongoing," it added.

PSPC, under its initial public offering prospectus, allocated some $9 million of IPO proceeds for the construction of a new manufacturing facility. About $2.85 million was earmarked for the construction of the new building while some $6.15 million was to be spent for the acquisition and installation of production equipment.

The company said the IPO funds will be put in "short-term cash facility until such appropriate time of its utilization."

Previously, PSPC's Korean parent firm obtained about $2.47 million from a fresh bond and equity float. This was done to deal with liquidity crunch concerns that may fall to the Philippine manufacturing unit.

PSPC management noted that such events involving its parent company would not affect its operations and financial condition, the Inquirer reported.

Cypress Sells Bloomington Wafer Fab

Cypress Semiconductor has retained ATREG, a specialist vendor of wafer fabs and other technology assets, to assist the company in selling its 200mm wafer fab in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Cypress has operated the fab since it acquired it from Control Data VTC in 1990.

The automotive-qualified fab has a cleanroom floor space of 80,000 square feet and is capable of 16,700 wafer starts per month, according to ATREG. The sales agent adds that there is the possibility of a multi-year supply contract back to Cypress and to license process IP for the company.

The fab is currently being used by Cypress Foundry Solutions and operates at manufacturing nodes between 0.35µ and 90nm.

ATREG's marketing description says the fab is accredited by the U.S. government as a "Trusted Foundry" making it suitable for use in some classified and unclassified programs and comes with 416 manufacturing production tools. ATREG also describes the Bloomington wafer fab as one of the only opportunities for a company to add production-volume 200mm manufacturing capacity in the United States.

Tower Semiconductor, a specialty foundry that has acquired manufacturing assets in recent years, has just purchased a 200mm wafer from Maxim Integrated Products.

A spokesperson for Cypress said in an email to EE Times Europe: "Cypress has retained an advisory firm specializing in the disposition of technology manufacturing assets to help facilitate the potential sale of our Fab 4 in Bloomington, Minnesota."

The spokesperson added: "We plan to continue manufacturing at Fab 4 after the sale, so we are looking for a strategic partner—a company that will maintain the high quality, rapid cycle times and superior overall satisfaction we have historically delivered to our customers. With this in mind, we do not have a set timeline for this sale. We have approximately 450 employees at the location, and they are aware of the status reflected in the statement."

UMC to Begin 12in Fab in China

United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), one of the world's leading foundries, has announced that it will start a joint venture 12in fab in China earlier than the company expected. Production will start around the end of 3Q16, a month or two earlier than UMC's original expectation for 4Q16, according to company spokesman Richard Yu. The speed of construction in China has been fast, he added.

UMC is partnering with Fujian Electronics & Information Group and the Xiamen municipal government. The total investment in the fab located in the city of Xiamen on the southeast coast of China is about $6.2 billion. UMC will hold about 21 per cent of the venture but will have six out of nine directors on the company board.

The fab will benefit from its location in one of the world's fastest growing chip markets, which has been chugging along at an annual rate exceeding 10 per cent, according to IC Insights. Although China's chip market is forecast to be worth $152 billion by 2019, the nation still imports most of its chips.

TSMC Submitted Application for Project

TSMC submitted an application to the Investment Commission of Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs for an investment project to build a wholly-owned 12-inch wafer manufacturing facility and a design service center in Nanjing, China.

The planned capacity of the facility is 20,000 12-inch wafers per month, and would be scheduled to begin volume production of 16nm process technology in the second half of 2018. The design service center is aimed at establishing TSMC’s design ecosystem in China. TSMC will commence the investment project upon receiving the approval from the Investment Commission.

‘In view of the rapid growth of the Chinese semiconductor market, we have decided to establish a 12-inch wafer fab and a design service center in China to provide closer support to our customers there and to further expand our business opportunities,’ said TSMC Chairman Dr. Morris Chang.

TSMC has announced that it aims to build its first 12in fab in China to take advantage of the strong demand in the world's fastest growing chip market. The company said it submitted an application to Taiwan's Investment Commission to build a wholly-owned 12in fab and a design service center in China's inland city of Nanjing.

China's largest foundry, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), may have been the world's only chipmaker to run at full utilization during 3Q15 on strong demand from customers in China.

While UMC's joint venture is the first 12in fab in China with investment from a Taiwan company, UMC's top rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) recently announced a plan to build its first wholly owned 12in fab in China, slated to start production in 2H18.

The fab plans signal a change for the Taiwan chipmakers, which have kept most of their production in Taiwan. The island accounts for about a fifth of the world's semiconductor production.

The Taiwan government restricts semiconductor investments in China on concerns the island will lose jobs and technology to China. Relations between Taiwan and China have been hostile since the Nationalist Party was overthrown militarily by the Communist Party in 1949 and fled to Taiwan in defeat. China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has not ruled out the possibility of taking the island by force.

UMC's joint venture fab in Xiamen will make chips with geometries no finer than 40nm under Taiwan's regulations. UMC's most advanced process technology is at the 28nm mode.

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