GLOBALFOUNDRIES Checks Out New York

The UAE's Consul General to New York, Majid Al Suwaidi, conducted a visit to Upstate New York last week, during which he met with the senior leadership of GLOBALFOUNDRIES in Malta, New York.

GLOBALFOUNDIRES is owned by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala and with 250 customers worldwide, is the world's first full-service semiconductor foundry with a truly global manufacturing and technology footprint.

With 3,000 employees based in Malta, GLOBALFOUNDRIES has had a significant and positive impact on the economy of upstate New York in recent years.

During his visit, Consul General Al Suwaidi met with several members of the senior executive team at GLOBALFOUNDRIES including Dr. Tom Caulfied, General Manager and Senior Vice President. Dr. Caulfield provided a comprehensive briefing on the business and cutting-edge facility. The Consul General also received a tour of Fab 8's cleanroom where state of the art semi-conductors are manufactured onsite.

"As the UAE's new Consul General to New York, I am excited to have met with the GLOBALFOUNDRIES leadership to learn more about their business, and to see first-hand their impressive operation in Malta," said Consul General Al Suwaidi. "This company has made a substantial investment and impact on the economy of New York State, creating thousands of good paying, high-skilled jobs."

GLOBALFNDRIES is currently considered among the largest semiconductor manufacturing facilities, performing the most advanced research, development, and manufacturing of semiconductors in the world. The FAB-8 site represents approximately US15 billion in private and public investment in Saratoga County.

Since 2009, the project has supported more than approximately 15,000 indirect jobs in the economy based on research by the Semiconductor Industry Association. In addition, the project has required more than 10 million man hours of work, creating more than 20,000 new construction jobs and thousands of additional construction-related jobs since 2009. The facility spans 293 acres with another 154-acre expansion planned.

Consul General Al Suwaidi also met with officials from the State University of New York's Poly Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE). CNSE serves as one of the US's biggest centers devoted to the design and development of nanotechnology, working closely with GLOBALFOUNDRIES. The company also works closely with CNSE to source talent and to work on joint training and educational initiatives.

Japan Semi's Iwate and Oita Operations Focusing on IC Production

Japan Semiconductor Corp. aims to raise its analogue and mixed signal IC game by devoting a large amount of its production to chip manufacturing. Japan Semi is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toshiba Corp. that came into being on April 1, 2016 and owns wafer fabs at Iwate and Oita and employs 2,030 people.

The company has manufacturing capabilities in mixed-signal ICs, MCUs, ASIC, linear sensor and discrete semiconductors. It can also build through-silicon-vias and apply color filter coatings. The capability extends from 0.6-micron down to 130nm in CMOS and high-voltage 48V and 100V processes are also available. Oita has a 6-inch and an 8-inch wafer fab while Iwate has an 8-inch wafer.

In a Toshiba Group presentation prepared for investors and analysts the company said that in the 2018 financial year the company was aiming for 30% of revenue to come from foundry business.

It expects that automotive-grade quality and "world-leading" analogue technology will enable this. However, there is speculation that the naming of the company is indicative that Toshiba is looking to dispose of the company.

Yasuo Naruke, CEO of the parent Toshiba Storage and Electronic Devices Solutions Co., told analysts and investors in a meeting that analog foundry business is what he has in mind for Japan Semiconductor and with regard to the possibility of an initial public offering of shares in Japan Semiconductor Naruke said in translation: "We do not like to reject any possibility."

Toshiba and Western Digital Open Fab 2 Semiconductor Fabrication Facility in Japan

Toshiba Corporation and Western Digital Corporation celebrated the opening of the New Fab 2 semiconductor fabrication facility located in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan.

Expanded use of flash memory in smartphones, SSDs, and other applications is driving continued growth of the global flash memory market. The New Fab 2 facility will support the conversion of the companies’ 2D NAND capacity to 3D flash memory, allowing realization of solutions offering higher densities and better device performance.

Construction of New Fab 2 began in September 2014. Following partial completion of the facility in October 2015, Toshiba and SanDisk (acquired in May 2016 by Western Digital Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital Corporation) worked together to implement leading-edge manufacturing capabilities for mass production of 3D flash memory, and first-phase production started in March of this year. The parties intend to further invest to expand production capacity over time, depending on market conditions.

In addition, Yokkaichi operations will leverage the site-wide integrated production system, which employs big data processing to analyze over 1.6 billion data points each day, to further improve manufacturing efficiency and the quality of 3D flash memory.

The parties are committed to working together to enhance the value they offer to customers and to continue innovation as market leaders.

Satoshi Tsunakawa, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation, said, “Advanced technologies underline our commitment to respond to continued demand as an innovator in flash memory. We are enhancing manufacturing efficiency and the quality of our world-class facility. Building on that, we also plan investments of as much as 860 billion yen by FY2018, in line with market situation. Our commitment is firm, and we are confident that our joint venture with Western Digital will produce cost competitive next generation memories at Yokkaichi.”

Steve Milligan, Chief Executive Officer of Western Digital, said, “As a leader in non-volatile memory products and solutions, we are excited to be entering the 3D NAND era with our partner Toshiba. The New Fab 2 enables us to begin the conversion of our existing 2D NAND capacity to 3D NAND and continues our long-standing presence in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, and Japan.”

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