SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
January 2017
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Samsung
Austin Semiconductor Expands in Texas
AIM
Photonics New Facility Location
Samsung
to Expand Vietnamese Factories
EBARA
Completed the Expansion of Kumamoto Plant
SK Hynix
to Invest in a New Fabrication Facility in Cheongju
SK Hynix
to Construct a Cutting-edge NAND Flash FAB in Cheongju
SK Hynix
Continues Rapid Expansion of Fabrication Plants
Samsung Austin Semiconductor LLC (SAS) announced plans to
invest more than $1 billion by the first half of 2017. Investments in its
facilities will enhance current System LSI production to meet the growing
demands in the industry for advanced system-on-chip (SoC) products especially
for mobile and other electronic devices.
“Samsung is a bellwether for Austin. As a company that the
community and state partnered with to relocate here several years ago, they have
far exceeded expectations,” said Mike Rollins, President, Austin Chamber of
Commerce. “Samsung remains a shining example of what happens when we create a
business friendly environment. The result is a win that enhances and sustains
our community’s ability to create a broad range of new jobs and economic
opportunities for Austinites and their families.”
According to an Impact Data Source Economic Impact Study, SAS
added $3.6 billion into the regional economy of central Texas in 2015. During
that same time, SAS supported 10,755 jobs in the area and $498 million in annual
salaries. Since its establishment in 1997, Samsung has invested more than $16
billion for the expansion and maintenance of its Austin facility.
“I was glad to discuss this with Samsung when our trade
delegation visited Korea, and I’m thrilled that this plan is coming to
fruition,” said Austin Mayor Steve Adler. “Samsung is so often a source of good
news in Austin whether it’s about jobs, education, workforce development,
housing or helping the homeless. Samsung is a great partner for Austin’s
present, and this announcement tells us that they’ll be an even bigger part of
our future.”
“We are committed to Austin and our contributions to the
community,” said Catherine Morse, General Counsel and Senior Director of Public
Affairs at SAS. “This is our home, and we want to ensure our community is
healthy and prospering. These investments will support this, while also ensuring
our customers’ growing needs are met.”
The American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics
recently named Eastman Business Park in Rochester as the new home of its test,
assembly and packaging manufacturing facility.
The decision secures Rochester's position as a hub for
photonics and part of a growing and thriving innovation zone. The site was
selected in an open process organized by the state.
The selected site known as Building 81 is on Lake Avenue
across from the Kodak Research Laboratory. The building is now owned by ON
Semiconductor, who will lease excess clean room, lab and office space for the
TAP facility.
Kodak's EBP was a logical choice for the TAP facility with its
capabilities. The site's location near Kodak Research Laboratories and over 50
acres of developable industrial land provides expansion opportunities.
EBP was designed for innovation and manufacturing with a wide
range of capabilities, including custom scaling and manufacturing of novel,
electronic and photonic-based materials; environmentally responsible materials
handling and recovery; and access to analytical characterization facilities and
expertise.
"This spotlights the technology innovation happening at
Eastman Business Park today," said Dolores Kruchten, EBP president. "ON
Semiconductor is an important part of the EBP ecosystem and a great partner with
Kodak; its facilities are the ideal location for the TAP facility. We look
forward to collaborating with AIM Photonics, ON Semiconductor and the Rochester
community to build a new technology ecosystem based on our innovative past and
our vision for the future."
Samsung Display plans to increase manufacturing capacity in
Vietnam by investing a further three trillion won ($2.51 billion) into the
country.
Local news agency Yonhap reports that the tech giant's display
arm currently produces between 40 and 50 percent of its smartphone ranges at two
factories in Vietnam, located in the Bac Ninh province, northern Vietnam, and
Thai Nguyen.
However, an increase in investment will help Samsung expand
display-based product lines and cater for increased demand. At CES 2017, Samsung
revealed a new range of quantum dot (QD) premium television displays -- the Q9,
Q8, and Q7 -- which boast slimmer designs and enhanced picture quality.
In 2015, Samsung began constructing a new consumer electronics
production facility in Ho Chi Mihn which manufactures devices including
televisions, air conditioners, and washing machines. Operations began earlier
this year and Samsung is reportedly planning to shift some production away from
other facilities in countries such as Malaysia and South Korea to this new
factory.
Yonhap says that in return for increasing Vietnamese
investment from $1.4 billion to $2 billion by 2020, the local Ho Chi Minh
government will reward the electronics giant with additional tax breaks.
Citing unnamed sources, the publication says that Samsung and
Vietnamese officials are currently in talks concerning the fresh investment.
While Samsung would not comment on the report, a Reuters
source said the display maker is concerning additional investment in Vietnam,
but declined to comment further.
Despite the Galaxy Note 7 disaster which ended up in a safety
recall of the product as a fire hazard, Samsung still expects its highest profit
in three years of 9.2 trillion won ($7.7 billion) for the fourth quarter of 2016
due to the rising success of its chip business.
Samsung is not the only manufacturer investing in Vietnam.
South Korea's Seoul Semiconductor Co. has won a license to build a new $300
million semiconductor facility in the north of the country, while LED
manufacturer Lumens Co., based in Seoul, hopes to begin manufacturing operations
in the south later this year.
Ebara Corporation (“EBARA”) completed the construction of a
new manufacturing plant and its related service facilities in Kumamoto
Prefecture, with operations commencing on November 15, 2016.
The new plant established in Kumamoto is similar in size to
the other manufacturing plants currently in operation. It features highly
flexible production facilities capable of making CMP systems, a major product
line for EBARA, as well as other products, including semiconductor manufacturing
equipment. EBARA will remain focused on energy-saving initiatives aimed at
halving the cleanroom’s power consumption and recycling more than 95% of the
water used in the production process, in pursuit of a lower environmental
burden, environmental harmony, and synergy with local communities.
The new plant is expected to double EBARA’s production
capacity for precision products in Kumamoto, facilitating quick and flexible
responses to customer demands and requirements regarding delivery periods, as
well as flexible production management at manufacturing facilities, including
those for precision products located in Fujisawa. The new plant will start
running at full production capacity at the beginning of next year. We remain
committed to meeting the strong demand for CMP systems.
The maintenance service facility in Kumamoto features a strong
overhauling capacity, three times that of similar facilities operating in
Kyushu. Kumamoto’s service facility will serve as a hub for maintenance services
for dry vacuum pumps, mainly covering the Kyushu and Chugoku areas.
“We expect that the semiconductor market will show consistent
growth in the coming years, given rising demand from customers in the auto,
energy, and medical industries, as well as the growing popularity of the
Internet of Things (IoT), the idea of connecting devices over the Internet. In
the semiconductor manufacturing equipment business, we must accommodate diverse
business requirements related to the use of applications and manufacturing
processes on the part of our customers. EBARA committed to providing
high-performance semiconductor manufacturing equipment that meets customer
requirements while taking steps to enhance maintenance and support services,
seeking to provide flexible responses to customer requirements and expanding the
business amid the fast-changing semiconductor market.”
(1)Kumamoto District Office
Location: 4000-1 Koei, Nankan-machi, Tamana-gun, Kumamoto
Site area: Approximately 1,506,400 sq. ft. (140,000m2)
(2)New
Kumamoto Plant
Operating functions: Production of semiconductor manufacturing
equipment. Maintenance and support services related to dry vacuum pumps
Building area: Approximately 129,120 sq. ft. (12,000m2)
Launch date: November 15, 2016
Investment: Approximately ¥6.8 billion
South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix plans to invest ₩2.2
trillion ($1.8 billion) to build a new fabrication facility that produces NAND
flash memory in Cheongju, located south of Seoul.
The new fab will begin construction in August 2017, with a
target completion date of June 2019, according to the company. SK Hynix said the
expansion is part of the company's pledge to invest a total of ₩46 trillion
($38.31 billion) to build three new fabs with a goal of "boosting chip
production."
SK Hynix will also put additional investment into its Wuxi fab,
which produces half of the company's total DRAM chips.
"Reduction of manufacturing efficiency is inevitable due to
space insufficiency considering the increasing number of process steps due to
process technology migration which requires more floor space. Hence, to make up
for the possible loss of wafer capacity, the company has decided to expand the
Wuxi cleanroom space with total investment of ₩950 billion ($791 million) from
July 2017 to April 2019," SK Hynix said in a statement.
SK Hynix Inc.
announced it will construct a new memory semiconductor FAB in Cheongju,
Chungcheongbuk-do to meet increasing NAND Flash demand. This is a part of a
mid/long-term investment plan that SK Hynix declared at M14 completion ceremony
in August 2015. At that time, the company said it could spend 46 trillion won to
set up 3 new FABs in Icheon and Cheongju including the M14.
The new FAB will be located in a Cheongju Technopolis site. SK
Hynix starts a design within next month then begins construction of the shell
and the cleanroom in August 2017 to be completed in June 2019 with total
investment of 2.2 trillion won. Equipment installation into the FAB shall be
decided considering market conditions as well as the Company's migration plans.
SK Hynix has been expanding its NAND Flash manufacturing FAB
in Cheongju since the completion of which in 2008. Plus, it starts to utilize
the upper floor of the M14 to manufacture 3D NAND Flash from next year.
Nevertheless, in order to grow further, it is important to secure production
facilities in advance to deal with NAND Flash market growth to be led by 3D NAND
solutions. Additionally, considering it takes more than 2 years normally to
build a semiconductor FAB, the Company has determined to build the additional
FAB as a result.
The new FAB to be constructed in Cheongju will become a part
of our key production facilities to gear up for the upcoming fourth industrial
revolution," said Sung Wook Park, CEO of SK Hynix, "Sincerely appreciate great
assistance from the National, Chungcheongbuk-do and Cheongju government
officials in the construction of the new FAB at a proper time," he added.
Meanwhile, SK Hynix plans to invest additionally in present
Wuxi DRAM FAB to maintain its competitiveness in productivity. The Wuxi FAB has
been contributing to the company's growth since its operation start in 2006,
currently representing a half of the company's total DRAM production. Reduction
of manufacturing efficiency is inevitable due to space insufficiency considering
the increasing number of process steps due to process technology migration which
requires more floor space. Hence, to make up for the possible loss of wafer
capacity, the company has decided to expand the Wuxi cleanroom space with total
investment of 950 billion won from July 2017 to April 2019. With the investment,
the company plans to retain its competence in productivity and lead in DRAM
industry.
The race to invest in semiconductor technology is unabating,
it would seem. SK Hynix, the world’s second largest memory chipmaker (after
Samsung), has announced plans to construct a new memory semiconductor fab in
Cheongju, South Korea. The company will also upgrade DRAM facilities in China,
with the total outlay summing $2.6 billion. This comes after global chipmakers
like Samsung, Toshiba, and TSMC have spurred investments of their own to expand
production.
SK Hynix is widely known for DRAM production, but the new fab
will primarily focus, at least initially, on volumizing the production of 3D
NAND. Presently speaking, the company’s M10 and newer M14 fabs are the only
locations possessing the capacity to produce 3D NAND.
The new plant will be situated near SK Hynix’s existing M8,
M11, and M12 fabs, and construction is intended to begin in August 2017, with
the projected completion, as well as the first wafers processed, coming in 2019.
In 2017, the flagship M14 fab will see its upper floor utilized to bolster 3D
NAND production. Additionally, SK Hynix plans to inaugurate the world’s first
72-layer NAND in 2017, outmaneuvering Samsung with their planned 64-layer NAND.
In the interim, SK Hynix will invest heavily into its C2 fab
in Wuxi, China. As fabrication processes evolve, semiconductor manufactures face
inefficiencies in the form of increased process steps and insufficient floor
space for new equipment. To deal with the anticipated decrease in output per
area of floor space, SK Hynix will expand the cleanroom space of the C2 fab to
accommodate additional equipment, thus abetting in maintaining productivity and
market share.
SK Hynix’s high profile customers include Apple, Sony, AMD,
and Intel. They serve as an OEM for many companies. SK Hynix’s TLC NAND can be
found in such SSDs as Intel’s 540s series and ADATA Premier SP550. SK Hynix has
provided NAND for the iPhone 7, as well as Apple’s iMac and MacBook computers.
In conjunction with AMD, SK Hynix produced the first HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory)
standard that was first seen on AMD’s Fiji GPUs.
The global demand for NAND seems unlikely to cease soon,
driven by smarter, connected devices and evolving technologies. The market is
even seeing penetration from lesser-known technologies like that of smart cars
and the increasingly omnipresent Internet of Things. As we’ve previously
reported, NAND prices are expected to climb as the industry transitions to 3D
NAND.
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