SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
March 2017
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Entegris
Partners with China’s Spectrum Materials
Samsung
Electronics to Invest in High-Tech System Semiconductor Production
Tyntek to
Expand IR LED Capacity
Versum
Materials Expands Manufacturing Capacity
MC Begins
Mass Production of 14nm ICs
Soitec has begun ramping up production of 200mm SOI wafers
in China at SOI manufacturing partner’s fab.
Soitec, a designer and manufacturer of semiconductor
materials for the electronics industry, announced that the ramp up to
high-volume production of 200mm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers – manufactured
with Soitec’s Smart Cut technology – has begun at the manufacturing facility of
its Chinese partner Shanghai Simgui Technology Co., Ltd. (Simgui) fully
qualified by key Soitec customers. This successful implementation of a
partnership model represents a key milestone for Soitec in managing its
worldwide manufacturing capacity to meet market demand for 200mm SOI wafers used
in fabricating semiconductors for the growing communications and power device
markets.
“Establishing this second source in China allows us to
ensure the needed capacity of 200mm SOI wafers from two sites in different
regions of the world, with each facility producing exactly the same products
from a specifications and quality standpoint,” said Dr. Bernard Aspar, executive
senior vice president of Soitec’s Communication & Power Business Unit. “Our
partnership with Simgui is now running in an efficient way and our customers
have been supportive and instrumental in this strategic move, which fully
validates Soitec’s technology-transfer expertise and manufacturing strategy.”
“Simgui has been working on SOI materials for 16 years in
China. Partnering with Soitec, Simgui is fully ready to support Soitec’s ramp up
of 200mm SOI wafers manufactured with the Smart Cut technology at our facility
in Shanghai and to help in developing the SOI ecosystem in China,” said Dr.
Jeffrey Wang, CEO of Simgui.
The first 200mm SOI wafers produced at Simgui’s
manufacturing facility in Shanghai using Soitec’s proprietary Smart Cut
technology were qualified by the initial customers at the end of last year.
Additional customers are currently in the process of qualifying the wafers.
Producing the wafers in China has been a key objective of Soitec’s and Simgui’s
licensing and technology-transfer agreement, signed in May 2014, and validates
Smart Cut as a standard process. This wafer production line in China will boost
the industrial manufacturing capacity of 200mm SOI wafers to meet increasing
worldwide usage and also will be a key element in establishing the SOI ecosystem
in China.
Soitec’s 200mm RF-SOI and Power-SOI products are dedicated
to the mobile and automotive markets respectively. As the leading SOI substrate
innovator and manufacturer, Soitec has the largest worldwide capacity and
produces both 200mm and 300mm wafers at multiple fabs.
Entegris Inc., a manufacturer of specialty chemicals and
advanced materials handling solutions for the microelectronics industry,
announced it has signed an agreement with Spectrum Materials (Fujian) Co., Ltd.
to expand its presence in China. According to the agreement, Spectrum Materials,
a manufacturer and distributor of specialty chemicals, will manufacture Entegris
specialty chemicals products at Spectrum Materials’ Quanzhou facility.
“We are excited about this partnership, as it will
significantly improve our capabilities to meet growing demands for specialty
chemicals in the industries we serve,” stated Entegris Senior Vice President of
Specialty Chemicals and Engineered Materials, Stuart Tison. “Spectrum Materials
is a well-established company in China that has experience supplying related
high-purity chemicals and shares our expectations for quality and manufacturing
standards. As we have done in other global regions, we continue to look for ways
to better serve our customers and to add value with local collaboration,
business processes and resources.”
Entegris currently manufactures specialty chemicals in both
the U.S. and South Korea and has business operations in Beijing, Shanghai and
Xi’an, China. The partnership with Spectrum Materials will expand its capability
in China and shorten its supply chain for Chinese customers. This relationship
is part of a broader strategic commitment by Entegris to support the growing
semiconductor and related microelectronics industries in China.
“We are pleased to partner with Entegris in the
manufacturing of its industry-leading specialty chemical products in China,”
said President of Spectrum Materials, Guofu Chen. “Our new expansion, combined
with Entegris manufacturing technology, establishes a world-class facility for
the production of Entegris’ semiconductor grade specialty chemicals in China.”
Spectrum Materials will use a copy-exact manufacturing
process to match existing Entegris processes and equipment and will implement
the same quality control system in the manufacturing process.
Samsung Electronics is going to invest $6.98 billion (8
trillion KRW) to extend high-tech system semiconductor production lines. It is
going to make supplemental investments into its 10-nano production lines in next
month and construct new 7-nano semiconductor facilities in 2018. Its strategy is
to secure ultra-fine processing technologies faster than its competitors.
Samsung Electronics is expecting that it can recover Apple’s foundry supplies
that were taken by Taiwan’s TSMC by operating 7-nano production lines early and
this will also benefit equipment manufacturers.
Samsung Electronics has decided to extend 10-nano system
semiconductor production lines in empty space of 17 Line, which is located in
Hwasung-si, and ordered equipment from major domestic and foreign partners.
Investments will take place starting from next month and equipment will be
brought in during first half of this year. Starting from second quarter, it will
produce 10-nano chips, which are already being produced from S1 Line in Giheung
from 17 Line.
About $2.18 billion (2.50 trillion KRW) will be invested
into extending 10-nano system semiconductor production lines. 18,000 10-nano
semiconductors will be produced per month based on introduction of wafer from
extension of 10-nano production lines while 25,000 10-nano semiconductors are
currently being produced per month from S1 Line. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 and
its own application processor (AP) called Exynos 9 Series (8895) are produced
from Samsung’s 10-nano production lines.
This is the third that Samsung Electronics is extending its
17 Line. Previous to this extension, Samsung Electronics had carried out
investments for DRAM (1st step) and 3D NAND flash (2nd step) on 17 Line.
“Although 17 Line was initially called ‘S3’ since it was
planned to be a line exclusively for system semiconductors, it has become a
mixed line that produces DRAMs, 3D NAND flashes, and 10-nano system
semiconductors in the future.” said a representative for this industry. “It is
true that investments into 10-nano semiconductors have reduced compared to its
initial plan as TSMC took supplies of Apple’s latest AP.”
Samsung Electronics is making swift actions as it has high
expectations on markets for 7-nano chips that will be commercialized in 2018. It
is going to construct new facilities at a parking lot space next to 17 Line.
Although area of these new facilities is about one-fourth or one-fifth of
current 17 Line, it has decided to construct new facilities since there are not
enough space throughout its business place in Hwasung.
Samsung Electronics is going to construct facilities,
install cleanrooms, and bring in equipment by end of this year and establish
mass-production system. It has decided to initially produce 30,000 7-nano chips
per month based on introduction of wafer and is going to invest $5.23 billion (6
trillion KRW) in order to construct facilities and bring in equipment that can
produce 30,000 7-nano chips per month. Reason why amount of investment is larger
compared to amount of production is because high-tech EUV (Extreme UltraViolet)
exposure equipment that is specialized for 7-nano process is expensive.
Samsung Electronics has decided to use EUV exposure
equipment to produce 7-nano system semiconductors and ordered 8 of this
equipment for now. Cost of each equipment is about $218 million (250 billion
KRW) and $1.74 billion (2 trillion KRW) was used just to purchase this
equipment. As amount of processes has reduced by bringing in this equipment,
cost to purchase etching and exposure equipment will be reduced by a small
margin. “$2.18 billion (2.50 trillion KRW) will be invested to extend 10-nano
production lines and $5.23 billion (6 trillion KRW) will be invested to
construct new 7-nano facilities.” said a representative for this industry.
“Samsung Electronics’ goal is to finish investments for
10-nano production lines and 7-nano production lines by second half of this year
and second half of next year or early 2019 respectively.” This representative
also said that amount of investments can increase in the future if Samsung
Electronics wins an order from Apple to produce 7-nano chips.
However necessary time can be somewhat longer as an area of
a land for new 7-nano facilities is too small and this will lead to longer TTM
(Time to Market). While continuing to push for construction of new facilities,
it is heard that Samsung Electronics has set up a plan to move equipment that is
used to produce 3D NAND flashes at 17 Line to Pyeongtaek sometime during second
half of this year and use corresponding space for 7-nano production lines just
in case.
Regarding a case on new investments on system
semiconductor, a representative for Samsung Electronics replied by saying there
aren’t any issues that are decided yet.
The new owners of the 200mm Bloomington, Minnesota plant
will continue to manufacture wafers for Cypress under a multi-year supply
agreement while attracting new foundry customers.
ATREG, which specializes in helping global companies divest
and acquire infrastructure-rich advanced technology cleanroom assets, has
successfully advised Cypress Semiconductor Corp on the sale of the subsidiary
that owns its operational 200mm semiconductor manufacturing facility based in
Bloomington, Minnesota.
Under the terms of the agreement, SkyWater Technology
Foundry, backed by Minnesota-based holding company Oxbow Industries, purchased
the capital stock of the subsidiary to operate the fab as a stand-alone
specialized foundry.
The company will continue to manufacture wafers for Cypress
under a multi-year supply agreement while attracting new foundry customers.
The transaction allows Cypress to reduce its manufacturing
footprint and cost structure while increasing the utilization of its Fab 25
located in Austin, Texas, in line with the company’s plan to improve gross
margins.
“Selling our Minnesota fab supports the continued execution
on our gross margin improvement plan while ensuring an uninterrupted wafer
supply to our current customers. It also gives our Minn. employees the
opportunity to help the new business flourish and continue the fab’s tradition
of quality U.S. manufacturing,” said Joe Rauschmayer, executive vice president
of manufacturing for Cypress.
“We are pleased that Cypress chose to leverage our 16-year
fab divestment experience to structure a beneficial transaction for all
parties,” adds Stephen Rothrock, founder and CEO of Seattle-based ATREG.
“We have been seeing renewed interest in 200mm production
assets lately. Given the lack of 200mm equipment in the secondary market,
integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) and foundries are acquiring operational
200mm fabs to satisfy growing 200mm production needs.”
LED chip maker Tyntek, viewing that production capacity for
infrared (IR) LED chips is about 10% short of demand, will expand production
capacity for the product line by 10-15%, with additional capacity to come into
operation beginning May 2017, according to company chairman Bosco Foo.
For the expansion, Tyntek has shifted part of the existing
equipment from its factory in northern Taiwan to another in Wuhan, central
China, to leave room for installing new equipment for producing IR LED chips,
Foo said. Tyntek has set aside a 2017 capital expenditure budget of NT$200-300
million (US$6.5-9.8 million) mainly for procuring new IR LED chip production
equipment, Foo noted.
Tyntek also plans to construct a new factory near the
existing one in 2018, Foo indicated.
Using LED wafers imported from Japan, Tyntek produces
visible-light LED chips, ultra-high-brightness LED chips, IR LED chips as well
as photo diodes/transistors used in fiber-optic communication. Visible-light and
ultra-high-brightness LED chips accounted for 44% of 2016 consolidated revenues,
IR LED chips 46% and photo diodes/transistors 10%.
Versum Materials, Inc., a materials supplier to the
semiconductor industry, announced that it would expand its manufacturing
capacity at its Delivery Systems and Service (DS&S) headquarters in Allentown,
Pennsylvania. To support customer demand and the growth in its DS&S business,
new positions will be created for highly skilled technicians, engineers, quality
control personnel, and manufacturing and support staff.
The timing of the expansion aligns with the 25th
anniversary of manufacturing at the Allentown location. The 31,000-square-foot,
state-of-the-art facility was established in 1992 as the Semiconductor Equipment
Manufacturing Center (SEMC) of Air Products, which Versum Materials spun-off
from in October 2016. The facility will be rebranded Vultee Street as part of
this announcement.
The manufacturing capacity expansion will serve the
semiconductor, LCD and LED markets around the globe with gas and chemical
delivery equipment designed to meet their precise purity and safety
requirements. This investment will increase the production of Versum Materials’
line of GASGUARD ultra-high purity specialty gas equipment and CHEMGUARD
chemical delivery equipment.
Last year, Versum Materials increased capacity at its DS&S
manufacturing location in Ansan, South Korea, where in addition to the
above-mentioned equipment, it produces a line of GASKEEPER specialty gas
equipment designed specifically for the region.
“We are excited about our prospects for growth in the
industry and supporting our valued customers with state-of-the-art, high-purity
equipment. We are enhancing our manufacturing capacity to keep pace with our
customers’ increasing requirements for more flexibility and shorter lead times,”
said Jeff White, vice president and general manager of DS&S.
The company expects the expansion of the Allentown facility
to be complete this spring. A list of open positions can be found on the
company’s career page.
United Microelectronics has started the production of its
self-developed 14nm FinFET technology. The foundry is shipping 14nm wafers to
customers and has achieved yields for the advanced process that is being
utilized for consumer electronic applications.
UMC’s 14nm FinFET technology features 55% higher speed and
twice the gate density over 28nm process technology. The 14nm process also
consumes approximately 50% less power than 28nm.
UMC is producing the 14nm customer ICs at the company’s Fab
12A in Tainan, Taiwan.
McIlvaine Company
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