SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
May 2017
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Micron to
Establish its Site for DRAM in Taiwan
Versum
Materials Breaks Ground for Research and Development Facility
QuantumClean and ChemTrace Open Sub-10nm Semicon Cleaning Center in Taiwan
Planned
Compound Semiconductor Cluster in Wales
WIN
Semiconductor Increases Wafer Manufacturing Capacity
Micron Technology, Inc., a developer of advanced
semiconductor systems, announced that on March 14 it successfully won the
auction for Cando Corporation assets, which will be utilized in establishing a
back-end site for Micron Taiwan. Micron has now completed the title acquisition
process for the new site.
The acquisition includes the cleanroom and tools that are
adjacent to Micron’s existing Taichung fab, bringing the company’s fabrication
and back-end together in one location. The new site will be focused on
establishing a centralized back-end operation.
“This marks a significant step in our plan to create a
center of excellence for leading-edge DRAM in Taiwan,” said Wayne Allan, VP,
Global Manufacturing. “Bringing fabrication and back end together, all in one
location, builds an efficient support structure for end-to-end manufacturing
with quicker cycle times that benefit our business and customers.”
The new back-end site is expected to begin production in
August, and the new integrated center of excellence is expected to bring greater
operational cost efficiency that will benefit Micron’s DRAM business on a global
scale. These cost efficiencies are part of the overall US$500 million of ongoing
operational enhancement opportunities cited at the company’s 2017 analyst
conference.
The strategic acquisition, with a winning bid of US$89.2
million, also highlights Micron’s goal to grow its presence in Taiwan – where it
is the largest foreign employer and investor – from its current wafer
manufacturing function to a broader center of expertise in the global memory
industry. The back-end site will further enhance the company’s strong presence
on the island, which already includes 300mm wafer fabrication facilities in
Taichung and Taoyuan, as well as sales and technical support offices in Taipei.
The back-end operation will be led by site director Mike
Liang, who joined Micron in November 2016 with more than 35 years of experience
in the semiconductor industry. Having previously served in leadership roles at
Ti-Acer, KYEC and Amkor Taiwan, Liang brings significant expertise in both
front-end wafer fabrication and back-end assembly and test manufacturing.
Versum Materials, Inc., a leading materials supplier to the
semiconductor industry, announced that it has broken ground on a
multimillion-dollar project at its chemical manufacturing site in Hometown,
Pennsylvania. The groundbreaking ceremony took place April 20, 2017, and was
attended by members of the community and local government.
The new facility will house a state-of-the-art research and
development laboratory for new materials used in the manufacture of
semiconductors. Scientists in the facility expect to synthesize and purify new
molecules up to parts per trillion impurity levels using the latest technologies
available in the industry. The researchers will be able to assess the
applications for these new molecules and scale up the molecules to kilogram
quantities for customer evaluation. These new organometallic compounds will be
deposited on semiconductor wafers through various cutting edge technologies for
semiconductor applications. Additionally, the new facility will have
capabilities for small volume manufacturing and advanced analytical and quality
assessment.
Approximately 30 employees, half of which hold advanced
degrees in chemistry or chemical engineering, will be based in the new facility.
The company expects construction to be completed by the end of the year.
This latest expansion is part of a $20 million investment
that Versum has made over the past year at its Hometown campus. It recently
increased production capacity and modified equipment configuration to reduce
manufacturing bottlenecking. Versum’s Hometown manufacturing facility produces a
variety of high purity specialty gases and chemicals for semiconductor
manufacturers around the world, including Tungsten Hexafluoride, WF6. WF6 is
used as a metallization source for the formation of tungsten plug interconnects
between multiple layers in semiconductor devices. It is an important material in
the production of both logic and memory (DRAM and NAND) devices.
“Our Hometown facility continues to play an important role
in our company’s success. This investment will facilitate significant
advancements in the semiconductor industry, which is something the local
community can take pride in,” stated Jim Hart, a senior leader in Versum’s
Global Technology team.
A global leader in technology, quality, safety and
reliability, Versum Materials is one of the world’s leading suppliers of next
generation CMP slurries, ultra-thin dielectric and metal film precursors,
formulated cleans and etching products, and delivery equipment that has
revolutionized the semiconductor industry. Versum Materials has annual sales of
approximately $1 billion, 1,900 employees and 10 major facilities in Asia and
North America. It is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. Prior to its separation on
Oct. 1, 2016, Versum Materials had operated for more than three decades as a
division of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE: APD).
QuantumClean and ChemTrace unveiled what it says is the
world's most advanced semiconductor chamber parts cleaning, coating and
analytical facility in Tainan, Taiwan.
QuantumClean specializes in sub-10nm outsourced process
tool chamber parts cleaning and coating services, tool part life extension and
process tool part optimization solutions to the semiconductor wafer fabrication,
OEM and OPM industries.
The Tainan site offers customers the full spectrum of part
cleaning and recoating capability for all fab processes and is Taiwan's only
cleaning and coating service provider with an embedded microcontamination
laboratory — ChemTrace — with 23 years of expertise in validating part
cleanliness.
ChemTrace is an industry-leading semiconductor laboratory
that provides clients with critical insight into their microcontamination
issues. "Continued expansion of ChemTrace's global footprint with the recent
opening of the state-of-the-art laboratory in Tainan allows regional
semiconductor industry customers direct access to our advanced laboratories for
rapid turnaround and expert analysis", said Surjany Russell, ChemTrace's
Director of Sales.
"This plant is 'Smart, Lean, Clean and Green', a first of
its kind in its industry...,” said Scott Nicholas President and CEO, Quantum
Global Technologies.
"Lean modular layouts provide unprecedented segregation,
capacity and throughput measured in hours not days. High-purity cleaning
technologies yield Atomically Clean Surfaces exceeding requirements for sub-10nm
fab processes. The facility is engineered to significantly reduce water,
chemical and energy usage and waste discharges,” explained Dave Zuck, COO and
CTO, Quantum Global Technologies.
The project is expected to leverage up to £375 million of
private sector investment and create 2,000 high value, high-tech jobs.
The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) Regional Cabinet has
agreed to invest £37.9 million to support the development of a compound
semiconductor industry cluster in south east Wales.
The funding is being made from the Cardiff Capital Region
City Deal’s Wider Investment Fund, and is the first such investment since the
£1.2 billion program was formally signed by the leaders of the ten local
authorities in the region on March 1.
The project is expected to leverage up to £375 million of
private sector investment over the next five years, and the creation of up to
2,000 high value, high-tech jobs, with the potential for hundreds more in the
wider supply chain and cluster development.
A state-of-the art facility will be constructed in the
Cardiff Capital Region to house compound semiconductor applications development
and high volume compound semiconductor manufacturing, greatly helping the
establishment of the world’s first Compound Semiconductor Cluster in the region.
The facility will be owned by the ten councils and the
space leased for compound semiconductor manufacturing and applications
development. Discussions on the location of the site are on-going, but Newport
is the likely location.
The deal seeks to position the region as the global leader
in compound semiconductor enabled applications, which was initiated by an
initial £12 million investment from the Welsh Government.
In 2016, Innovate UK – the UK Government’s innovation
agency – announced it will invest £50million to establish a new Compound
Semiconductor Catapult Centre of Excellence in Wales which will now locate in
the CCR. This new Catapult will build on existing investment by Cardiff
University, IQE plc, and Welsh Government.
The project has been subject to a detailed due diligence
process to provide expert assurance to decision-makers that outputs are
achievable and affordable. Importantly the project is not a grant or a loan – it
is a commercial investment with ownership of the foundry remaining with the ten
councils.
The proposal seeks to return the original investment plus
interest over the life of the project.
Andrew Morgan, leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough
Council, and chair of the CCR City Deal Regional Cabinet, said: “The objective
of these commitments is to create a complete compound semiconductor eco-system
in South Wales to take advantage of the growing prominence of compound
semiconductor technologies.
“This requires the development and integration of a
compound semiconductor supply chain in South Wales, with the economic and social
benefits that will bring. This is the first tangible demonstration of this City
Deal in action – sending a very clear message of a commitment to actions not
words.”
Peter Fox, leader of Monmouthshire County Council (the
Council leading the project) and Anthony Hunt, leader of Torfaen County Borough
Council, who co-leads on CCR City Deal’s business and innovation portfolio,
said: “The benefits of clusters are well understood, with Silicon Valley in the
US being a prime example. Indeed, there are semiconductor clusters across
Europe, namely around Eindhoven, Dresden, Leuven and Grenoble. However, these
are based on silicon technologies, hence this is a unique opportunity for Wales
to establish the world’s first compound semiconductor cluster and establish
ourselves at the forefront of compound semiconductor technology globally.”
Drew Nelson, CEO of IQE PLC said: “We are very impressed to
see that council leaders have the vision to make investments like this. IQE
already has a very strong presence here, and is looking to invest in creating
significant additional production capacity to support the CS cluster over the
next 5 years. Our investment will see the next stage of our growth firmly rooted
in CCR. If this is an example of the bold leadership that the ten Councils are
going to take in the future, then we may truly see South East Wales flourish as
a global high tech region.”
First Minister Carwyn Jones welcomed the deal, saying: “I
am delighted our £12m investment has kick-started the creation of the world’s
first compound semiconductor industry cluster in Newport. This major investment
puts Wales at the cutting edge of this exciting technology, which has the
ability to change the way we live. As well as boosting Wales’ global reputation
as a leader in this field, the new site in Newport will form part of Wales’
growing hi-tech sector, which is expected to create more than 2,000 well paid,
highly skilled jobs.
“Today’s announcement is great news for Wales – and the
first of many new exciting projects set to make a real difference to the economy
of South East Wales and, ultimately, to people’s lives.”
Colin Riordan, vice chancellor of Cardiff University said:
“Compound semiconductors are at the heart of our everyday lives, and are found
in everything from phones and tablets to satellite communications and laser
technologies. The University has invested millions of pounds in partnership with
IQE, and today’s announcement is excellent news for innovation, industry and
enterprise in south Wales and beyond.
“It offers a real opportunity to build Europe's first
compound semiconductor applications cluster and create a world-class powerhouse
to commercialize next generation technologies."
Kevin Crofton, chairman of the Compound Semiconductor
Applications Catapult, said: “We are delighted to be associated with such a bold
venture. It is not often that the opportunity presents to be in at the start of
something with international credentials; we very much feel that about this
project.”
There is detailed work still to conclude but it is hoped
that construction work can start in the early summer 2017.
WIN Semiconductors Corp, the world’s largest pure-play
compound semiconductor foundry, has completed phase 2 expansion at its newest
wafer fab, Fab C. This operation is now fitted with cleanrooms, efficient
process lines and advanced equipment for GaAs MMIC production, epitaxial growth
of compound semiconductors, as well as fabrication and test of optical devices.
Continued build-out of the new manufacturing facility further validates the
pure-play foundry model in the compound semiconductor industry.
Serving customers in mobile PA, WiFi, wireless
infrastructure and optical markets, WIN Semiconductors provides a broad
portfolio of Hetero-junction Bipolar Transistor (HBT), Pseudomorphic High
Electron Mobility Transistor (pHEMT), integrated BiHEMT technology solutions and
optical devices. WIN Semiconductors’ manufacturing services can support most any
application from 50MHz to 150GHz and through light-wave.
“In response to increasing demand across all market
segments, we continue to add manufacturing capacity at our third wafer fab
located in Guishan, Toayuan City, Taiwan. Known as Fab C, the facility now
supports mass production of a wide range of compound semiconductor technologies.
When fully built out, the 706,000 sq. ft. facility will more than double our
capacity,” said Kyle Chen, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of
WIN Semiconductors.
McIlvaine Company
Northfield, IL 60093-2743
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847-784-0012; Fax:
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