SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
UPDATE
February 2019
McIlvaine Company
Intel
Confirms Plans for Oregon Semiconductor Factory
Soitec and Simgui Announce Enhanced Partnership and Increased Production Capacity
Micron
expands U.S. DRAM Manufacturing
Entegris expands Clean
Manufacturing Facility in Malaysia
Intel Confirms Plans for Oregon Semiconductor
Factory
Intel has acknowledged it will soon start building a massive new semiconductor
factory in Hillsboro.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the company told about 50 residents living near
its Ronler Acres campus that it will build a third phase of its massive D1X
manufacturing complex, confirming a newspaper report last month.
Intel also said it plans a new technology building to support the factory with
emergency generators, utilities and additional parking.
Intel was vague on details, including the project’s exact size and timing.
Hillsboro city officials say the chipmaker recently submitted construction
permitting applications but the city has yet to fulfill public records requests
for the documents.
The chipmaker says it plans to start work in Hillsboro sometime in 2019 but
plans remain contingent on unspecified business and economic factors.
The Portland Business Journal reported that the expansion could create 1,750 new
jobs in Hillsboro, a community about 20 miles west of Portland.
“Having additional fab space at-the-ready will help us respond more quickly to
upticks in the market and enables us to reduce our time to increased supply by
up to roughly 60 percent,” Ann B. Kelleher, senior vice president and general
manager of manufacturing and operations at Intel Corporation, said in a news
release. “In the weeks and months ahead, we will be working through discussions
and permitting with local governments and communities. … We will continue
applying our advantages as an integrated device manufacturer to deliver the
world’s best silicon. To do that, we will continue to ensure we have the
necessary global manufacturing footprint and capabilities as our business
expands.”
Soitec and Simgui Announce Enhanced Partnership and Increased Production Capacity
Soitec (Euronext Paris), a designer and manufacturer of innovative semiconductor
materials, and Shanghai Simgui Technology Co., Ltd. (Simgui), a Chinese
silicon-based semiconductor materials company, jointly announced today an
enhanced partnership and an increase in annual production capacity of 200mm
silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers from 180,000 to 360,000 at Simgui’s
manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China, to better serve the growing global
market for RF-SOI in mobile and Power-SOI products.
Since signing their original licensing and technology transfer agreement in May
2014, the companies have achieved high quality standards with Simgui mastering
Soitec’s Smart Cut(TM) proprietary process to deliver world-class RF-SOI and
Power-SOI products. Simgui’s strategic partnership with Soitec allows them to
use the same tools and processes to deliver the same products meeting the same
specifications.
This ramp up in production is a direct result of the close collaboration and
customer focus of both partners to deliver high quality SOI products at high
volume. To further advance this mission,
Simgui and Soitec have redefined their original financial agreement and
specific roles regarding the 200 mm wafers produced by Simgui. Simgui will focus
on SOI wafer manufacturing and Soitec will manage worldwide product resale. To
meet increasing worldwide demand for 200mm SOI in response to the growing market
for RF-SOI used in mobile front-end modules (FEM) and for Power-SOI used in
automotive and consumer electronics, Simgui has invested in their Shanghai
fabrication line to offer customers this increased production capacity. The fab
is production ready, having been qualified by multiple key customers inside and
outside China.
“We are very pleased to continue our long-standing history and manufacturing
partnership with Simgui to secure 200 mm capacity for our customers in markets
where RF-SOI is today a standard for RF FEM for 4G & 5G and Power-SOI shows
strong growth,” said Dr. Bernard Aspar, Soitec’s Executive Vice President,
Communications and Power Business Unit. “Soitec and Simgui are committed to
serve this industry with the right level of capacity and product quality.”
“Through our industrial collaboration with Soitec, Simgui has proven the
robustness and high-volume scalability of Soitec’s Smart Cut technology and we
are pleased to announce this new step in our relationship and increase in
production capacity to serve our existing and future customers,” said Dr.
Jeffrey Wang, Simgui’s Chief Executive Officer. “China has design, wafer
manufacturing and good momentum in the IC industry. We are committed to our
strategic partnership with Soitec to keep advancing SOI as China’s key
differentiator.
Micron expands U.S. DRAM Manufacturing
U.S. memory chip maker Micron Technology announced plans to spend $3 billion
over the next decade to increase memory production at its 300mm wafer fab in
Manassas, Va.
While providing few details about the expansion, Micron said it would create
1,100 new jobs by 2030. The company said the investment is part of its long-term
strategy to invest about 30% of its revenue in capital expenditures.
Micron builds DRAM chips at the Manassas facility, which was originally built in
the late 1990s as a joint venture between IBM and Toshiba called Dominion
Semiconductor. Micron acquired the fab in 2001.
The expansion announcement comes amid a prolonged boom in semiconductor memory
that has persisted for two years. While the market for NAND flash chips is
cooling off amid increased production capacity and higher yields of 3D NAND
chips, analysts forecast that the DRAM market will grow by more than 30% this
year after growing by 76% in 2017.
“Micron’s Manassas site manufactures our long-lifecycle products that are built
using our mature process technologies, and primarily sold into the automotive,
networking and industrial markets,” said Micron President and CEO Sanjay
Mehrotra, in a press statement. “These products support a diverse set of
applications such as industrial automation, drones, the IoT (Internet of Things)
and in-vehicle experience applications for automotive."
Entegris expands Clean
Manufacturing Facility in Malaysia
Entegris Inc. announced the grand opening of its expanded, state-of-the-art
clean manufacturing facility in Kulim, Malaysia. With a $30M USD investment,
Entegris has increased the manufacturing capacity of the Kulim facility by 30%,
ensuring the company is a steadfast partner for the leading semiconductor makers
for years to come.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is having a massive impact on IC manufacturing.
New technologies are requiring an enormous number of chips and a greater
emphasis on the performance and reliability of those chips.
“This new standard calls on solutions that will enable the future of
technology and we are seeing this through the increase in demand for our leading
wafer handling products” said Bertrand Loy, president and CEO, Entegris. “To
meet this surge, we have expanded our Kulim manufacturing capacity and
capabilities, adding new tooling, molding machines, and numerous updates to the
assembly area to create a superior and unparalleled manufacturing facility.”
“This expanded state-of-the-art clean manufacturing facility enables Entegris to
support wafer and reticle handling demand on a global basis for leading nodes
now and into the future,” said Bill Shaner, senior vice president of Advanced
Materials Handling Division, Entegris. “This expansion clearly aligns with the
evolving needs of the industry addressing both the high demand for our
award-winning FOUPs and also the emergent need for Entegris’s ASML-qualified EUV
reticle pods, which are critical for logic makers adopting the most advanced
lithography processes.”
McIlvaine Company
Northfield, IL 60093-2743
Tel:
847-784-0012; Fax:
847-784-0061
E-mail:
editor@mcilvainecompany.com
Web site:
www.mcilvainecompany.com