Sept. 6, 2002 – Thailand – The revival of Submicron Technologies, Thailand’s fabrication project, is expected to provide a sharp boost in demand for the high-skilled labor market.

More than 3,000 local engineers and scientists are to be recruited for the project, which collapsed due to heavy debt, but was recently revived after restructuring under the state-owned Thai Asset Management Corp.

Under the deal, some 12 billion baht in debt will be written off. Foreign investors, including Infineon, will inject new funds of $1.2 billion.

Submicron’s 10-year plan calls for total investment of $4 billion in the project.

The debt restructuring deal, expected to be finalized by the end of the year, would result in Submicron being re-launched as B-Square Co., with operations expected to begin by mid-2003, reported the Knight Ridder Tribune.

The company is planning to recruit around 700 to 800 in the first round late this year or early next year. Most are engineers, chemists, physicists, and some are former staff members who are working with both local and overseas firms.

B-Square plan to start test production runs at the Chachoengsao facility with 300mm, 0.11-micron silicon wafer production next year, moving on to 0.09-micron wafers by late 2003.

The firm would have a maximum capacity of 10,000 wafers/week and two to three billion chips/year. Eventually, production would be upgraded to 0.05-micron wafers within the 10-year plan.