September 21, 2007 – Taiwan’s second-tier foundries’ production capacities are overflowing with contracts to fill demand for areas like power MOSFETs and analog chips, and production is likely to remain at full capacity for the next two months, according to the Taiwan Economic News.

Mosel-Vitelic has sold out all 60,000 wafers/month capacity at its 150mm fab to customers for analog and power management chips, and is planning to install a new 200mm line with 10,000 WPM output sometime next year, which will add an estimated $3M/month revenues, the paper noted. Foundry production has contributed about 30% of gross margins, leading to an upbeat outlook on future earnings.

The firm is also getting into the solar-cell business, expected to contribute an estimated $6M to monthly sales, and represented the majority of August’s $24M revenues, the paper noted. Another line is being added to double output to 60 MW/year.

Advanced Microelectronic Products Inc. has added another 5000 WPM output capacity at its 150mm fab to 30,000 WPM. The firm is using two technologies, power MOSET and low-dropout regulator (LDO from main customer Advanced Power Electronics Corp. (which took it over from International Rectifier), for LCD TVs and Wimax servers. Sales in August alone topped a record $4.3M, and orders have swung the firm into the black after 10 consecutive quarterly losses. IR and UMC are reportedly looking to subscribe to the foundry’s next proposed private placement program, the paper added.

Meanwhile, Epsil Technologies Inc., which counts 60% of its business in foundry activity, is running two 125mm lines with combined capacity of 40,000 WPM, and a 150mm line with 25,000 WPM.