July 10, 2006 — /BUSINESS WIRE/ — ROUND ROCK, Texas — Toppan Photomasks, Inc. today announced plans to expand its Shanghai facility, adding capacity to produce photomasks used to manufacture semiconductor devices with 180nm design rules, and additional lithography and inspection capacity for 250nm-and-above products.
The expansion, the fourth since the company opened the facility in 1996, will add clean room space and enhanced process, inspection, and repair capabilities to supply current demand and forecasted growth in China’s increasingly vital market. The factory, which has tripled its output since opening, currently produces photomasks for geometries down to 250nm. The fast-track project is expected to make the expanded clean room available in the third quarter of 2006, and to ramp additional capacity and capabilities in the fourth quarter.
“Building on our 10 years of success serving China’s wafer fabs and fabless design companies, this expansion leverages our Shanghai employees’ proven expertise and familiarity with the industry to cement our leadership in that market,” said Dave Murray, president and CEO of Toppan Photomasks. “This expansion, which is prompted by our continued growth in China and our established relationships in the chip industry, also underscores our commitment to invest in capacity and capability according to customer needs.”
Toppan Photomasks foresaw China’s emergence as a major semiconductor producer 10 years ago, and built the Shanghai site in a joint venture with Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT). The facility serves customers in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Wuxi and other cities. It provides the company with unmatched familiarity with the needs of the Chinese semiconductor industry as well as the ability to link customers seamlessly with Toppan’s global network of manufacturing, R&D and customer-support sites.
About Toppan Printing
Founded in 1900, Toppan Printing has branched into seven diverse business fields, including security cards, commercial printing, publications printing, packaging, industrial materials, electronics and optronics. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006, Toppan posted revenues of 1,548.2 Yen billion (more than US$13 billion), an increase of 9.5 percent as compared to the previous fiscal year, and ended the year with approximately 36,000 employees. For more information visit www.toppan.co.jp.
About Toppan Photomasks
Toppan Photomasks, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. a diversified global company with revenue in excess of $13 billion in fiscal 2006. Together with the photomasks business of Toppan Printing, the company forms the world’s premier photomask provider. Utilizing operations within the industry’s most advanced and largest network of manufacturing facilities, Toppan Photomasks offers a comprehensive range of photomask technologies and research and development capabilities to meet the increasingly sophisticated and divergent product-and-service requirements of the global semiconductor industry. Toppan Photomasks is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. For more information visit www.photomask.com.
Contacts
Toppan Photomasks, Inc., Round Rock
Tom Blake, 512-310-6562
[email protected]