Leading-edge IC fab investments are multi-billion-dollar risky bets. Insufficient demand for ICs dooms the line to economic failure regardless of the quality of design and manufacturing. Thus, it is a big deal that Austrian-headquartered ams AG—world leader in production of IC sensors, RFID chips, and power-supplies—has announced plans to set up a new silicon wafer manufacturing line in up-state New York.
To date, ams’ leading fabs run 200mm diameter silicon wafers, while the new line that is planned for 2017 will run both 200mm and 300mm diameter. With ~2.4x more chips/wafer, the commitment to a 300mm line is a sign that ams expects a major increase in demand for certain products. The vision for the Internet of Things (IoT) is that ubiquitous “smart objects” will be able to connect and exchange useful information without human direction, and the foundation of smart is sensing combined with decision-making. While other companies provide logic chips to allow for decision making, ams provides chips that can sense the world in various ways.
The investment into Marcy, New York represents a bet that there will be sustained demand for analog and sensor chips to provide much of the “smarts” for the IoT. Thus ams is planning to spend >US$2 billion over the next 20 years on capital purchases, operating expenses, and other investments in the facility. Pete Singer provides all the details in his thorough report.
—E.K.