World News

07/11/2011

BUSINESS TRENDS

VLSI tool champs prove customer service matters

VLSI Research's out with its annual "Best supplier" rankings, and there's a tie atop the leaderboard. Nine-time champ Varian Semi. Equip. Assoc. and first-timer Novellus both scored 8.18 in the "large supplier" category of chipmaking equipment. Dicing equipment supplier Disco achieved top rank for the first time among "focused" suppliers.

The study culled feedback from 550+ organizations, spanning more than two months and four languages, rating equipment suppliers on three criteria: equipment performance (seven categories), customer service (four categories), and supplier performance (four categories). Two new categories this year include "Trust in Supplier" and "Partnering," which fall under supplier performance.

Source: VLSI Research, 2011 Customer Satisfaction Survey on Chipmaking Equipment

Winners in this year's rankings maintained an overall average rating of 7.65, a little bit below last year's 7.69, but overall the survey results "show that equipment suppliers continue to serve customers with high levels of satisfaction," noted VLSI chairman/CEO G. Dan Hutcheson, in a statement.

Both Varian and Novellus excelled in customer satisfaction areas, scoring 8.18. Varian???which has been ranked tops across the "10 best" and overall "best" rankings an astonishing 20 times in the survey's 23-year history???received highest ratings in six categories: software, field engineering, spares support, support after sales, technical leadership, and trust in supplier. Novellus, which has climbed up the rankings in recent years, gained top marks in cost of ownership, usable throughput, commitment, and partnering. No. 3 Hitachi High-Tech (7.95) topped results in uptime, build quality, and quality of results.

Source: VLSI Research, 2011 Customer Satisfaction Survey on Chipmaking Equipment

In the "focused" supplier category, first-time winner Disco (8.05 rating) was highest rated in six categories: Build quality, usable throughput, quality of results, product performance, trust in supplier, and partnering. Oerlikon (8.02) leapt from seventh to second, with its PVD tools scoring highest in process support, field engineering, and support after sales. Bonding equipment supplier F&K Delvotec (7.93) stayed in the top 3 with top ranks in cost-of-ownership, spares support, and technical leadership.

Kudos to most improved large suppliers: Hitachi High-Tech (eight place to third, 9% overall rating improvement), ASML (6% improvement), and Novellus (5%). Among "focused" suppliers, Suss MicroTec (9%) and Rite Track (7%) paced the top improvers; Delta Design didn't make the top 10 but jumped 14% from a year ago.

VLSI's ranking breakdowns, by tool category, are below. Some quick summaries:

• Wafer processing: For large suppliers, Varian and Novellus tied, followed by Hitachi High-Tech. For small vendors, Oerlikon held their No.1 spot (8.02 ranking), achieving top marks in nine categories, five of which were >8.0. Nissin Ion Equipment (7.65) held second place with top marks in cost-of-ownership and uptime. Rite Track was third (7.63), doing best in usable throughput, commitment and trust in supplier.


• Assembly: Hitachi High-Tech (8.59) and its die bonders scored highest in 14 out of 15 categories, excelling particularly in customer satisfaction. Disco came in second, with nods to "supplier performance," with F&K Delvotec maintaining third place and top rankings in cost-of-ownership.


• Process diagnostics: Agilent (7.81) scored tops in 12 categories, with >8.0 marks in uptime, usable throughput, quality of results, product performance, and trust in supplier. Hitachi High-Tech moved up to second place with highest scores in build quality. Applied Materials (6.87) leapfrogged to the No.3 spot, its best ever for the process diagnostics segment.


• Test: No changes here???Verigy (7.79) held the top spot for a third consecutive year, with top ratings in 13 categories, followed by Advantest (7.32) and Teradyne (7.00). Teradyne also kept its top marks among ATE suppliers for software.


• Material handling: Advantest (7.67) got the No.1 nod for the first time in this segment, scoring tops in eight categories: software, process support, field engineering, spares support, support after sales, commitment, trust in supplier, and partnering. No.2 Seiko Epson's best ratings were in build quality, product performance, and technical leadership. TEL's prober division held third place thanks to top scores in uptime, usable throughput, and quality of results.

WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS

A cushion in the semiconductor supply chain helped balance out off-line fabs in Japan following the Sendai-area earthquake and tsunami, and 2Q should avoid component shortages as well, says IHS iSuppli???but the disaster could spell the end of just-in-time inventory management.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors slipped 2.2% in April to $24.7B, erasing gains made in March, but seems on pace for the SIA's full-year growth expectations of mid-single-digits.

The top 20 semiconductor firms paced at 11% growth in 1Q11, raking in $54.8B in sales, led by the usual suspects, according to IC Insights.

Fujifilm has joined SEMATECH's EUV resist center at Albany CNSE.

Imec and Cadence say they have developed a design-for-test and automatic test pattern generation technology to more easily test 3D stacked ICs with through-silicon via (TSV) functionality, adding only "negligible" area costs.

Elpida, Powertech, and UMC have finalized their 3D IC partnership

TowerJazz is partnering with Singapore's Institute of Microelectronics (IME) for MEMS, packaging, and ASICs.

AMERICAS

UC/San Diego researchers have developed a phase change memory (PCM) solid-state storage device (SSD) that claims 7?? speed improvement over current SSDs. The project has backing from Micron, BEEcube, and Xilinx.

A June 7 "flash fire" at a "solvent waste treatment room" adjacent to Intel's Fab 22 in Chandler, AZ, injured eight people. Production at nearby Fab 12 was uninterrupted, according to the company.

FSI has won wafer clean tooling orders from FEOL (memory) and BEOL (foundry) customers.

SEMATECH has hired ex-Kovio exec Richard Young to lead its manufacturing operations in Albany, NY.

Building "cumulative headwinds" from consumer skepticism to Japan's recovery are causing semiconductor and display manufacturers to push out near-term orders, according to Applied Materials execs discussing 2Q11 results.

The SRC and UCLA have unveiled process monitors for early die evaluation to prune failed chips.

Researchers from NIST and George Mason U. are studying the optimal characteristics of silicon nanowires and dielectric stacks for charge-trapping memory.

ASIA

China's fabless semiconductor market will see high growth from growing exports, doubling its revenue from 2010 to 2015, says IHS iSuppli.

Samsung has qualified a 28nm low-power process for mobile applications, and added a HKMG variant. It also has ramped 30nm-class DDR3 DRAM modules for "green" IT systems.

Dongbu HiTek is developing BCDMOS foundry iPDKs.

Spansion has picked Intel exec Akinori Kobayashi to lead its Japanese unit.

Taiwan's ProMOS Technologies has sold its subsidiary in Chongqing, China, to China Avic Avionics Equipment for RMB 100M ($15.3M).

EUROPE

The Advanced Mask Technology Center in Dresden, Germany will use a new KLA-Tencor LMS IPR05 reticle pattern placement metrology system for development of advanced reticle technology. X-Fab has released design IP blocks for MEMS accelerometers.

Alchimer has introduced its AquiVantage wet process for interposer, via-last metallization. STMicroelectronics has received $356.8M from Credit Suisse as closure of litigation concerning auction rate securities.

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