Business Trends
05/01/2008
An honor to be onboard
Greetings, readers! This is a quick note to let you know I am honored to be joining Solid State Technology as editor-in-chief. After almost 26 years with competitor Semiconductor International, I have switched hats and will now be leading the editorial charge at SST. Barbara Goode remains at PennWell as editor-in-chief of Small Times.
SST has a great editorial history, as I’m sure you know. It was started more than 50 years ago by Sam Marshall, whom I had the honor of meeting, and remember him as a kind man with a big smile.
I’ll be working with a crackerjack team of editors. Bob Haavind, editorial director, will remain very involved, focusing on mission-critical projects, such as our daily coverage of The ConFab this month (www.theconfab.com). I’m also honored to be working with Dr. Marc David Levenson, editor-in-chief of Microlithography World (a sister publication to SST) and one of the industry’s foremost lithography experts.
In the Silicon Valley area, we have two outstanding senior technical editors: Ed Korcynski and Debra Vogler, both of whom have in-depth technical backgrounds and great insight into the semiconductor industry.
Here in the Nashua office, I’m joined by James Montgomery, News Editor, who manages our weekly WaferNEWS newsletter as well as the magazine’s Tech News, World News, and New Products section, and updates our Website, www.solid-state.com (which will soon have an all new look with more functionality, so stay tuned!). And please join me in welcoming Marcy Koff as our new managing editor; she’s a long-time PennWell employee with immeasurable experience. (Julie MacShane remains at PennWell as the managing editor of LEDs magazine and Industrial Laser Solutions.)
Together, we will continue the fine tradition of editorial craftsmanship that you have come to know and trust from SST.
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Sincerely,
Peter Singer
Editor-in-Chief
Solid Sate Technology
[email protected]
603-891-9217
Revised-forecast season starts early this year
Worries about a looming US economic recession and unexpected softness in the memory sector (particularly NAND) are already causing semiconductor watchers to rethink their expectations for the IC industry in 2008, although there’s still debate over when to sound the alarms.
IC Insights argues that the results from Q1 2008 (due in late April, after this magazine went to press) will set the stage for the rest of the year. The firm’s middle ground is 9% growth for the year, with best- and worst-case scenarios of 14% and -3%, respectively, all dictated by how soft 1Q sales turn out to be. If IC sales in Q1 2008 decline by =-9%, look for a negative year.
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Other analyst firms aren’t waiting. In mid-March, Gartner chopped its outlook for 2008 growth nearly in half, to 3.4%, although the full picture for Q1 2008 seems to still be within the seasonal range of normalcy. iSuppli, which cautioned that the real story for 2008 won’t unfold until Q2 2008 results are in, nevertheless has lowered its outlook for overall semiconductor sales to 4% growth this year (versus initial projections of 7.5%), also citing unexpected softness in the NAND sector.
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment increased about 5.7% in 2007, almost entirely due to a spending splurge by Taiwan firms and to a lesser extent Korea, and underpinned by extensive memory investments and the continued ramp of 300mm wafer manufacturing, according to the latest data from SEMI. Other notable trends in SEMI’s data: The total $42.75 billion in capital equipment sales is the second-highest ever, and China’s new equipment market is now approaching that of Europe in terms of size.
Despite several rebuffs, Sumitomo Heavy Industries says it is still interested in acquiring Axcelis Technologies, its partner in a Japanese JV (Sumitomo Eaton Nova), following weeks of unusually public disclosures on both sides. TPG (née Texas Pacific Group) would be a minority owner in the proposed $6-per-share deal. Axcelis has repeatedly said the proposal undervalues the company and is not in the best interests of the company or shareholders.
German firms Q-Cells and Singulus Technologies say they are co-developing a fully automatic tool to apply antireflection coatings onto solar cells, utilizing Q-Cells solar cell manufacturing know-how with Singulus’ coating technology.
The fabless sector accounted for 20% of worldwide semiconductor revenues in 2007, according to the Global Semiconductor Association.
USA
FEI has established an equity position in Imago Scientific Instruments–with an option to purchase the whole company in the future–and will distribute/sell Imago’s LEAP atom probe product line, which FEI says are &ldqou;complementary” to its own TEMs.
Aviza Technologyis restructuring its operations to refocus on &ldqou;core strengths” in sub-45nm ALD, and etch and PVD for 3D-ICs. Cast aside will be the firm’s large batch thermal systems for trench capacitor technology for DRAMs.
ATMI and Ovonyx have agreed to develop chemical vapor deposition (CVD) precursor materials and processes for use in high-volume manufacturing of phase change memory products based on Ovonyx’s technology. The agreement also provides certain cross-licensing of patents and technology between the two companies.
The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory says it has developed a copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cell with a record 19.9% efficiency, close to the level of multicrystalline silicon-based solar cells (~20%).
ASIAFOCUS
Local reports indicate Intel has gained approval from the US government to transfer 65nm silicon process technology to its Dalian, China, chip foundry, slated to start operation in 2010. And anticipation over the new fab has spurred interest from LED makers from Taiwan, with Epistar and Everlight Electronics considering building a joint facility there, according to the Taiwan Economic News.
Hynix Semiconductor appears ready to shave more than a quarter off its planned 2008 spending (down to a total of ~$3.67 billion), with early-year 300mm investments spared but late-year investments now in jeopardy, according to local reports. The company also has signed a deal (and has taken a 10% stake) with Korean fabless firm Fidelix that will help diversify its portfolio and better utilize its 200mm facilities.
Rohm and Haas is selling its 40% equity interest in UP Chemical Co., a specialist in DRAM and high-k gate dielectric precursor technology, turning an initial $3.5 million investment into a $112 million return after 10 years.
Hitachi, now Elpida Memory’s largest stakeholder, has contributed all of its 9.87% stake to a new ¥42.24 billion (~US$420.8 million) retirement benefit trust, booking a ¥21.04 billion ($209.9 million) gain and paving the way for a future sale once market conditions are favorable.
Ushio says it has developed technology for a multifilament halogen lamp heater for use in fabricating films for semiconductors and solar cells, notes the Nikkei Business Daily. The halogen lamp has three filaments instead of one; each can be operated separately for greater control over substrate heating and spacing. Less heating beyond the substrate borders translates into 30% reduced power consumption, the company claims. Evaluation samples will ship starting in May with sales starting in July, priced ~30%-50% higher than normal halogen lamp heaters.
Global No.2 silicon wafer producer Sumco aims to expand production of solar cell wafers by about 5% to 110MW in the current year, without new capital spending, according to the Nikkei Business Daily. That’ll be achieved by ramping to mass production on a large furnace and improving processes for cutting ingots into 150mm ?? 150mm ?? 200µm pieces, according to the paper. The eventual goal is to raise annual production to 1GW by 2015.
Renesas Technology says it will invest about ¥4 billion (~US$40million) to expand capacity for microcontroller production with a new building at its backend process plant in Beijing, China, in a bid to boost the company’s global MCU marketshare to 30%.
Chip test firm King Yuan Electronics Co. (KYEC) is spinning off its memory testing business, which represented about 30% of the company’s ~$452 million in 2007 sales, to narrow the parent company’s focus on logic chip testing operations, according to Taiwan news reports.
Silterra says it has secured a foundry deal to make 0.18µm RF CMOS products for Taiwanese RF IC designer AMIC Communication. The foundry also said its 0.13µm RF CMOS technology is now in pilot production, and has released a 0.18µm-based, 4fF/µm2 stacked metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor.
Powerchip Semiconductor has completed installation of a multimillion-dollar AMHS system from Aquest Systems at its twin 300mm fabs P1 and P2.
A joint effort involving Matsushita and several universities, including Tohoku U., the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Osaka U., and others, claims to have developed a chipmaking technology that uses a type of protein to make high-performance memory chips, notes the Nikkei Business Daily.
EUROFOCUS
Oxford Instruments says it has acquired US-based Technologies and Devices International, a developer of hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) technology and processes, in a bid to expand its offerings for makers of high-brightness LEDs.
Arise Technologies says it is increasing photovoltaic (PV) cell production targets at its facility in Bischofswerda, Germany, by 56% to 560MW by 2010. The company is also expanding a silicon pilot plant in Canada and is seeking to build another to be ready by 2011.
Corrrection
In the April 2008 issue (see World News, p. 14), we incorrectly noted that National Semiconductor is &ldqou;shuttering its 150mm/200mm site in Arlington, TX,” as well as its 150mm fab in Greenock, Scotland. In fact only some toolsets are being closed down (as well as a companywide 200-person layoff), while the company shifts to more 200mm work. SST regrets the error.