BUSINESS TRENDS
04/01/2008
SICAS: Capacity, production slow in 4Q; utilization cracks 90%
Worldwide semiconductor capacity and output both slowed significantly in 4Q07, but for the first time in a year and a half factory utilization rates crept up above the benchmark 90% level. Total IC capacity rose 1.2% vs. 3Q and 12.4% vs. 4Q06 to 2117.9K wafer starts/week (WSPW). Actual wafer starts rose 1.8% Q-Q and 17.6% Y-Y to 1914.5K WSPW, for a utilization of 90.4%, up half a percent from 3Q07. Growth patterns were similar for total semiconductors, with output (1.7%, to 2087.4K WSPW) slightly outpacing capacity (1.3%, to 2321.7K WSPW), with utilization inching up to 89.9%.
Foundries also pulled in the reins in 4Q, with just 1.9% growth in capacity (to 312.5K WSPW) and 1.3% in capacity (to 293.1K WSPW), for a utilization of 93.8%, about half a percent lower than in the prior quarter.
 Fab capacity and wafer starts growth slowed in 4Q, with utilization holidng ~90%. (Source: SICAS) |
After growth in the teens for >2 years, leading-edge chip manufacturing (<120nm MOS) saw capacity growth slow to just 1.7% (1037.5K WSPW) in 4Q, and 3.3% for actual wafer starts (987.5K WSPW). This segment continues to see heavy usage, however (>94% utilization).
One key metric may bode well for equipment suppliers–the 300mm ramp continues to gain steam. Global chipmakers added another 7.7% more 300mm capacity in 4Q (781.9K WSPW in 200mm equivalent) and increased output by 10.4% (to 340.6K WSPW), which tightened utilization rates to a razor-thin 98.0%.
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
KLA-Tencor has agreed to buy ICOS Vision Systems for about €316.9M (US $465M) in cash. For KLAC, the deal provides “a significant presence” in semiconductor packaging inspection, and inroads into growth sectors such as LED lighting and solar.
Synova says it has joined a research alliance led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems to explore how the firm’s water jet-guided laser technology could be used as a manufacturing method to speed processing and improve performance of solar cells.
Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials and IBM have agreed to jointly develop patterning materials and processes to enable implant at and below the 32nm node. The two companies also have signed a pact to develop CMP processes for integrating copper and low-k dielectrics, in order to create copper CMP consumables for 32nm and 22nm device manufacturing.
Carl Zeiss and SEMATECH say they have completed final design for a next-generation photomask registration and overlay metrology system, dubbed “Prove,” that will enable production of advanced photomasks “with substantially improved image placement accuracy,” particularly for double-
patterning technology.
USA
AMD and IBM say they have produced a working 22mm ?? 33mm test chip built with 45nm process technologies using EUV lithography for the first critical layer of metal interconnects, pushing beyond previous EUV efforts that involved “narrow field” portions of the design. Transistor characteristics tested after various device-structure processes (patterning, etch, metal deposition, etc.) were said to be “very consistent” with 193nm immersion-only test chips. The firms plan to add more metal interconnect layers using standard fab processing to test large memory arrays.
In a regulatory filing, Applied Materials indicated it has received a $1.9B contract to supply equipment and services to an unnamed privately held foreign customer for “multiple solar factories.” The deal, centering on AMAT’s Sunfab thin-film tandem junction production equipment, will collectively produce an estimated annual output ~1GW of solar PV modules.
Zygo says it has acquired the assets of Solvision, a Canadian provider of visual inspection equipment. The deal gives Zygo entry into in-line inspection of flip-chip substrates and packaged ICs; Solvision’s Fast Moire Interferometer also offers rapid 3D inspection. Development of the 3D tool and flip-chip substrate equipment will occur in Montreal, while the IC packaging inspection products will continue to be developed and manufactured in Singapore.
SOI implant tool supplier Ibis Technology has hired investment bank BlueLake Partners to help assess strategic alternatives, including a potential partial or full sale, though the company stressed it has not made any decision or a timeline for one.
Credence Systems has sold its diagnostics and characterization business to DCG Systems, an independent company led by Israel Niv, former GM of the business and founder of Optonics, an emission-based optical diagnostics and failure analysis supplier bought by Credence in late 2002. Sale price is “up to $10M” plus another $2.5M subject to unspecified terms, to be paid within three years.
In a move to narrow its focus to homeland security applications, Implant Sciences says it is selling its semiconductor subsidiary, Core Systems. The company’s Web site notes the Sunnyvale, CA, facility houses >20 ion implanters for both high- and medium-current implant, for 2-6 in. bipolar/CMOS, compound semiconductors (including GaAs), MEMS, LEDs, and SOI. A batch of Axcelis MC3 tools for 200mm-300mm work are housed at the unit’s Wakefield, MA facility.
Gigaphoton is expanding its presence in the US with a new subsidiary in Beaverton, OR, slated to open in April. The expansion will replace an existing customer support base nearby, and complement other domestic sites in Fishkill, NY, and Austin, TX.
ASIAFOCUS
China is now the world’s largest market for RFID in terms of dollar value, accounting for $1.9B (38%) of the $4.96B spent globally on RFID in 2007, mostly driven by national ID cards prior to the 2008 Olympics, notes a report by Research and Markets. Once deliveries of these national ID cards abate, China is expected to slip back below the US and probably Japan in terms of value.
Sharp plans to increase the percentage of internally procured solar cell-grade silicon to stabilize supplies, amid a marketplace “scramble” to secure stockpiles of the raw material, notes the Nikkei daily. Sharp slowed production by 16% in 2007 due to “problems with silicon refinement”–thus ceding the top global spot to Q-Cells–and procured <10% of its silicon from inside the group last year. But now the company plans to double that to 20% in FY08, setting aside 500T of silicon from NS Solar Material, a JV with Nippon Steel Materials, and another 500T from its own silicon recycling factory in Toyama.
The Korean government is making another push to promote overseas sales of domestic semiconductor manufacturing equipment, according to local reports. Intel, AMD, and TSMC (and possibly Infineon and Chartered) are among those invited to meet with local suppliers including DI Corp., KC Tech, and Atto. Samsung and Hynix already are involved in a program that has tested 28 types of local manufacturing equipment on their assembly lines, and is evaluating 29 others. Overseas sales of Korean chip manufacturing equipment totaled just 5% ($1.12B) of the nation’s $22.39B worth of chip exports in 2007, and added up to just 14% of tool imports.
Israel Growth Partners Acquisition, a Delaware-incorporated holding company, has acquired a majority (51.3%) stake in Israeli wafer inspection toolmaker Negevtech. For the equipment firm, the deal gives access to IGPAC’s ~$55M in trust, to be used for working capital, sales initiatives, and R&D investments, as well as certain indebtedness and up to ~$11M to objecting IGPAC Class B common stockholders.
The Global Semiconductor Alliance (née Fabless Semiconductor Association) and the India Semiconductor Association have agreed to formally support each other’s activities and tighten ties among their membership rosters.
EUROFOCUS
The French government is buying about €260M (US ~$370M) worth of shares in STMicroelectronics (about €10/share) from Italian stakeholder Finmeccanica, in order to rebalance the French and Italian holdings in the chipmaker and “preserve the independence” of the company. Since France Telecom divested its ST stake in 2005, the ownership balance had shifted to ~10.9% French and 16.6% Italian; it now evens at 13.75%.
Zarlink Semiconductor has sold its analog foundry in Swindon, UK, to a subsidiary of domestic electronics component supplier MHS Electronics–for €1 (~$1.51). The actual terms of the deal indicate Zarlink will pay MHS €2M ($3.0M) to “support restructuring activities,” plus another $3.9M as part of a three-year wafer supply deal, covering about nine months of product orders.
ASMI has rejected another stakeholder’s calls to replace its board members, this time from Fursa Alternative Strategies, which months ago boosted its stake in ASMI to more than 9% in an effort to influence change and facilitate a separation of ASMI’s frontend and backend businesses (the 53% owned ASM Pacific Technology Ltd.).
IMEC says it has achieved a record 24.7% efficiency with a single-junction GaAs solar cell grown epitaxially on a Ge substrate, part of work to develop a hybrid monolithic/mechanically stacked triple-junction solar cell.
UK-based Bede, a provider of X-ray metrology tools, said that it had finally received an offer from a suitor after being first approached last summer. However, Bede said that the offer was below current market value, and the company is again considering “its strategic
options.”
CLARIFICATION
In the February 2008 feature, “High-index materials research key to extending immersion lithography,” the author inadvertently forgot to reference IBM’s Almaden Research Center for the “organic film” containing the discussed nanoparticles at the top of p. 32. A reference should also have been inserted at this point to this article: “R. Sooriyakumaran, et al., ‘High-refractive Index Polymer Platforms for Use with 193nm Immersion Lithography,’ 4th International Symposium on Immersion Lithography, Keystone, CO, 2007.”