World News
04/01/2006
BUSINESS TRENDS
Record wafer demand in 2005 causing supply problems
Worldwide silicon wafer shipments increased for the fourth straight year in 2005, by about 6%, according to the Semi Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG). Wafer revenues grew in 2005 by 8%, slightly ahead of the ~6%-7% rate of the overall IC industry, and finally surpassing levels reached during the 2000 boom.
Silicon wafer area shipments totaled 6654 million sq. inches (MSI) in 2005, up from 6262 MSI in 2004. Shipment growth slowed to about 4% in 4Q05, from high single-digit growth in the previous three quarters, but still 23% higher than the same period a year ago.
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“2005 was a record year for wafer shipments and revenues, with strong growth observed through the second half,” said Reijirou Mori, chairman of Semi SMG and executive advisor to SUMCO Co. Ltd. Supply constraints are a top concern of wafer suppliers heading into 2006-demand for 200mm wafers is exceeding current capacity, he noted-as is tight raw material supply and rising energy costs.
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
USA
Celerity Inc., Milpitas, CA, has purchased Entegris Inc.’s gas delivery business, including recently acquired Mykrolis’s mass flow controllers, vacuum gauges, pressure transducers, and other components, for $15.6 million in cash. Celerity also will assume ownership of a manufacturing facility in Allen, TX, and service centers in Shanghai and Taiwan.
Sigrity Inc., Santa Clara, CA, has acquired technology and assets of Synopsys Inc.’s Encore single and multichip IC package design product line. A new product (with a new name) incorporating the Encore EDA tool and Sigrity’s package design and analysis technologies will be released this quarter.
Thermal processing equipment supplier BTU International Inc., North Billerica, MA, has agreed to acquire Radiant Technology Corp., Fullerton, CA, a supplier of inline near infrared furnaces and dryers primarily used in the solar energy industry, in a cash-and-stock deal worth roughly $2.4 million.
MEMC Electronic Materials Inc., St. Peters, MO, plans to double its polysilicon capacity over the next three years to approximately 8000 metric tons/year, to meet heavy demand from both semiconductor and solar cell industries. The expansion could double the company’s 1Q06 revenue run rate by the end of the decade.
Veeco Instruments Inc., Woodbury, NY, has formed a process equipment group to market its deposition and etch technologies in the data storage and high-brightness LED markets. The company expects to see 15% growth this year for the $225 million unit.
ASIAFOCUS
Citing the “tremendous investment of development resources” needed to meet requirements for leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing, NEC Electronics Corp., Sony Corp., and Toshiba Corp. have combined their plans to jointly develop system LSI process technologies for the 45nm node. NEC’s 45nm work will be shifted to Sony’s Advanced Microelectronics Center in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, targeting commercialization in 2007.
Mentor Graphics Corp. and Japanese industry consortium Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center (STARC) will jointly develop at-speed delay test methodologies for IC designs in order to improve detection of small delay variations during manufacturing test. The work will involve incorporating new technologies into Mentor Graphics’ automated test pattern generation IC test tools.
Renesas Technology Corp., Tokyo, Japan, plans to double its system-in-package (SiP) business to 120 million units by 2007 to increase sales to mobile phone makers, according to the Nikkei Business Daily. The company will add capacity at a subsidiary’s facilities in Hakodate and Yonezawa, Japan, as well as at SiP module subcontractors in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
EUROFOCUS
Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, CA, and European R&D consortium IMEC have formed a joint effort to develop 32nm and 22nm-node copper/low-k interconnect processing technologies. Under the agreement, IMEC will install Applied equipment enabling a variety of processes, including CVD, CMP, electrochemical plating, and barrier/seed deposition using ALD and PVD.
German equipment supplier Steag Hama Tech AG has completed the transfer of 66% ownership from SES Beteiligungs GmbH to Singulus Technologies AG. Five board members have resigned, as well as CEO Stefan Reinick, with no explanation provided by the company. Steag also plans to shut down sales of prerecorded media equipment, determining that it will be unable to maintain the 15% market share it attained in 2005.
In the first achievement under its new “fab lite” business model, Infineon Technologies AG has produced sample 65nm chips for its baseband and RF CMOS single-chip-integration efforts. Samples were produced at both IBM in East Fishkill, NY, and Chartered in Singapore, with volume production scheduled for 4Q06.