Issue



News


11/01/2004







CHINA

The Shanghai Huayi Group and Taiwan's Asia Union Electronic Chemical Corp. have formed a manufacturing joint venture to supply wet chemicals for the local 200mm-300mm chipmaking industry, according to domestic newswire reports. The first phase of the JV involves an investment of $20.5 million.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.'s (SMIC) 300mm fab in Beijing is set to begin production in late 2004, according to the Asia Pulse Businesswire. The foundry, which is SMIC's fourth fab (three 200mm facilities are in Shanghai and Tianjin), is expected to reach production output of 45,000 wafers/month by the end of next year.


JAPAN

Toshiba Corp. plans to expand production capacity at its 200mm facility in Yokkaichi, central Japan, by 7.5% to 107,500 wafers/month by 1H05, to match current demand for flash memory until its new 300mm facility comes online, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Financial investment for the increase already has been factored into the company's ¥154 billion ($1.4 billion) capex budget for this year, according to Reuters.

Fujitsu aims to begin production at its ¥160 billion 300mm/90nm–65nm chipmaking plant in Mie, western Japan, "slightly ahead" of its planned April 2005 start date, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Also aiming for early rampup is Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which plans to double production capacity for plasma-display panels to 80,000 units/month at its new plant in Osaka in December, four months ahead of schedule.

Tokyo Seimitsu Co. plans to build a chipmaking-equipment production facility next to its operations in Hachioji, Tokyo, according to Japanese news reports. The facility, which will produce grinders for polishing silicon wafers and other equipment, is part of a ¥3 billion ($27.6 million) investment in two domestic operations.

Mitsumi Electric Co. has agreed to acquire Renesas Technology Corp.'s 150mm front-end-of-line semiconductor manufacturing operations in Chitose, Japan, for an undisclosed amount. The facility, currently owned by Renesas Northern Japan Semiconductor Inc., has capacity of 14,000 200mm-equivalent wafers/month, using 0.35–2.0µm process technology. Chitose will continue to produce foundry products for Renesas.


TAIWAN

ChipMOS Technologies Inc. has agreed to purchase all of the testing and assembly assets of First International Computer Testing and Assembly Technology Inc. (FICTA), located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan, for $30 million to boost its capacity for assembly/testing memory products to 12 million pieces/month. ChipMOS also plans to move some of the equipment, including wafer testers, final testers, and assembly equipment for memory products, to an overseas facility in order to ramp production there.

Winbond Electronics Corp. has begun construction of its $2.5 billion 300mm fab in the Central Taiwan Science Park in Taichung. Equipment move-in is scheduled to take place by May 2005, with pilot production by 4Q05 of 24,000 wafers/month; mass production of 48,000 wafers/month will begin by 1Q06. The facility initially will incorporate 0.11µm process technology, later shifting to 90nm and below, and will focus on specialty DRAM, flash memory, and MRAM chips.