World News
06/01/2004
Business trends
Fabless companies keep pace with chipmakers in 2003
Worldwide public fabless revenue rose 16.2% to $24.2 billion in 2003, keeping pace with overall industry growth of 18% and representing 16.6% of total semiconductor industry sales, according to a recent report from the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA).
Qualcomm's CDMA Technologies (QCT) Division led public fabless companies in sales for 4Q03 and for the year, followed by Broadcom and NVidia. Total net income for fabless companies in 2003 was $567 million, more than half of which came from three companies: MediaTek ($143.5 million), SanDisk ($87.8 million), and Xilinx ($69.5 million).
 Top ten fabless companies by 2003 revenue. (Source: FSA) |
US companies accounted for 78% of 2003 total fabless revenue, followed by Taiwan (18%), Europe and Japan (2% each), and China and Canada (0.4% each). Out of 131 public fabless companies worldwide, five Taiwanese companies placed in the top 20: MediaTek (#6, $1.1 billion), VIA Technologies (#11, $598 million), Sunplus Technology (#16, $325 million), NovaTek (#18, $320 million), and Realtek Semiconductor (#20, $272 million). The strong push from Taiwan (and Asia) is due largely to the region's significance on the semiconductor supply chain, said FSA executive director Jodi Shelton.
Another statistic of interest: Worldwide fabless market capitalization reached $133.8 billion, with 21% of all companies having market caps exceeding $1.0 billion.
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
Trikon Technologies Inc., Wales, UK, has completed the Semiconductor Equipment Association's ACTION low-k CVD project, conducted at the Crolles II Alliance facility in France with participants STMicroelectronics, Philips Research, AMD Saxony, and the Technical U. of Chemnitz.
The ACTION project (Advanced CVD Tool for Integration of Organosilicate Nanoporous Films), funded by the European Union, was launched to identify a production-worthy, ultralow-k CVD 200–300mm bridge tool. The project began in May 2002 and was completed in 1Q04.
In the evaluation, Trikon's Planar 300 Orion system achieved k values of 2.4 with extendibility to 2.2, and demonstrated abilities to directly perform CMP on films using both PVD and MOCVD barrier technologies.
Trikon will now focus on fully qualifying the Planar system for 65nm production, according to Peter Sermon, dielectric CVD product marketing manager.
NEC Electronics Corp. has signed a deal with Transmeta Corp. to incorporate its LongRun2 technology, which addresses power consumption and leakage, into NEC's sub-90nm chips. NEC also will take an ownership stake of <2% in Transmeta. The company plans to ship initial chips using Transmeta's technology in 2005 for use in mobile phone handsets.
Winbond Electronics Corp. and Etron Technology Inc. have received "lucrative" orders from Intel and Sharp to bundle their memory chips with multichip-package products in next-generation handsets, according to the China Economic News Service. Under the deal, Winbond will boost production of 1T SRAM chips by 50% this quarter to 15,000 200mm wafers, and to 20,000 wafers in 2Q. Etron will contract with SMIC and PowerChip, which will set aside 10% of 0.13µm capacity at its 300mm fab.
USA
AMD has opened two "automated precision manufacturing" (APM) centers in Austin, TX, and Dresden, Germany. The centers will be used to integrate version 3.0 of AMD's APM technologies into Fab 36, the company's 300mm wafer fab under construction in Dresden. APM automation technologies are used by the company to reduce time-to-yield on new technology and decrease manufacturing costs. AMD added that the $2.4 billion Fab 36 is on schedule, with equipment move-in beginning in late 2004, first silicon in mid-2005, and commercial shipments in 1H06.
International Sematech and the state of Texas have agreed to launch a five-year, $200 million project to accelerate development of next-generation semiconductors, nanotechnology, and related technologies. The Advanced Materials Research Center, in partnership with various local universities, including the U. of Texas system, will target challenges including multiple layering, new insulator materials, and extension of lithography methods, including immersion.
FEI Co. said it has broken the 1Å (0.1nm) image-resolution barrier with a 200kV transmission electron microscope (TEM). The process, which utilizes electron optics developed by FEI and CEOS Co., could enable TEM techniques such as 3D reconstruction with tomography, scanning probe applications, and in situ observation of specimen responses to variations in temperature, stress, or chemical environments.
ASIAFocus
China
STMicroelectronics and South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor are discussing a potential partnership in a 2 trillion won ($1.73 billion) chipmaking plant in China, according to Dow Jones and the Korea Economic Daily. Hynix and STMicro reportedly would each invest $500 million, with the Chinese provincial government contributing the rest. Other reports indicate that Hynix also is planning to build a chip manufacturing plant in Wuxi, but hasn't decided on a site or whether to construct a 200mm or 300mm facility.
TSMC has begun moving equipment into its new facility in Shanghai, proceeding toward a scheduled production date of 4Q04 contingent on approval from the Taiwanese government, according to Dow Jones. TSMC gained initial approval to invest about 6%–7% of the nearly $900 million it had earmarked for the 200mm facility.
Japan
Shin-Etsu Handotai Co., a subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., plans to spend ¥40 billion ($361.2 million) to raise monthly capacity of 300mm wafers by 50% to 300,000 units by the end of 2004, according to local news reports. The increase is part of a ¥90 billion ($812.7 million) expansion plan announced in March 2003.
Seiko Epson Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. plan to merge their liquid-crystal display (LCD) businesses, according to the Japan Corporate News Network. The combined entity, Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corp., 55% owned by Epson, will begin operations in October 2004, manufacturing small and medium-sized TFT-LCDs for mobile phones, digital cameras, and automotive applications. The businesses had combined sales of ¥360 billion ($3.39 billion) in 2003.
NEC Electronics Corp. is expanding 300mm wafer production at the site of its subsidiary NEC Yamagata Ltd. The new ¥5 billion 300mm plant, adjacent to an existing 300mm-wafer fab line with 4000 wafers/.month capacity, will have a total capacity of 10,000 wafers/month when operational. Construction on the new building was scheduled to start in May, with completion slated for December 2004.
Korea
Samsung Electronics Co. plans to invest approximately $1.1 billion on a new 300mm line at its facilities in Giheung, south of Seoul, Dow Jones has reported. Part of the investment is included in Samsung's 2004 capex budget, with the rest to be spent next year. The non-memory chip line, which will utilize 90nm and below process technologies, will be operational in 2H05.
DongbuAnam Semiconductor Inc. has secured a 1.18 trillion won ($1.02 billion) syndicated loan from 14 financial institutions to expand capacity of 200mm wafers from 40,000 wafers/month to 70,000 wafers/month, according to Dow Jones. DongbuAnam also said it plans to boost sales by 60% to 462.2 billion won ($399.1 million) by the end of the year.
Samsung Electronics plans to double production of 300mm wafers to 70,000 units/month by the end of 2004 to meet demand for DRAM chips, according to the Maeil Kungje. The company intends to further boost production to 90,000 wafers/.month in 2005, raising its market share from 35% to 39%. Samsung also reportedly plans to spend 255.2 billion won ($220 million) to build a 13th line for 300mm DRAM and flash production at its Hwaseong facility.
Singapore
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. began moving in equipment to its $3 billion, 300mm Fab 7 facility on March 26. Pilot production at the facility is scheduled to begin in late 3Q04 with an expected capacity of 2000 wafers/month; commercial production is planned by 1Q05. According to Reuters, Chartered's fab would need to achieve between 9000–10,000 wafers/month to break even. Chartered already has one customer in IBM, with which it recently signed a sourcing agreement for 90nm SOI products.
Taiwan
Taiwan's top two foundries posted better sales in the first quarter of 2004, with production lines running at full capacity even during the typically slow post-holiday period. TSMC's 1Q04 revenues were $1.75 billion, just below an all-time high set in 4Q04; UMC, meanwhile, reported first quarter revenues were up 6.8% sequentially. Both foundries credited rising selling prices due to improving economic conditions in the US, which accounts for 75% of TSMC's sales and 20% of UMC's sales.
PowerChip Semiconductor Corp. may achieve the world's largest 12-in. wafer capacity with its plans to boost fab output from 35,000 wafers/month to 45,000 by the end of this year, according to the Taiwan Economic News. The chipmaker is expected to post 2004 earnings of nearly $380 million, the highest in 10 years.
EuroFocus
The European Union is joining the US' fight against China's chip taxes as a third party, according to the Xinhua Financial News. Isabel Ramallo, spokesperson for the EU's Chinese delegation, noted that the EU is not joining as a co-complainant, meaning that it will closely monitor the process rather than taking part in the negotiations. Since the US filed its formal complaint to the WTO on March 18, Taiwan has said it will join the complaint, as has Japan as a third party. The US and China currently are in negotiations over the dispute.
To help support Infineon Technologies AG and Altis Semiconductor, its JV with IBM, the European Union has approved government aid from France and Portugal, according to Dow Jones. France's contribution, worth about €23.6 million ($29 million), will go to an Altis R&D center for memory chips. Portugal's €41.5 million (about $51 million) in aid is for expansion of Infineon subsidiary Technicos-Fabrico de Semiconductores SA's DRAM test and assembly operations.