World News
05/01/2004
Business trends
VLSI: Global equipment orders show an Asian flavor
Worldwide manufacturers of semiconductor equipment followed up their banner year in 2003 right where they left off, showing "surprisingly strong" sales in the typically slow January period, according to VLSI Research.
Equipment manufacturers posted bookings of $3.49 billion and billings of $2.93 billion in January 2004, compared with $3.18 billion and $2.83 billion in December 2003, and gains of 46% and 32%, respectively, year-on-year. Quarter-on-quarter, double-digit gains were seen in wafer-processing equipment (11.6%) and assembly (18.2%), while test and service fluctuated by 6%.
For ICs, the three-month averages came in slightly less than expected: bookings of $17.09 billion and billings of $12.10 billion, compared with December's results of $17.95 billion and $16.55 billion, but up from $11.50 billion and $9.11 billion in January 2003. The three-month IC B:B ratio was 1.29, higher than December's 1.26 and at a level seen just once since the spring of 2000.
 Worldwide IC book-to-bill ratio. |
Capacity utilization slid to 89.7% at the frontend, with test and assembly down to 89.2% and 86.7%. Although capacities soared above 92% toward the end of 2003, January's marks for the frontend were about even with the year's average.
Taiwan continued to grab market share, with 12% month-on-month growth to 14.6% of global demand. Japan dipped slightly to 27.4%, but still encompasses more than a quarter of the world's equipment orders. Demand in the US, Europe, and Korea dropped off dramatically; the US lost 37% month-on-month to an 11.6% share, plummeting past Korea and nearly level with Europe. Where's the business going? Equipment orders in "other Asia" (including China), which were at 10.4% in December, rocketed to 23.2% in January — that's a 123% market grab in less than five weeks.
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
IBM and Chartered have expanded their 90nm collaboration to include a "cross-foundry design enablement" program to support 90nm chip development. The deal, building upon existing joint development agreements, initially involves incorporating baseline libraries from Virage Logic and and Artisan Components. The two also have added a sourcing agreement for selected 90nm IBM SOI products.
The collaboration creates "a common ecosystem and truly interoperable foundry model," said Mike Rekuc, Chartered's senior VP of worldwide sales and marketing. "We believe it will significantly increase the pool of available IP and design solutions for 90nm and beyond."
Added Mark Templeton, Artisan's president and CEO: "It is truly step forward for the foundry industry and for IC designers to have this type of compatibility and flexibility between suppliers, especially at the leading edge of process technology."
Worldwide IC wafer fab capacity increased to 91.9%, the highest level since 92.8% in 4Q of 2000, with a record 1.37 million 8-in. equivalent wafer starts/week, according to Semiconductor International Capacity Statistics (SICAS). For the most advanced processes (feature sizes <0.16µm), fab utilization reached 98.4%, while installed capacity sequentially increased 7.6%. Only MOS processes with feature sizes between 0.3–0.2µm showed a drop in fab utilization, slipping to 87.8% in 4Q03 from 89.6% in the prior quarter.
USA
Samsung Electronics has joined a trio of chipmakers to focus on development of 65nm and 45nm CMOS logic processes. IBM, Chartered, and Infineon announced last fall their joint efforts on the project, centered at IBM's 300mm Advanced Semiconductor Technology Center in East Fishkill, NY. IBM said it will license 90nm CMOS logic technology for use in Samsung's SoC product line used in high-definition TVs, DVD players, and mobile applications.
Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA, and French substrate provider Soitec have signed a deal to jointly develop germanium-on-insulator (GeOI) and other Ge-based processes for the 45nm node and beyond. The deal will combine Soitec's Smart Cut technology with Applied's Centura RP Epi system. Germanium-based materials offer faster electron flow, which can translate into 3–4× faster transistor switching speeds over silicon.
ASIAFocus
China
Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. reportedly will invest ¥120 billion ($1.1 billion) over the next three years to boost its China operations. The company, which recently announced plans to add a ¥130 billion ($1.21 billion) production facility in Uozu, Japan, aims to more than triple its sales in China by 2006 to ¥1.0 trillion ($9.4 billion).
Shanghai Huahong NEC Electronics Co. plans to boost chip capacity by 25% to 40,000 wafers/month in 2004, and up to 100,000 wafers/month in the next three years, with funding from an upcoming IPO.
Japan
Fujitsu Ltd. is planning to build a new 300mm plant at its existing facility in Tado, Mie prefecture, with production capability of 10,000 wafers/month by spring 2005. The $1.46 billion facility will incorporate 90nm and 65nm process technologies for system chips used in digital consumer electronics.
Renesas Technology Corp. has filed a complaint in Tokyo District Court against Nanya Technology Corp.'s Japan subsidiary, alleging misuse of two memory-related patents. The suit follows a similar complaint Renesas filed in the US in December 2003, alleging the Taiwanese DRAM manufacturer violated seven memory patents.
Former Toshiba Corp. engineer Fujio Masuoka has filed a suit in the Tokyo District Court seeking ¥1 billion ($9.2 million) from his former employer for his contributions toward the creation of flash memory. Earlier this year, the same court awarded the largest-ever amount (¥20 billion) in Japan for patent rights in a dispute over blue LED technology.
Korea
Virage Logic has signed a licensing deal with Korean foundry DongbuAnam Semiconductor for its 130nm CMOS processes, the technology's first commercial IP support. Under the deal, DongbuAnam customers using Virage's 180nm-process memory IP also will be able to use the foundry's 180nm process technology.
The Korean government plans to invest 180 billion won ($153 million) to build a pair of nanotechnology centers over the next five years, according to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy. The plan calls for selection of business partners by May, with implementation of R&D, production, and sales of nanomaterials for commercial use over the next four years.
Intel has established an R&D center in Seoul, South Korea, to work with the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, on development of wireless communications and digital home technologies. South Korea plans to have a total of six R&D centers up and running this year.
Malaysia
Electronics exports grew 13.8% in 2003 to $15.2 billion, and are expected to grow another 23% in 2004, thanks to increased demand for communications gear and computers as well as stabilizing chip ASPs. The Malaysian-American Electronics Industry Group said slow growth through most of the year was capped by a strong 9% jump in the final quarter.
Malaysia reportedly is planning to export the "MM" chip, about 5× smaller than conventional RFID chips, by the end of 2004. The Malaysian government purchased the technology from Japanese semiconductor developer FEC Inc. in September 2003. The chip is being produced by a JV between FEC and Silterra Malaysia.
Singapore
UMCi, the Singapore-based 300mm fab of United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), said it has started volume production with "good wafer yields" of copper interconnect-based chips for FPGA and wireless communications. The company installed back-end-of-line copper equipment in January 2003, with front-end-of-line equipment moved in at the end of 2003.
Taiwan
UMC has agreed to buy the chipmaking unit of Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS) for $321 million. SiS Microelectronics Corp., spun off in December 2003 with a 200mm factory and capital of about $240.5 million, will turn its energies toward IC design for UMC. The acquisition, which is cheaper than building a new fab, answers UMC's need for extra capacity as its utilization nears 100%.
Investments in TFT-LCD will rise 5% in 2004 to top $9.2 billion, overtaking semiconductors as Taiwan's fastest growing and most profitable sector in the next five years, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). Six of the world's 14 production facilities for fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-generation LCD technologies are in Taiwan, but MOEA cautioned that the region faces a growing challenge from China, which has advantages in government resources, labor, and market demand.
EuroFocus
Infineon Technologies AG, Germany, has joined the X Initiative, a semiconductor supply-chain consortium promoting the new X-architecture chip design process, and has successfully fabricated a 130nm test chip. The X-architecture orients a chip's interconnect wires using diagonal pathways in addition to traditional right-angle (Manhattan style) configurations, improving chip performance due to the reduction in wires and vias.
Royal Philips Electronics of The Netherlands and Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial have joined IMEC's sub-45nm CMOS research program. Matsushita and IMEC had been jointly developing high-k gate stacks for the sub-65nm node; Philips is currently working with IMEC for Philips-specific process technologies. Also, German epitaxy-equipment supplier Aixtron AG is partnering with IMEC to develop atomic vapor deposition materials for high-k dielectrics and metal gate stacks on germanium substrates.
A new research consortium aims to study polymer-based electronics with an eye toward integrated consumer electronics. The PolyApply project, spearheaded by France's STMicroelectronics along with 20 partners from European industries and research institutions, aims to develop new materials, devices, and circuits enabling "ambient intelligence" (i.e., integrating sensors, computers, and communications technologies and connecting them via radio frequency).