World News
06/01/2005
BUSINESS TRENDS
Samsung tightens DRAM grip; Hynix climbs to No. 3
The overall DRAM market grew 61% in 2004 to $26.8 billion, in new rankings from IC Insights Inc. Two South Korean companies, Samsung and Hynix, now command almost half (46%) of the marketplace, while only one company each from the US, Japan, and Europe are counted among the top 10 worldwide DRAM producers. Top growth performances in 2004 go to Powerchip and Elpida (the former DRAM businesses of NEC, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi), as each more than doubled sales in the period.
 Top DRAM producers in 2004: sales in US$B and percent market share. (Source: IC Insights Inc.) |
Samsung, which slightly outpaced the overall industry growth at 66%, focused largely on flash memory in 2003, but shifted resources toward DRAM in 2004. As a result, its market share swelled to nearly twice the No. 2 competitor Micron. “The company is well poised for the advent of DDR2-generation DRAM devices and remains a leading provider of other high-density DRAMs as well,” noted the Scottsdale, AZ-based analyst firm.
Also remarkable is the ascension of Hynix, locked in a three-way battle with Micron and Infineon for the market’s No. 2 spot. The company became leaner in 2004, selling off its nonmemory operations into a separate company (MagnaChip) to focus on DRAMs and NAND flash. Hynix’s strong DRAM presence throughout the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, also helped offset duties levied by US and European trade authorities in 2003, stated IC Insights.
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
Worldwide chip sales were $18.1 billion in February, 2% below January figures that were revised upward to be essentially flat with December, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). Year-on-year sales growth in February was 15.8%, slightly off the 18.2% Y-Y increase in January, but still better than projections. “If the current trends continue, our forecast for flat industry sales for 2005 could prove to have been overly cautious,” stated SIA president George Scalise.
Royal Philips Electronics and Penn State U. have jointly developed an advanced MOSFET model that they claim should supplant the currently used CMOS standard compact model for approximating the physical behavior of transistors down to the 65nm node. The new “PSP” model, development of which was supported by SRC, Freescale Semiconductor, LSI Logic, and IBM, takes into account underlying device physics such as gate leakage, gate-induced noise, and quantum mechanical effects, and better describes high-frequency behavior for consideration of RF CMOS circuit designs. Philips and Penn State claim their model can predict transistor behavior for frequencies “well above 50GHz.”
USA
A US District Court in New Jersey has ruled that Infineon Technologies AG’s products do not infringe upon embedded memory claims by Mosaid Technologies Inc., Ottawa, Ontario. Mosaid subsequently filed new litigation in a Texas US District Court against Infineon and three of its US-based affiliates, claiming infringement upon three more patented DRAM technologies.
Development and manufacturing of equipment based on IBM’s C4NP (controlled-collapse chip connection new process) technology is underway at Süss MicroTec AG’s facilities in Waterbury Center, VT, per a joint development deal signed in September 2004. The first C4NP line is scheduled to be installed this year in IBM’s Microelectronics Division at the Hudson Valley Research Park in New York.
ASIAFOCUS
China
Intel Corp. is planning to build a second factory in Chengdu for semiconductor assembly and testing, according to the Wall Street Journal. Spending on the project is estimated at $375-$450 million, with construction slated for later this year and production ramp-up projected for early 2007. Intel’s first Chengdu site is expected to begin production this summer.
Shanghai’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. (SMIC) said it would pay up to $20 million to cover any lawsuits targeting founder and CEO Richard Chang and company directors. The move follows a decision by the Taiwanese government to levy fines of approximately $160,000 against Chang for investing in mainland business while still holding Taiwanese citizenship.
Israel
Directors of Tower Semiconductor have approved the company’s 2005 operating plan, which includes a workforce reduction of approximately 70 employees and other cost-reduction measures. Tower, which reported a loss of $137.8 million in 2004 on sales of $126.1 million, expects to achieve a pretax profit under the new plan.
Japan
Elpida Memory Inc. said it will have ramped to volume production of 90nm DRAM chips at its subsidiary in Hiroshima as of April, according to the Nikkei Business Daily. About 51% of Hiroshima Elpida’s monthly 300mm wafer output (25,000 wafers/month) will be allocated to 90nm DRAMs.
Nippon Systemware Co. (NSW) has launched a chip-fabrication business offering system chip design and testing for startups, with production outsourced to Taiwan’s TSMC and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, among others, according to the Nikkei Business Daily. NSW plans sales of ¥700 million (US$6.5 million) in its first year.
Korea
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is the newest member of the International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), the consortium’s R&D subsidiary targeting manufacturing infrastructure, methods, and standards. ISMI members now account for roughly 50% of the world’s silicon capacity, according to John Schmitz, Sematech’s VP and COO of manufacturing technology.
MagnaChip Semiconductor, the former nonmemory operations of Hynix Semiconductor, has agreed to acquire IC Media Corp. for an undisclosed amount. The Santa Clara, CA-based CMOS image-sensor developer has 90 employees at offices in the US, Taiwan, China, and Japan.
Taiwan
Flash-memory technology provider Silicon Storage Technology Inc. (SST), Sunnyvale, CA, has acquired privately held Taiwanese firm Actrans Systems Inc., a fabless flash memory and EEPROM designer, for $20 million in cash and stock. SST stated Actrans’ split-gate NAND flash technology complements its internal development efforts on high-density data storage flash.
Taiwan’s No. 2 TFT-LCD panelmaker Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. has completed the ¥18.5 billion (US$176.5 million) sale of its 3G LCD subsidiary International Display Technology Inc. to Sony Corp., first announced in January. Sony has indicated it will invest another ¥27 billion ($257.6 million) for equipment and facility upgrades to support mass production of low-temperature polysilicon TFT-LCDs at the site by early 2006.
EUROFOCUS
Crolles2 Alliance partners STMicroelectronics, Royal Philips Electronics, and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. have agreed to widen the scope of their R&D collaboration to provide and support reusable system-on-chip (SoC) intellectual property blocks for SoC designs at the 65nm CMOS node and beyond.
SMSC, Hauppauge, NY, a developer of application-specific semiconductor technologies, has acquired Oasis SiliconSystems Holding AG, Karlsruhe, Germany, for $94 million in cash and stock. Oasis, one of Europe’s largest private fabless semiconductor companies, develops “infotainment” networking technology for automakers and automotive suppliers.