3Q chip sales up; equipment orders decline in September
12/01/2002
BUSINESS TRENDS
3Q chip sales up; equipment orders decline in September
Worldwide semiconductor sales climbed to $36.9 billion in 3Q02, an 8.2% sequential increase from the $34.1 billion in revenue reached in 2Q02 and a 21% rise from the corresponding period of 2001, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).
In September, global chip sales totalled $12.3 billion, a 3% increase over the $11.9-billion level reached in August.
"The recovery of the semiconductor industry has picked up breadth and strength as the year has progressed," stated SIA President George Scalise. "We achieved solid 8.2% revenue growth in the September quarter, following 5.6% sequential growth in 1Q02 and 5.8% growth in 2Q02, with momentum across major product sectors, including wireless, digital consumer products, PCs, and automotive."
Equipment orders were still down, however. The North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $823 million in orders in
September and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.84, according to the recent Express Report by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).
The bookings figure is 19% below the revised August level of $1.02 billion, yet 34% above the $614 million in orders posted in September 2001.
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In other industry news, VLSI Research Inc.'s September Industry Pulse Pro showed that frontend capacity utilization totaled 90.5%, up from August's 86.7%. That number is projected to rise to 92.4% in October, drop to 90.1% in November, and drop again to 87.2% in December, according to VLSI.
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
The Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC) and International Sematech (ISMT) have awarded a total of $12.85 million to universities thus far in 2002. SRC awarded more than $11.6 million in university research contracts during 1H02, while ISMT provided an additional $1.25 million in matching research funds.
After steadily improving for the last three quarters, silicon wafer area shipments slipped back down again in the September quarter, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), Santa Clara, CA. Total worldwide silicon wafer area shipments were 1263 million in.2 during the quarter ended in September, down roughly 1% from the 1273 million in.2 shipped during the previous quarter. Some materials suppliers have seen sequential declines of 3 to 5% in worldwide wafer starts each month of the quarter, with bigger drops in Taiwan.
USA
Amkor Technology Inc., Chandler, AZ, has signed a technology development alliance and manufacturing services agreement with Agilent Technologies Inc. Under terms of this agreement, Amkor will become Agilent's virtual backend operations and supply chain resource, supplying services including semiconductor package design, wafer bump process qualification, and wafer bump and IC package assembly for ASICs.
Entegris Inc., Chaska, MN, has formalized a nonexclusive open alliance with Tru-Si Technologies in order to support thin silicon wafer handling. Under the agreement, the companies will join forces to provide integrated solutions for semiconductor wafer thinning and stress removal, and advanced techniques for thin wafer handling and transport.
Brooks-PRI Automation Inc., Chelmsford, MA, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the privately held firm Berkeley Process Control Inc., a provider of motion and machine control technologies.
Isonics Corp., Golden, CO, has established an SOI wafer fab in Vancouver, WA. The fab has been designated Isonics Fab 1 and allows the company to produce 90,000 thick-film SOI wafers/yr in 100- and 200mm diameters.
Rudolph Technologies Inc., Flanders, NJ, has completed its all-cash acquisition of privately held ISOA, Richardson, TX, a defect control company, for some $24.2 million. ISOA is a spin-off from Texas Tech University's International Center for Informatics Research.
Metron Technology NV, Burlingame, CA, and FSI International Inc., Minneapolis, MN, have agreed to an early termination of their distribution agreements in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, effective March 1, 2003. Under terms of the transition agreement, Metron will continue to represent FSI products in Israel. m.FSI, a joint venture between FSI and Mitsui & Co., will continue to represent FSI products in Japan.
Europe
Wacker Siltronic, Munich Germany, is expanding its production capacity by adding Fab 300-2 in Freiberg, Saxony. Wacker's line for 300mm wafers will start production in 2004 for worldwide supply. The Freiberg plant currently has 550 employees and production lines for silicon crystals and wafers.
MOSAID Technologies Inc., Ottawa, Canada, has sold its equity stake in ATMOS Corp. to MoSys, as part of MoSys acquiring ATMOS. When the transaction is over, MOSAID will receive a cash payment of some $3.3M.
Lambda Physik AG will invest up to ¤5 million by 2004 in the development of 157nm laser technology for the production of a new generation of more powerful microchips. Up to 38% of the R&D expenses required for this project will be funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
inTEST Corp., Cherry Hill, NJ, has bought privately held German firm Intelogic Technologies GmbH. Terms were not disclosed.
Asia Pacific
Nikon Corp., Tokyo, Japan, has invested $3 million to set up Shanghai Nikon Precision Instruments Co. Ltd. The new company will offer storage, logistics, technical consultation, personnel training, and other semiconductor manufacturing services.
Axcelis Technologies Inc., Beverly, MA, has completed its acquisition of Tritek International's Semiconductor Equipment Division in China. The division will become part of Axcelis Technologies China.
UMC, Taipei, Taiwan, plans to invest $2 billion to expand domestic production capacity over the next four years. The investment would boost production at the company's 300mm plant in Tainan and at five 200mm plants in Hsinchu.
Samsung Electronics, Seoul, Korea, plans to invest US$5 billion next year to expand its manufacturing facilities and to increase its flash memory portion of its memory chip business from 16% this year to 34% in 2005 and 40% in 2010. Also, it plans to expand its 10-in. or larger TFT-LCD market share to >20% to maintain market position.
Hynix Semiconductor, Seoul, Korea, has agreed to sell its flat-screen manufacturing business to China-based BOE Technology Group in a $380 million deal. The Hynix unit, which makes TFT-LCDs for flat-screen televisions, computers, and handsets, was put up for sale as part of the company's long-running efforts to avoid bankruptcy. BOE said it would launch an overseas subsidiary to buy the assets, funded by foreign debt.
Korean toolmaker Silicon Tech Ltd. (STL) will transfer technology to the Chinese government agency AMT Industrialization to produce tracks and testers in Shenyang, China, according to the Korean news website Device Times. STL will get a 20% share of the toolmaking venture. The Chinese agency will supply production equipment for the industrial parks being developed in its region.
AIXTRON, Aachen, Germany, has opened a new office in Shanghai, China, offering comprehensive service, local spare parts supply, and process support for the entire AIXTRON Group's product range.
Japan
Japanese chipmakers NEC and Toshiba Corp. have agreed to jointly develop an energy-efficient MRAM system for laptops and cell phones, according to media reports. The companies will invest a total of 10 billion yen commercializing MRAM. NEC and Toshiba have already set up an R&D team and are aiming to mass-produce 256Mbit MRAM chips by around 2005.
Mitsubishi Electric plans to convert part of its 5-in. wafer fab at Kumamoto to 6-in., which will increase capacity by about 10%, from 65,000 to 70,000 5-in. equivalent wafers/month. Most of the additional production will be of semiconductors for air conditioners.
Sanyo Electric and the Japanese unit of Germany's Leica Microsystems are the latest companies to join Tokyo Seimitsu's Leepl consortium, bringing the total to 28.
Shimadzu says it plans to work with Ryoshin to offer cleanroom and environmental solutions to semiconductor and LCD fabs.
Hitachi High Technologies has shipped its first SIMOX ion implanter for mass production use to the Mitsubishi-Sumitomo Silicon joint venture, Sumco. Hitachi reports the 300mm SOI tool is also being evaluated by a major US chipmaker, and demo tools are installed at several other companies.
New fab doubles Soitec's annual capacity
SOI wafer provider Soitec, Bernin, France, opened its second fab facility, Bernin II, doubling its annual capacity to roughly two million SOI wafers a year (200mm equivalent). Opening ceremonies are shown in the photo. Bernin II includes a 45,000 ft2 Class 1 cleanroom, has a 1.2 million annual capacity, and is a 300mm facility, producing larger-size SOI wafers.
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