Worldwide Highlights
05/01/2002
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
N.A. B-to-B inches up in February
The North American book-to-bill ratio increased in February to 0.87, up from January's final 0.81, according to reports from Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (Semi).
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The three-month average of worldwide bookings in February totaled $712 million; worldwide billings in February equaled $822 million. Worldwide sales of semiconductors totaled $10.01 billion in February, essentially unchanged from January, as sales growth in the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas compensated for a dip in Europe and Japan, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported. VLSI Research reported that worldwide front-end capacity utilization climbed slightly in February. The utilization number hit 70.1%, up slightly from January's 69.5%. VLSI also noted that chip orders and sales improved in February, bringing the worldwide IC book-to-bill ratio to 1.29, up from January's 1.12.
Global tool sales drop 41% in 2001
Worldwide sales of semiconductor equipment totaled $28 billion in 2001, representing a year-over-year decline of 41%, according to a report by Semi. Compiled from data submitted by Semi members and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan, the report shows worldwide billings totaled $28.1 billion in 2001, compared with $47.7 billion posted in 2000.
While every regional market declined in 2001, Japan fared better than other regions, with billings declining 17% in 2001 to $7.6 billion, compared with $9.2 billion in 2000. North America, which remained the largest market for semiconductor equipment, dropped 37% to $8.2 billion, down from $12.9 billion posted the prior year. Europe followed in third place, declining 40% to $3.8 billion, compared to $8.4 billion in 2000.
USA
Conexant Systems Inc., Newport Beach, CA, and a global private equity firm, The Carlyle Group, Washington, DC, have signed a definitive agreement to form a new specialty foundry to manufacture wafers using specialty process technologies such as SiGe BiCMOS. Carlyle will pay Conexant $20 million and will contribute $30 million in cash to the new venture. Conexant will contribute its specialty process technologies and the manufacturing equipment.
Newport Corp., Irvine, CA, has completed its acquisition of Micro Robotics Systems Inc., North Billerica, MA, a manufacturer of assembly and dispensing systems. The purchase price totaled $65 million.
Ashland Specialty Chemical Co., Dublin, OH, a division of Ashland Inc., has been awarded QS 9000 certification at its manufacturing plants that produce wet-process chemicals and photoresist strippers. Additionally, the company's chemical management services operations at Motorola's MOS 9 facility in Scotland received QS 9000 certification.
Genesis Microchip Inc., San Jose, CA, has won an auction in bankruptcy court to acquire for $13.6 million in cash nearly all of the assets of VM Labs Inc., a fabless semiconductor company focused on the DVD market, including all patents, trademarks, and IP. Genesis has also completed the acquisition of Sage Inc., Milpitas, CA, a provider of digital display processors. The closing price totaled some $402 million.
ACM Research Inc., Milpitas, CA, and LSI Logic Corp., Fremont, CA, have signed a joint development agreement, calling for LSI to be the first semiconductor designer and manufacturer to incorporate ACM's stress-free polishing tool into its 90nm copper/low-k technology development program. ACM will provide two field engineers and process technology support for tool installation, process characterization, and development.
Intersil Corp., Irvine, CA, a designer of wireless networking and analog solutions, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Elantec Semiconductor Inc., Milpitas, CA, a designer and manufacturer of analog ICs. The transaction is valued at ~$1.4B.
Teradyne Inc.'s Connection Systems Division, Nashua, NH, has been certified in the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard at its facilities in Nashua and Cavan, Ireland.
Tru-Si Technologies, Sunnyvale, CA, a provider of wafer-thinning processes and applications, has signed a joint development agreement with OSE-USA, San Jose, CA, a provider of IC package assembly and manufacturing services, to develop strong, ultrathin microchip die that can be stacked and interconnected with up to four die/package, with high yields in volume manufacturing.
MKS Instruments Inc., Andover, MA, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tenta Technology Ltd., a privately held company with 40 employees in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Sunnyvale, CA. Tenta is a supplier of modular, computer-based process control systems. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Rockwood Specialties, parent company of Exsil Inc., Prescott, AZ, a supplier of wafer reclaim services, has acquired the business and assets of American Silicon Products Inc. (ASP), Providence, RI. ASP, a subsidiary of SEMX Corp., specializes in providing wafer polishing, refurbishing, and reclaim services.
EKC Technology, a ChemFirst Inc. company of Hayward, CA, has been registered and certified QS9000-compliant at its facilities in Hayward and E. Kilbride, Scotland.
Brooks Automation Inc., Chelmsford, MA, has opened a manufacturing facility in Sylmar, CA, enabling it to assemble a complete product line in a clean environment.
Anorad Corp., a Rockwell Automation business, has broken ground on a new facility on Long Island, NY. It will serve as the company's global corporate headquarters, and will function as Anorad's main US manufacturing and product development location for its precision positioning products and services.
Europe
Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, has concluded talks with Winbond Electronics Corp., and Mosel Vitelic Inc., both of Hsinchu, Taiwan. Infineon has signed a nonbinding MoU with Winbond in which Infineon will license its DRAM trench technology to Winbond and — beginning in 2003 —gain exclusive access to standard DRAM chips using this technology.
Rockwell Automation, Milwaukee, WI, has completed its acquisition of Propack Data GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany, a manufacturer of information systems. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Royal Philips Electronics, Eindhoven, Netherlands, STMicroelectronics, Geneva, Switzerland, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC), Hsinchu, Taiwan, have reached an agreement on a new advanced 90nm CMOS process. The agreement includes the development of CMOS processes to the next technology node at 65nm and beyond. Prototyping of 90nm products is expected to take place in 2H02. The joint development agreement is expected to provide designers with early access to 90nm technology that is quickly transferable to high-volume production by all three companies.
International Rectifier Corp. (IR), El Segundo, CA, has acquired the assets of European Semiconductor Manufacturing and its submicron semiconductor manufacturing facility in Newport, Wales. The $81 million cash acquisition supplements IR's manufacturing operations with some 80,000-ft2 of submicron capacity, as well as experienced engineers and operating staff.
Japan
Selete and Japan's three photomask makers are extending their 70nm F2 lithography development program to include mask inspection tools as well. NEC and Toshiba will join maskmakers Dainippon Printing, Toppan Printing, and HOYA in working with Selete to develop tools by 2003, for development of masks by 2004. They're aiming for detection of 60nm defects, both by comparing patterns on the mask and comparing the mask pattern to the pattern data.
Nippon Sanso says it will locally source production of SDS2 PH3, AsH3, and BF3 gases from ATMI Japan, Takachiho Trading, and Takachiho Chemical to replace the products it now imports from the US. The company targets sales of ~$8 million in three years with increasing demand for use with ion implanters.
 Japan tool orders slid 20% in July to Yen86 billion. |
Asia Pacific
Photronics Inc., Jupiter, FL, plans to expand further into China with a recently approved new company, Photronics Imaging Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., a wholly owned foreign enterprise. Construction of the company's first mega-photomask fab will begin in 2H02, and should be completed in 1Q03.
KLA-Tencor Corp., San Jose, CA, is expanding its infrastructure in China by opening a global support center to serve as an application and service center for the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan.