World News
02/01/2002
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
Chip sales up in November; equipment lags
Worldwide sales of semiconductors rose to $10.6 billion for the month of November, an increase of 1.6% month-over-month from the $10.44 billion posted in October, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). However small, this marks the second month in a row with sequential growth.
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"Our forecast released in November calls for fourth quarter sales to be 4.7% higher than the third quarter, and with two months of data now in, we are on target to meet that projection," said George Scalise, SIA president. "Personal computers, wireless communications, consumer products, and automotive continue to fuel semiconductor sales and lead the industry out of its year-long recession."
On the equipment side, the North American book-to-bill ratio rose to 0.73 for November, up from October's revised ratio of 0.72, according to the November 2001 Express Report by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International Semi, San Jose, CA.
According to Semi, worldwide bookings in November were $612.3 million, 5% below the revised October level of $647.1 million. Worldwide billings for November 2001 were $842.2 million, some 6% below the revised October level of $896.7 million.
Showing some small signs of hope for the semiconductor industry, VLSI Research, San Jose, CA, reported that worldwide frontend capacity utilization was up for the month, at 72.1% compared to October's 71.5%. VLSI predicts that figure to rise to 72.4% for the month of December.
USA
Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, CA, has acquired the assets of France-based Schlumberger's electron beam wafer inspection business for an undisclosed amount. Schlumberger's Odyssey 300 system, which uses e-beam technology to identify defects, is included in the acquisition.
Micron Technology, Boise, ID, has opened a new R&D facility at its headquarters. The center will focus on the company's transition from 200mm to 300mm and its continued migration to small geometries, including 0.10µm and below. The new fab is also aimed at developing advanced materials and process innovation for use in production processes. The company plans to open a design center in Tokyo, Japan, early this year. Micron hopes the design center will enable it to expand its memory product portfolio.
FeinFocus USA, Stamford, CT, has completed the expansion of its laboratories in Stamford and San Jose, CA. Both locations house labs offering test and inspection services, the company said. FeinFocus uses real-time microfocus x-ray systems for applications in the semiconductor, PCB manufacturing, and electronic component manufacturing.
RF Micro Devices (RFMD), Greensboro, NC, and Hitachi Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, have signed a cross-supplier agreement for GaAs HBT wafer and module design and manufacturing. Under the agreement, Hitachi will design and assemble modules for RFMD's module products, while RFMD will design and supply GaAs HBT semiconductor wafers for Hitachi's module products. Both companies will keep full and independent control of their product planning, development, manufacturing, marketing, and sales activities.
In other RF news, the company has agreed to purchase IBM's GPS development operation. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition provides RF Micro with access to IBM's chip-scale packaging technology, in addition to its GPS technology. As part of the transaction, IBM has agreed to transfer the IP associated with its GPS products to RF Micro Devices.
Photo Science Inc., Torrance, CA, has purchased XYTEX, Harbor City, CA, a high-precision grinding and polishing facility. XYTEX facilities are being moved to Photo Science's manufacturing facility in Torrance. XYTEX president Minas Kazanjian will become manager of wafer services, overseeing production and training.
Cirrus Logic Inc., Austin, TX, and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Singapore, have signed a multiyear manufacturing agreement, which establishes Chartered as a preferred mixed-signal provider for Cirrus Logic. Chartered will supply process solutions to Cirrus Logic ranging from 0.35-0.10µm.
SI Diamond Technology Inc., Austin, TX, through its subsidiary, Field Emission Picture Element Technology Inc. (FEPET), will extend its joint R&D agreement with Futaba Corp. The R&D program consists of the development of a carbon field emission display. The extended collaboration will be executed for six months.
Fujitsu Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, was supposed to have ceased production at its Gresham, OR, facility, Fujitsu Microelectronics Inc., by the end of January, and to have closed the plant and liquidated its assets soon after. Some 670 employees were to be affected. But, according to Takashi Yabu, VP and GM of the Gresham division, all employees were to be offered severance benefits and outplacement services.
Electroglas, San Jose, CA, has joined the Semiconductor Equipment Consortium for Advanced Packaging (SECAP). The company said its inclusion in the organization brings optical inspection of bumped and redistributed wafers, as well as electrical test of these wafers to SECAP's equipment portfolio.
HPL Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, has acquired FabCentric, San Jose, CA. The company hopes to expand its market share in yield optimization solutions by broadening its productivity software solutions to fabs around the world. FabCentric will become a wholly owned subsidiary of HPL.
Tegal Corp., Petaluma, CA, has entered into three joint development partnerships with major Japanese microelectronic firms. All of these efforts target the manufacturing processes needed for next-generation, nonvolatile memory technology. Two of the partnerships will focus on third-generation FeRAM stack etch development efforts. The third is aimed at next-generation MRAM devices.
NEC Corp., Tokyo, Japan, has licensed Ramtron International Corp.'s ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) technology. Ramtron, Colorado Springs, CO, said NEC is the ninth semiconductor firm to license its FRAM technology. Under the multimillion dollar agreement, Ramtron will provide a license for its FRAM technology in exchange for certain fees, milestone payments, and future royalties relating to the license.
Daw Technologies Inc., Salt Lake City, UT, a provider of ultra-clean manufacturing environments, has established a new subsidiary business unit, Daw Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V., in Guadalajara, Mexico. In addition to its core focus on the design, engineering, and installation of cleanroom facilities, Daw Mexico will offer a full range of sustaining facilities services, facilities management and assessment, as well as maintenance.
Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc. (VSEA), Gloucester, MA, and Lam Research Corp., Fremont, CA, have resolved the patent infringement litigation between them. Under the settlement agreement, VSEA has granted a nonexclusive license to Lam under the patents in question. In return, Lam has agreed to pay VSEA $20 million.
Veeco Instruments Inc., Woodbury, NY, and Photronics Inc., Jupiter, FL, have formed a strategic relationship to accelerate the development of advanced manufacturing technologies required to fabricate enhanced reticle and next-generation lithography mask technologies. The companies have agreed to share technology roadmaps as part of the relationship.
EUROPE
ASML Holding N.V., Veldhoven, The Netherlands, sold the defense portion of San Jose, CA-based Tinsley Laboratories Inc. to SSG Precision Optronics Inc., a Wilmington, MA, corporation that specializes in the design, fabrication, and testing of space-based and other high-performance optical subsystems. ASML retained the optics portion of Tinsley. The sale of Tinsley was required as part of the US government's allowance of the sale of the Silicon Valley Group to ASML earlier in 2001.
The National Microelectronics Research Center, Cork, Ireland, has begun the installation of equipment and the upgrading of labs for the nanoscience project funded under the HEA Program for Research in Third-Level Institutions. The focus of a new addition is a Jeol 6000FS electron beam lithography system. The equipment installations and laboratory reconfigurations will be completed over a 16-week program that will run until the end of March.
DuPont Photomasks, Round Rock, TX, has modified its Corbeil-Essonnes, France, facility to include a 7000-ft2 cleanroom. The cleanroom is designed to support the future production of advanced photomasks below 70nm design rules, the company said. The facility is currently being upgraded to include advanced binary and phase-shift mask production capabilities, supporting 130nm design rules and dry etch capabilities.
Philips Analytical, Almelo, The Netherlands, has opened its newest facility in Waterloo, Canada. The 2300-m2 facility is dedicated to compound semiconductors to meet growing demand in the compound/SiGe semiconductor market.
Physik Instrumente has built a new 140,000-ft2 factory in Palm-Bach, Germany. It will provide R&D and manufacturing with more cleanroom capacity and a one-of-a-kind metrology lab for testing and calibrating the company's precision positioning products to subnanometer accuracy.
Infineon Technologies, Munich, Germany, and Japan's Sony Corp. will jointly develop secure ICs for contactless chip card systems. The ICs are intended to be available by the end of 2002. They will be integrated as dual interface chips, which have both contact and contactless interfaces.
STMicroelectronics, Geneva, Switzerland, and Delphi Automotive Systems, Troy, MI, intend to cooperate on the design and development of new smart power IC products for the automotive industry. Those ICs will be manufactured in STM's BCD process, and Delphi will have access to STM's new BCD developments.
IMEC, Leuven, Belgium, is searching for partners in Asia and Japan for joint operations in deep submicron technologies, including lithography, copper metalization, and low- and high-k materials. Current Japanese participants include Sony and Hitachi. IMEC is focusing on five categories: design technology for integrated information and communication systems; semiconductor process technology; silicon technology and device integration; microsystems, components, and packaging; and training.
Philips has chosen DIMES, the Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submicron Technology, to carry out a major research program in high-frequency silicon technology for communications and connectivity. Novel materials, innovative device and passive component structures and their integration concepts, as well as basic rf circuits, are the project targets. DIMES has founded the Philips Associated Center at the institute to host the research. The cooperation includes an extensive funding of researchers, materials, processing, and support staff, and aims at the integration of rf systems on a silicon chip.
JAPAN
Silicon United Manufacturing Corp. (SUMCO), Tokyo, Japan, has lowered its planned output of 300mm wafers at its Imari, Saga Prefecture, plant to 50,000 wafers/month from an original 100,000 wafers/month, citing weak chip demand. SUMCO is equally owned by Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi Materials Corp. SUMCO hopes to boost its monthly output to 100,000 wafers/month by summer.
Manufacturer of in situ endpoint control and metrology solutions Luxtron Corp., Santa Clara, CA, has opened a new office in Tokyo, Japan. The new office has been established as Luxtron Asia Pacific, and will provide technical support for Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and other Pacific Rim countries.
Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (DNS), Kyoto, Japan, has joined IMEC's industrial affiliation program on ultra-clean processing. The program targets the development of ultra-clean technology four to five years ahead of industrial needs, DNS said. The collaboration will focus on the development of next-generation cleaning processes for single-chemistry cleaning, as well as new processes for high-k dielectrics and metal gates. As part of the agreement, DNS will provide IMEC with one of its single-wafer cleaning systems to support the related R&D work. DNS will also send one of its researchers to join the IMEC team for three years.
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FAS Technologies in Dallas, TX, and Hirata Corp. in Tokyo, Japan, have formed a partnership to design and manufacture lithography equipment for the flat panel and semiconductor markets. The companies plan to develop next-generation super-precision microextrusion coating equipment and systems that will be available for shipment within the next 12-16 months. Manufacturing will occur at plants in both Japan and the US.
Entegris, located in Chaska, MN, has opened its Center of Excellence for fluid-handling component assembly, quality control, and testing in Japan. The Center of Excellence — Entegris Techno K.K. — resulted from its acquisition of the Nisso fluid-handling production lines last year. The center will be used to manufacture products that protect and transport critical materials.
Sony Corp., Tokyo, Japan, has opened a semiconductor-mounting technology R&D facility within its chip assembly plant in Oita Prefecture. The facility will develop mounting technology to reduce the size and weight of chips. Sony has set up a special lab at the facility to develop system-in-package technology, and plans to move its semiconductor assembly equipment at the Oita plant to a production subsidiary in Thailand by March.
ASIA PACIFIC
Taiwan-based memory module manufacturer Kingmax Technology plans to set up a packaging and testing plant and a memory module plant on mainland China. Kingmax said that a foreign DRAM plant operator has set up a 200mm wafer fab in Zhejiang province, expected to begin mass production late this year. Kingmax plans to provide back-end business for the wafer plant.
Rogers Corp., Rogers, CT, has opened the manufacturing facility for its newest 50/50 joint venture, Rogers Chang Chun Technologies Co. Ltd., located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The joint venture formed with Chang Chun Plastics Co. Ltd., Taiwan, will manufacture and distribute Rogers R/flex flexible circuit laminates for the Taiwanese marketplace.
Taiwanese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) plans to set up three wafer plants by 2004 in order to increase its production capacity to 85,000 wafers/month. The first plant was established in Shanghai on Nov. 22, 2001; construction of the second plant is scheduled to begin in June, with mass production forecast to begin in 2003. SMIC hopes to venture into the 0.13µm process node in 2003.