World News
02/01/2003
WORLD news
business trends
Global chip sales reached $12.68 billion in November, a 1.3% sequential increase from the $12.51 billion in revenue reported in October. This continues the trend that began in 4Q01, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), San Jose, CA.
November sales are up 19.6% from November 2001 sales of $10.6 billion.
"The November sales of the global chip industry underscores the healthy recovery that has been building momentum throughout this year," stated SIA president George Scalise. "The wireless sector continues to be the strongest single market."
Equipment orders also showed a slight gain. The North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $779 million in orders in November and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.79, according to the November 2002 Express Report by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (Semi).
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The bookings figure is slightly above the revised October level of $775 million, yet 32% above the $589 million in orders posted in November 2001.
In other industry news, VLSI Research Inc.'s November Industry Pulse Pro showed that frontend capacity utilization totaled 82.7%, down from October's revised 85.4%. That number is projected to fall to 80.8% in December, according to VLSI.
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
Results of the Semi Consensus Forecast, which includes input from the association's member equipment manufacturers in the US, Europe, Asia, and Japan, indicate the market for new chip manufacturing, testing, and assembly equipment in 2002 will reach $18.9 billion, 32% below the $28 billion in sales posted in 2001.
Survey respondents expect the market for capital equipment to show a modest recovery beginning next year, growing 15% in 2003 to $21.8 billion and 21% in 2004 to $26.4 billion. The survey also indicates a flattening of the market in 2005, with growth of 4% to $27.5 billion.
After four years of development and beta testing by consortium members and suppliers, International Sematech, Austin, TX, says its industry economic model, presented at the recent Global Economic Symposium in Scottsdale, AZ, is ready for commercialization.
The core of the tool is a cost resource model for the fab, which inputs everything from chemical usage to tool throughput and downtime by process to calculate industry capacity — by wafer size, technology node, and product group — and cost. It also inputs data on product demand, past and future, from Semico, and on technology change, from the ITRS roadmap.
Advisors at participating companies provide consensus for the input of business factors such as the timing of upgrades. An investment module that takes into account how decreasing prices increase demand is also being added.
In other news, Sematech has lost two of its member companies, Europe's STMicroelectronics NV and Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc. Both companies left the consortium at the end of 2002.
The departures leave the consortium with 10 members: AMD, Agere Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Infineon AG, IBM Corp., Intel Corp., Motorola Inc., Philips Semiconductor, Texas Instruments Inc., and TSMC.
USA
Veeco Instruments Inc. and FEI Co. have mutually terminated the merger agreement that they entered into on July 11, 2002. The companies have determined not to proceed with the merger due to the difficult overall market and economic conditions, and the uncertain timing of an industry recovery. Neither party will pay the other any termination fees or expenses.
IBM, East Fishkill, NY, and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Singapore, have agreed to jointly develop 90- and 65nm logic processes for foundry chip production on 300mm wafers, and to work with third-party design tool and open-standard format providers. The agreement also includes a reciprocal manufacturing arrangement.
Also, AMD, Sunnyvale, CA, and IBM have agreed to jointly develop chipmaking technologies for use in future high-performance products based on advanced structures and materials like high-speed SOI transistors, copper interconnects, and improved low-k dielectric insulation. The agreement includes collaboration on 65- and 45nm technologies to be implemented on 300mm wafers.
Credence Systems Corp., Fremont, CA, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Optonics Inc., Mountain View, CA. The acquisition will enable Credence to expand its portfolio of design-to-production test solutions in the areas of advanced silicon debug and characterization and device failure analysis.
The US has started an antidumping investigation into South Korean DRAM makers, complying with complaints from Micron Technology. The investigation — with a view to levying countervailing duties on Korean DRAM makers — is focused on whether Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor received government subsidies not permitted by the World Trade Organization. The Korean government has denied the subsidy allegations.
Transmeta Corp., Santa Clara, CA, has declared its support for a sustained federal law enforcement push to thwart and prosecute an alleged conspiracy to steal computing technology and IP from Transmeta and three other companies. The government's effort has so far yielded a federal grand jury indictment charging two former Transmeta employees with conspiracy to commit economic espionage and related theft of trade secrets consisting primarily of certain innovative microprocessor technologies developed by Transmeta.
AmberWave Systems, Salem, NH, has formed a strategic alliance with Mitsubishi Corp. to introduce strained silicon to Japanese semiconductor manufacturers. Under terms of the multiyear agreement, Mitsubishi will act as AmberWave's exclusive agent in Japan and will work to help the company license its IP to Japanese manufacturers.
Tegal Corp., Petaluma, CA, has completed the first phase of a joint development project with STMicroelectronics, which demonstrates progress in cobalt silicide (CoSi) gate etch and ferroelectric material etch development. The second and final phase of the project, now underway, is aimed at developing additional CoSi and ferroelectric etch processes for new IC requirements.
Tessera Technologies, San Jose, CA, has signed a technology licensing agreement with ROHM Co. Ltd. The ROHM license includes a set of patents covering a range of chip-scale-package types, including devices packaged in face-down, face-up, and system-in-package formats.
DuPont Photomasks will reduce its global work force by approximately 2%, or 30 positions, in Round Rock, TX. The company is integrating the Round Rock-based employees from its commercial production facility with those from its joint venture R&D center, the DPI Reticle Technology Center.
Novellus Systems Inc., San Jose, CA, has completed its acquisition of SpeedFam-IPEC Inc., which will become the Novellus CMP group.
ON Semiconductor Corp., Phoenix, AZ, will eliminate up to 300 jobs or 4% of its work force this year as the company begins its cost-cutting plan. ON said the reductions will take place mostly in manufacturing, general, and administrative functions. It does not intend to make significant reductions in R&D or sales organizations.
Numerical Technologies Inc., San Jose, CA, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea, have signed an agreement for Samsung to license Numerical's phase-shifting technology for producing its SRAM product. Production of the devices is expected to commence in early 2003.
In related news, Synopsys Inc., Mountain View, CA, has signed a definitive agreement with Numerical to acquire all outstanding shares of the company's common stock. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the transaction, which is expected to close during 1Q03.
ASIAFocus
China
National Semiconductor Corp., Santa Clara, CA, has begun construction of its first manufacturing facility in China with groundbreaking ceremonies in Suzhou Industrial Park, the site of the company's planned semiconductor assembly and test facility.
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The new plant will include three buildings with 51,800 m2 of floor space. It is expected to begin operations with about 500 employees in 2004.
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), Shanghai, China, and Elpida Memory Inc. have signed a five-year arrangement. Elpida will use SMIC as a foundry partner to produce its 0.13µm stacked-capacitor DRAM, and SMIC will produce DRAM chips for Elpida beginning this year.
Japan
Tokyo Seimitsu (TSK) will manufacture and market laser-dicing tools this spring using Hamamatsu Photonics technology. TSK will use the Hamamatsu laser module and assemble a complete dicer, which it will sell and service under its own brand. The first version will be for 200mm wafers. TSK aims to sell about 20 of the laser dicers the first year, at $650,000 to $815,000 (¥80–100 million) each, and targets sales of 100 units within three years.
Sekisui Chemical and Semiconductor Process Laboratory (SPL) have jointly developed an atmospheric pressure thermal tool that uses high-density ozone/TEOS for high-quality dielectric films suitable for 90nm processes. A two-chamber model will sell for about $2.4 million (¥300 million). The companies target sales of two units next year, and a $25 million business by 2005.
JEOL (Nippon Denshi) is marketing an e-beam writer for masks for 90nm devices. The company expects to sell five of the $14 million (¥1.7 billion) units the first year of manufacture.
Ebara Technologies is reducing headcount in its semiconductor equipment business by 10%, or 70 of its 700 permanent staff. It has already reduced temporary workers from a high of more than 500 in 2000 down to about 100. It will transfer most of the permanent workers to other parts of the company.
Korea
Hynix Semiconductor Inc., Seoul, is in negotiations with undisclosed buyers to sell its entire 47% stake in its Imagequest unit, which produces computer monitors. Separately, a company spokesman confirmed a local newspaper report that said Hynix is seeking a strategic alliance with STMicroelectronics NV in the flash-memory-chip business.
Malaysia
Flextronics International Ltd., Singapore, has launched a product-testing facility at its Guadalajara, Mexico, industrial park. The technology center provides product analysis and test characterization services.
Taiwan
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.(TSMC), Hsinchu, and Virage Logic have forged an agreement in which Virage Logic will distribute and support TSMC's 150-, 130-, and Nexsys 90nm standard cell and I/O libraries either alone or integrated with its own ASAP memory or STAR memory system embedded memory products. Also, Virage Logic will continue to sell and support its own TSMC process-specific libraries.
EuroFocus
INFICON Holding AG, Zurich, Switzerland, has acquired the privately held company, New Vision Systems, Syracuse, NY. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The company expects the acquisition to be operative in late 2003 or early 2004, depending on the timing of the semiconductor market recovery.
ESEC, Cham, Switzerland, will streamline its corporate structure and focus efforts on R&D, sales, service, and finance. The die attach and wire bonder businesses will be combined into a single unit.
SOPRA SA, Bois Colombes, France, and Sumitomo Heavy Industry, Tokyo, Japan, have signed a worldwide licensing agreement for the manufacture and sale of SOPRA excimer laser technology to be used in industrial laser-annealing systems for making AMLCDs. The license makes SOPRA's VEL1510 high-energy excimer laser technology available for manufacturing low-temperature polysilicon TFTs to be used in the mass production of AMLCD and OLED devices.
Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), Shanghai, China, have signed an agreement to cooperate on the production of DRAM devices. Infineon will transfer its 0.14µm DRAM trench technology to SMIC, with an option for future transfer of its 0.11µm technology. SMIC will manufacture these products exclusively for Infineon at its 200mm plant in Shanghai.
ASML Holding NV, will lay off 22% of its work force as part of a restructuring plan. Half of the job cuts will be at the company's lithography operations. The company plans to exit its track and thermal operations, a business that it acquired in the 2001 takeover of Silicon Valley Group.