World News
11/01/2000
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WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
ASML makes $1.6B bid for SVG
In a proposed stock swap deal worth $1.6 billion, Netherlands-based ASM Lithography will buy Silicon Valley Group, the only major US supplier of lithography tools. The acquisition consolidates the litho tool market into three chief players, with the combined ASML-SVG holding the largest market share, followed by Japan litho suppliers Nikon and Canon. ASML also gains SVG's track and thermal divisions, and access to Intel as a customer.
The deal should allow the firms to combine strengths: ASML's high-volume, modular tool production abilities with SVG's knack for early development of next-generation systems. Execution of volume production has been a weak spot for SVG's litho unit. Doug Dunn, ASML's CEO, said the firms will continue to offer their respective 248nm and 193nm tools, but will combine platforms beginning with the 157nm tool generation. An immediate teaming on 157nm and EUV efforts is planned following the deal's closing in 4-6 months, pending regulatory reviews. For 157nm, the choice of optical systems "is the primary issue to be resolved. That decision needs to be made now," said Dunn.
Chips, tool sales soar, say trade groups
Despite recent Wall Street skittishness, chip and semiconductor tool markets remain strong, according to new reports from several trade associations.
In its global billings report for August, the Semiconductor Industry Association said chip sales hit an all-time record high of $18.19 billion, up 52.7% from August 1999. All regions reported year-over-year growth, with Asia Pacific's 60.2% increase leading the way.
Logging a book-to-bill ratio of 1.24, semiconductor equipment orders at North American producers hit $3 billion in August, marking nearly 12 months of steady order increases, said the Semi trade association.
The figure is up 4% from July and a whopping 93% over the $1.57 billion posted in August 1999. Shipments in August reached $2.44 billion, a 3% increase over July's revised figure of $2.37 billion and a 69% increase over August 1999's shipments. All figures are three-month moving averages.
Meanwhile, tool orders from Japanese producers were down to 193.8 billion yen (approximately US$1.8 billion) in July, a 35 billion yen slip from June, but up 85.5% over last year's 104 billion yen, said the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan.
Japan chipmakers team on 0.1-0.07mm device development
Eleven major Japanese semiconductor houses plan to start a five-year, 76 billion yen (about US$702 million) effort to develop process technologies for 0.1-0.07mm system-on-chip devices. Participants include NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Matsushita, Fujitsu, Sharp, Sanyo, Sony, Rohm, and Oki Electric. Work on the project, dubbed Advanced System-on-Chip Acceleration (ASCA), will begin next April, and several of Japan's government-driven consortia will aid the effort.
USA
IBM plans to build its first major 300mm fab in East Fishkill, NY, as part of a $5 billion expansion project. The $2.5 billion fab is expected to start operations in 2H02 and will use copper, low-k, and silicon-on-insulator processes — three key areas where IBM has been a leader. IBM will spend another $2.5 billion to expand fab capacity in Burlington, VT, Yasu, Japan, and at Altis Semiconductor, its France-based joint venture with Infineon Technologies. The chipmaker also plans to expand organic and ceramic chip packaging operations worldwide.
Gas instrument supplier MKS Instruments, Andover, MA, is planning to merge with Applied Science and Technology (ASTeX), Wilmington, MA, but an ASTeX shareholder is opposing the $300 million deal. The shareholder has filed a suit against ASTeX in an effort to thwart the merger. MKS also has acquired DIP, Riverside, CA. The privately held DIP makes digital control network products. The deals follow three other acquisitions by MKS this year.
Mattson Technology's pending acquisition of CFM Technologies, Exton, PA, and the semiconductor equipment division of STEAG Electronic Systems, Essen, Germany, has cleared all governmental antitrust notification and approval requirements. STEAG also has received approvals from the German Federal Cartel Office. The deal, valued at $500 million, is scheduled to close in early January 2001, following stockholder approvals and other customary closing conditions.
TriQuint Semiconductor, Hillsboro, OR, has completed its $87 million purchase of Micron Technology's fab in Richardson, TX. TriQuint's first goal is to install new 6-in. gallium arsenide wafer fabrication lines into the 132,500 ft2 facility.
3M, Austin, TX, has acquired W. L. Gore and Associates' high-density IC package business. Under the transaction, Gore's 300-plus person business unit will become part of 3M's Electronic Products Division. The business will continue to operate from Eau Claire, WI.
GaSonics International, San Jose, CA, has completed its acquisition of photoresist removal tool supplier Gamma Precision Technology (GPT), Fremont, CA. GaSonics will issue approximately 656,000 common shares and pay $21.5 million in cash in exchange for all outstanding GPT common stock, preferred stock, warrants, and vested options.
Newport Corp., Irvine, CA, has acquired Unique Equipment Company, Chandler, AZ, a systems integrator specializing in robotics for the fiber optics and semiconductor industries. Newport will incorporate Unique's expertise in systems design and process problem-solving to enhance its assembly and test automation and materials handling solutions.
In a deal valued at $128 million, Numerical Technologies, San Jose, CA, is acquiring Cadabra Design Automation, Santa Clara, CA. Cadabra will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Numerical. The acquisition is expected to close by 1Q01, if not earlier.
AMD, Sunnyvale, CA, will supply flash memory to Hewlett-Packard under a new three-year agreement between the firms. The flash memory will support a broad range of HP's products, including inkjet printers and various print servers.
Microsemi Corp., Santa Ana, CA, has begun a $5 million expansion of its Linfinity Microelectronics fab in Garden Grove, CA, where it is installing a new high-volume, 4-in. GaAs line. The project is scheduled for completion by August 2001. The facility will give Microsemi the capacity to drive an estimated $75 million to $100 million in compound semiconductor revenues.
In a stock swap deal, Cypress Semiconductor, San Jose, CA, will acquire Silicon Light Machines, Sunnyvale, CA, a supplier of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. SLM will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Cypress.
EKC Technology, Hayward, CA, has launched production of EKC220, a new residue remover that allows a more efficient use of hydroxylamine free base (HAFB), a key ingredient in many widely used residue removers. EKC220 is a "plug and play" substitute for other HAFB-containing residue removers in the EKC product line. EKC introduced the product to address the worldwide HAFB shortage caused by an explosion at Japan's Nisshin Chemical hydroxylamine plant in June.
Under a contract with International Sematech, the Knights Technology division of Electroglas, San Jose, CA, will develop an advanced software tool for locating the physical origins of faults in integrated random-logic circuits. Texas A&M University's computer science department, Texas Instruments, and International Sematech's yield management tools program will take part in the work.
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Lambda Physik, Fort Lauderdale, FL, has begun shipping its ultra-line-narrowed 193nm excimer laser, the NovaLine A2005 (right), for high NA 193nm step & scan systems. The laser has 2kHz repetition rate and 10W output power; it provides the lowest bandwidth specified of less than 0.35pm, FWHM.
Under a joint development agreement, research and IP development firm Microelectronics Assembly Innovations Inc., Aptos, CA, will provide Integrated Packaging Assembly Corp., San Jose, CA, with a new process that allows flip chip assembly by direct attachment and without any need for bumps or underfill. Sample device packages will be available this month.
Europe
Atmel Corp., San Jose, CA, has agreed to take over Siemens AG's shuttered fab in North Tyneside, England, and says it will invest $700 million there over the next three years.
Under an agreement between the firms, Atmel has acquired the fab and some equipment from Siemens. The deal includes a purchasing pact under which Siemens will buy $1.5 billion of products from Atmel over the next four years. Atmel expects first test silicon by early 2001, with first production by June 2001 and maximum capacity by early 2003.
Atmel plans to install steppers required for nonvolatile memory and microcontroller production of 0.18mm, 8-in. wafers immediately. Siemens closed the North Tyneside facility in 1998, less than two years after it began operations.
Alliance Semiconductor, Santa Clara, CA, will invest $75 million in Tower Semiconductor, Migdal Ha'emek, Israel, as part of Tower's plan to build a new fab. Alliance will receive equity, representation on Tower's board of directors, and committed production capacity in the new fab. Tower inked a similar agreement with SanDisk Corp., also for $75 million.
STMicroelectronics, Geneva, Switzerland, has completed its acquisition of Waferscale Integration, Fremont, CA. Waferscale will continue to operate from Silicon Valley, but will function as a business unit of STMicro-electronics' memory products group.
Universal Display Corp., Princeton, NJ, and Germany's Aixtron AG will jointly develop organic LED production equipment that uses an organic vapor phase deposition process (OPVD). As part of the deal, UDC has granted an exclusive worldwide license to Aixtron for the OPVD process. The firms plan to demonstrate a pre-production system next year.
Taiwan
With production capacity remaining full, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. says sales will increase to NT$164.9 billion (about US$5 billion) by fiscal year's end in December, marking a 125.4% increase over 1999 revenues. Net income is forecast to reach NT$64.02 billion for the year. TSMC's production capacity has been fully utilized since January, and the foundry is planning a number of expansions to meet expected growth in demand. By 2010, the company expects to account for some 25% of global wafer output.
The American Fine Wire business unit of Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Willow Grove, PA, is opening a bonding wire manufacturing site in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Gold wire production will begin in December. The company has invested more than US$1 million in wire drawing and laboratory equipment.
Tosoh, Tokyo, will build a $14 million plant in Taiwan to manufacture quartz silica products such as wafer boats, photomasks, and a wide variety of jigs for the Taiwan semiconductor industry. Tosoh Quartz Taiwan — established in Taiwan last year for new plant planning — will be responsible for the construction and operation. Construction of the plant is to be completed in May.
AsiaPacific
Korea's Samsung Electronics has reportedly started construction of its first 300mm fab — Fab 11. The fab will have both 200mm and 300mm lines. Samsung will start processing 300mm wafers in 2H01 with an initial production capacity of 5000 wafers/month. The fab will process 256Mb and 512Mb DRAMs with 0.15mm design rules.
Singapore's Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Company, the 200mm joint venture fab between Philips Semiconductors, TSMC, and EDBI, has achieved its first yielding silicon, 90 days after installing the first process equipment and 15 months after fab construction began.
The Malaysian 1st Silicon 200mm fab has begun its first silicon engineering runs. Full product qualification is scheduled for completion by year's end, say company officials.
Following nine months of negotiations with Pohang Iron & Steel Co. Ltd., wafer supplier MEMC Electronic Materials, St. Peters, MO, has agreed to take a majority stake in its Korean joint venture MEMC Korea Co. (MKC) (formerly POSCO Huls Co.). As a result, MEMC will hold 80% ownership in MKC, up from 40%. Under terms of the agreement, MEMC is purchasing Pohang's shares for $68 million. MKC was formed in 1990 by POSCO, MEMC, and Samsung, which owns a 20% stake in the company.
Japan
NEC, Tokyo, added another 55 billion yen (about US$508 million) to its semiconductor capital spending budget in the first half of FY00. The company now will spend 490 billion yen. The increase is due to ongoing demand in cellular phones and PCs, as well as production increases of memories and SOCs. Meanwhile, NEC's spending on LCD production for the same period decreased by 5 billion yen to 80 billion yen, a result of LCD price drops.
Sony Corp.'s semiconductor manufacturing division, Sony Semiconductor Co., Tokyo, has raised its capital spending plan for this year to 95 billion yen, up from an earlier plan of 60 billion yen (about US$559 million). A portion of the funds will be divided between phase one of the company's 200mm system LSI line for digital audio-visual products and on Fab 2 at Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), now under construction at Sony Nagasaki Corp.
Some 10 billion yen of Sony's 35 billion yen increase will be used to build a 300mm LCD/CCD fab in Kumamoto, Kyushu Island. Work was scheduled to begin this month. Sony's total investment in the fab — located in the Kumamoto Technology Park #2 — through 2005 will be 100 billion yen (US$936 million). The fab will be operational in about a year using a combination of several minilines, each with a capacity of 3000 wafers/month. Major 300mm tool suppliers will be asked to modify wafer-position checking sensors inside equipment so that they are adequately sensitive to transparent quartz wafers as well as non-transparent silicon wafers.
Toshiba, Tokyo, has increased semiconductor capital spending to 170 billion yen, up 40 billion yen (US$374 million) for the current fiscal year. With the investment, Toshiba will expand flash memory and system LSI production for DVD players, cellular phones, and digital TV applications.
Toshiba also is establishing a new semiconductor testing, assembly, and packaging firm with Amkor Technology, Chandler, AZ. The new firm will be capitalized with 450 million yen (US$4.2 million). Toshiba will own 40% of the new firm; Amkor will own the remaining 60%. Sources indicate that the firm will become Amkor's wholly owned subsidiary within three years.
A new ArF excimer laser joint venture of Ushio and Komatsu, both of Tokyo, Japan, has started operations. Named Gigaphoton, the joint venture is capitalized at $18.7 million with some 180 employees. Ushio and Komatsu own it equally. The new firm expects to ship the ArF laser early next year, six months earlier than its initial plan to target a 50% share in the world market.
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Canon plans to begin large-scale commercial manufacturing of its second-generation 200mm/300mm ArF excimer laser scanner next year. A 300mm-capable first generation ArF tool has been working at Selete since late last year. Canon will produce the new scanner at its Utsunomiya Optical Factory in Japan, where the company invested another 10 billion yen (about US$100 million) to increase its manufacturing capability for litho steppers and scanners, and mirror projection aligners. This amount brings Canon's total investment in this area to 26 billion yen, and will allow 500-unit annual output by the third quarter of 2001.
In addition, to support expected strong demand for its ArF excimer laser scanners Canon is building a $40 million plant to increase its supply of calcium fluoride lens material.
Kilby shares 2000 Nobel Physics Prize
Texas Instruments' Jack Kilby and two other scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Physics for laying the foundation of modern information technology, said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Kilby, born in 1923, won the award for his part in the invention of ICs.
The late Robert Noyce shares credit with Kilby for the IC invention. Kilby, however, shares the Nobel honor with Russia's Zhores Alferov of A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute and fellow American Herbert Kroemer of the University of California at Santa Barbara, who together take their half of the Prize for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed devices and optoelectronics. This year's award is worth nearly $1 million.
Oh, the irony:
Bigger interconnects coming
Japan's chip engineers say larger interconnects — on the 10mm scale — may be key to improving semiconductor performance in the future. Asia Focus, p. 56, explains how these "super connects" will bridge the gap between the chip and packaging worlds, forging a new generation of faster, cheaper, and less power-hungry devices.
Investment Briefs
Amtech Systems, Tempe, AZ, has completed a $5 million private placement of common stock and common stock purchase warrants. Net proceeds will be used to bring a new asher technology to market by 2002.
Offering 3.9 million shares, laser source supplier Lambda Physik AG, has gone public on the Neuer Market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Proceeds, which totaled more than 100 million euros (about US$117 million), will be used to fund growth and research new applications of extreme UV light sources and the next generation of light sources. On the first day of trading, Lambda had a market value of roughly 808 million euros (about US$693 million.)
Unaxis, Zurich, plans to take its Inficon instruments division public on the mainboard of the SWX Swiss Exchange by the end of the year. Unaxis said the move is in line with its strategic focus; as a public company, Inficon will be able to pursue entreprenurial efforts "more swiftly and directly," Unaxis said.
Taiwan foundry UMC raised US$1.3 billion with its first public offering of shares. In the IPO, UMC issued 90 million American Depository Shares (ADS) on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "UMC."
Chip scale packaging technology developer Tessera, San Jose, CA, is planning to go public with a $100 million stock offering, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company filed for NASDAQ listing under the symbol "TSRA." Proceeds will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.