EuroFocus
11/01/2000
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Siemens plant to reopen
The former Siemens fab at Wallsend in the northeast of England is to reopen. The plant was mothballed in 1998 — after just 18 months in operation — because of the slump in the semiconductor market.
A task force was set up to find a new owner, and Atmel, the chipmaker based in San Jose, CA, will take over the fab, investing $700 million and creating 1500 jobs over the next three years. 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. The company plans immediate installation of steppers required for nonvolatile memory and microcontroller production, with 0.18µm design rules on 200mm wafers.
Atmel is receiving a regional assistance grant to help defray the costs of reopening and staffing the fab. At present, it is not clear whether Atmel will buy or lease the plant from Siemens. One possibility is that it will lease with an option to buy later.
Schlumberger opens center in Italy
Schlumberger Test & Transactions, a subsidiary of Schlumberger Ltd., has opened a Schlumberger Advanced Business Engineering Resources (SABER) technology center in Agrate, Italy. The SABER Technology Center - Italy, which is located near an STMicroelectronics chipmaking facility, is equipped with state-of-the-art tools that include a system-on-a-chip (SOC) test system.
This equipment will support the staff's skills across the complete silicon cycle: design characterization, silicon debug and analysis, production test, interface solutions, and throughput improvement. The area around Agrate, which is close to Milan, is a powerhouse of high-tech development in Italy, with semiconductor, computer, and telecoms companies.
The new center, Schlumberger's fourth in Europe and ninth worldwide, will be particularly helpful to companies that are designing system-on-a-chip devices, such as digital TVs, DVDs, network interfaces, PCs, and peripheral chipsets.
SOITEC, Bernin, France, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer manufacturer, has entered into a development program with Samsung Electronics, Korea. SOITEC will supply Samsung with SOI UNIBOND wafers using SOITEC's proprietary Smart Cut technology. Under terms of the agreement, the companies will perform joint R&D work between their engineering teams in order to expand opportunities in growing and emerging markets for high-speed devices. This agreement takes SOITEC a step further to achieving its goal of expanding the range of applications for its SOI material.
Euro Briefs
Motorola, Stamford, CT, is to spend $30 million to establish a semiconductor R&D center in Scotland, creating as many as 550 jobs over the next five years. The facility, which will form part of the Alba-Campus in Livingston, will focus mainly on embedded software and SOC design technologies.
B.L.E. Laboratory Equipment GmbH, the German designer and manufacturer of equipment for the semiconductor, FPD, and multimedia substrate markets, has completed a second round of funding from three separate investors: Deutsche Venture Capital GmbH, SudVCI, and 3i. Growth of between 70% and 100% per year has led the company to increase the number of employees and to expand facilities in Europe and the US.
Philipp Muller Hager + Elsasser will supply the wastewater treatment and recycling plant for Infineon's new fab in Dresden, Germany. In addition to conventional water treatment processes for the elimination of fluoride and heavy metals, ultrafiltration will be used to treat water from the CMP area.
Wafer suppliers MEMC Electronic Materials, St. Peters, MO, and Wacker Siltronic AG of Germany have entered into a technology cross-license agreement. Wacker will receive a nonexclusive license to produce MEMC's Magic Denuded Zone (MDZ), a patented technology that provides a precipitate-free zone in silicon wafers. Under the agreement, MEMC is granted a nonexclusive license to technology contained in several patents owned by Wacker.
Shareholders of back-end equipment supplier ESEC, Cham, Switzerland, have named Willy Kissling chairman of the board, replacing ESEC founder Karl Nicklaus in the post. Kissling is CEO of Unaxis Holding AG, which holds a majority stake in ESEC. Felix Bagdasarjanz, who took over the CEO duties from Nicklaus in 1999, was also elected to the board, along with Paul Otth, CFO of Unaxis Holding AG; Heinz Kundert, COO of Unaxis Holding AG; Peter Baumgartner, GM of Philips Semiconductors; Jurgen Knorr, chairman of Medea; Cleto de Pedrini, consultant; and Heinrich Fischer, CEO of Saurer. Board member Peter Kupfer has stepped down.
Trikon Technologies, Newport, UK, reports that its Low-k Flowfill, a CVD dielectric solution for gap-fill aluminum, now offers lower k-value performance as low as k = 2.4 for 0.1mm device designs, exceeding ITRS roadmap requirements. Additionally, Trikon's plasma etch system, Omega 201 MORI, has successfully etched 0.1mm diameter, 7:1 aspect ratios. The work, a collaborative effort with International Sematech, was accomplished using a CARL bilayer resist scheme originally developed by Infineon Technologies and Clariant GmbH.