World News
10/01/2000
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
Book-to-bill drops, but shipments and bookings rise
North American manufacturers of semiconductor equipment logged record shipments and bookings for the month of July but Semi (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) reported that the book-to-bill ratio hit a six-month low at 1.23 (see figure).
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Shipments in July reached $2.4 billion, a five percent increase over June's revised figure of $2.3 billion and a 73% increase over July 1999's shipments of $1.4 billion. Additionally, Semi reported that July's shipments were 45% higher than the previous peak cycle of $1.6 billion logged in November 1997.
Bookings for the month were $2.9 billion, an increase of 2.5% above the $2.86 billion from June and a 91% hike over the $1.5 billion posted in July 1999.
"A review of the historical data shows that in six of the last nine years, the industry has typically seen bookings drop in July. The momentum of the current cycle, however, has been strong enough to keep orders edging upward," said Elizabeth Schumann, director of industry research and statistics for Semi.
"The fundamentals of the semiconductor industry remain strong, with continued demand for chips driving the move to add capacity and adopt new manufacturing technologies."
Figures are 3-month moving averages.
Worldwide semi sales hit $16.6B, says SIA
Increasing demand for cell phones and personal computers fueled worldwide sales of semiconductors to $16.6 billion for the month of June, marking an increase of 48.1% from June 1999, said the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), San Jose, CA.
"June's numbers exceeded our expectations and affirm our forecast for a strong 2000. These record-high numbers reflect the growth in the Internet infrastructure and wireless communications markets," said George Scalise, president of the SIA.
Product sectors that experienced noteworthy year-to-year growth in June included flash memory with 167% growth, field-programmable logic devices with 106% growth, DRAMs with 75% growth and DSPs with 51%. The majority of these products are used to manufacture cell phones, personal computers, and handheld devices.
Semiconductor sales continued to rise in all regions. Sales in the Americas region were $5.23 billion (a 42.7% increase) and the Asia-Pacific region recorded $4.26 billion (a 52.8% increase). The SIA Global Sales Report is a three-month moving average of sales activity.
USA
Vitesse Semiconductor, Camarillo, CA, has completed the acquisition of certain assets of Philips Semiconductors' WAN product line. Vitesse spent $30 million cash for the assets, which is being called a pooling of interests. Philips' WAN line designs, develops, and markets products for WAN access and aggregation. Included in the deal are an HDLC controller product, a T1/e1/J1 aggregation product, as well as related products under development.
Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Hercules, CA, has completed the sale of its semiconductor measurements business to Accent Semiconductor Technologies Inc., Mountain View, CA. The terms of the agreement included $27 million in cash, $8 million in a subordinated note, and 18% interest in Accent. Bio-Rad said it chose to sell its semiconductor business to focus more closely on its healthcare and life science markets.
Norton Company, Worcester, MA, a subsidiary of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, will acquire Chemfab Corp., Merrimack, NH. The transaction is valued at approximately $136 million for Chemfab's outstanding shares and approximately $5 million to extinguish outstanding options. Also, Norton will assume Chemfab's net financial debt, which was ~$30 million as of June 30.
TEL (Tokyo Electron Limited), Tokyo, Japan, has purchased an equity position in Yield Dynamics, Santa Clara, CA. The companies also have established a partnership to further develop Yield Dynamics' APC software. In January, TEL began distributing Yield Dynamics' software in Japan.
IBM's silicon germanium (SiGe) technology will fuel high performance microchips that Sierra Monolithics Inc. (SMI) is developing for optical networking equipment. Under this agreement, SMI intends to design chips for 10 and 40 Gbit optical communications gear using IBM's current and next-generation SiGe technology. IBM will make the chips at its Burlington, VT facility.
Truly-Planar Systems Inc., Beaverton, OH, and Truly Semiconductors, a wholly owned subsidiary of Truly International Holdings Limited, Hong Kong, China, have inked an agreement that offers Planar new market opportunities in North America and China. The agreement gives Planar offshore manufacturing capabilities of LCD products at Truly's mainland China plant.
With a total of $700 million to be invested, Lucent Technologies' Microelectronics Group, Allentown, PA, and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Singapore, have entered into a five-year joint development agreement to manufacture faster ICs. The two companies plan to develop semiconductors that target communications applications. The two companies will staff a new Bell Labs R&D team that will work on developing the new technology at Chartered's Woodlands campus in Singapore. The two companies are also investigating the possibility of establishing a development lab in Singapore for 300mm wafers.
Atmel, San Jose, CA, and the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola, Phoenix, AZ, have entered into a licensing agreement that will enable the companies to supply radio frequency (RF) BiCMOS chips. Motorola will now share its BiCMOS technology with Atmel, which will enable the company to provide wireless OEMs with products designed in a process that is mask-compatible with Motorola's advanced 0.35mm RF BiCMOS technology.
FabCentric Inc. has joined the Global Alliance Program (GAP) of AvantCom Network Inc., San Jose, CA. GAP is an alliance of semiconductor supply chain companies whose goal is to improve manufacturing productivity and equipment effectiveness. FabCentric's software will run on AvantCom's network infrastructure, minimizing local hardware in the fab. FabCentric is the latest company to join the GAP and will now partner alongside Cymer and Triant Technologies.
DuPont Photomasks Inc. (DPI) Round Rock, TX, has installed 3 0.18mm and below capable production lines each anchored by an ALTA 3700 laser mask pattern generation system. The lines will be used to create photomask layers using advanced pattern generation, process, inspection, and repair techniques. The systems cost ~$50M and are in production at DPI's facilities in Round Rock, TX, Corbeil-Essonnes, France, and DuPont Photomasks Taiwan Ltd., a joint venture with UMC Group.
Air Liquide Electronics, Dallas, TX, has opened a new ultra-high purity oxygen plant in Cleburne, TX. UltraOx is a gas containing 99.99999% oxygen with nitrogen down to 10 ppb. One use for ultra-high purity oxygen is in the growth of silicon oxide in semiconductor manufacturing.
Planar Systems Inc., Beaverton OR, is moving part of its electroluminescent display assembly from the US to the Far East. This move is part of Planar's plan to expand its worldwide manufacturing and sourcing networks. Planar will contract the assembly work to CEI Contract Manufacturing Ltd., based in Singapore.
Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore announced that Sterling Semiconductor Inc., Richmond, VA, a subsidiary of Uniroyal Technology Corp., will expand in Loudoun County. Sterling will invest ~$30M in the expansion and create up to 172 jobs. Sterling already leases a 50,000 ft2 facility in the county and will take occupancy in early 2001.
A $500,000 grant from the Virginia Investment Partnership program was approved by Gov. Gilmore to assist Sterling with its site preparation.
JAPAN
Sony to spend $936 million to construct 300mm LCD/CCD fab
Sony will start construction of its first 300mm fab this November. The 300mm fab will be located in the Kumamoto Technology Park #2 in Kikuchi County, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Kyushu Island. Sony's total investment in the fab through 2005 will be 100 billion yen (US$936 million). The new fab will employ a combination of several mini-lines, each with a capacity of 3000 wafers/month and will be expanded step by step. The new facility will be environmentally friendly by employing a minienvironment concept with zero emissions.
The fab will be operational in October 2001 and will begin with LCD production in 2002, producing 300mm quartz wafers for camcorder viewfinders. By 2003, Sony will start 300mm wafer processing of CCD (charge-coupled device) image sensors. The initial CCD production level is expected to be 2000 wafers/month in 2003. The final capacity is expected to be some 12,000 300mm wafers/month.
Equipment orders rise; worldwide BTB drops
Worldwide orders from Japanese toolmakers increased to 228.8 billion yen (approximately US$2.1 billion) in June, according to the SEAJ (Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan). That's a hike of 40 billion yen from the 187.1 billion yen logged in May and a 140% increase over the 95.3 billion yen from June 1999.
Sales of equipment into the Japanese market including imports from foreign tool suppliers, totaled 66.9 billion yen. June's figure is an increase of 17.2 billion yen over sales recorded in May, and is an increase of almost 44% from the same period last year.
The outlook wasn't as bright for worldwide frontend capacity utilization which was 97.5% for July, down 1.2% from June's revised figure of 98.7%, according to the latest Industry Pulse Pro report from VLSI Research, San Jose, CA. VLSI said the world IC book-to-bill for July was 1.01, a sharp decline from June's revised figure of 1.12, but the market researcher predicts a slight increase for August. Worldwide orders for semiconductors totaled $15.3 billion in July, a $1 billion decrease from June. Sales in July were $14.4 billion, a drop of more than $3.1 billion from June. However, VLSI is forecasting orders to rise in August and September.
A new report from The Information Network, New Tripoli, PA, echoes a positive outlook for the semiconductor equipment market, citing that the worldwide equipment market will grow 46.1% in 2000 and revenues will reach $37.1 billion.
Meanwhile, in its monthly report, Semi released the results from its biannual consensus forecast. The table shows the estimated three-year growth of the semiconductor equipment market.
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NEC has made an upward revision to its semiconductor manufacturing budget for the first half of the current FY (April-Sept. 2000). The company had planned to spend 435 billion yen, but has increased that figure to 490 billion yen. Company sources said the increase was due to ongoing demand in cellular phones and PCs as well as production increase of memories and SOCs. However, spending on LCD production for the same period decreased from 95 billion yen to 80 billion yen, which was mainly due to the price drop of LCDs.
To meet surging demand, Toshiba, Tokyo, plans to increase its DRAM production by 50% from the present 21 million 64Mbit DRAM chips/month to some 30 million chips/month by next year. The company also plans to shrink feature sizes from 0.2mm to 0.175mm. Consequently, Toshiba said the number of the wafers to be processed would not increase in its three DRAM manufacturing facilities. Company officials said that because they can increase production by shrinking the feature size, the new 300mm DRAM plant for Toshiba will not be added before 2002.
Also, sources at Toshiba say Tohoku Semiconductor, of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, a semiconductor manufacturing firm jointly owned by Toshiba and Motorola, will become Motorola's wholly owned subsidiary on January 5, 2001. After purchasing all stocks of the joint venture, Motorola will expand the Sendai facility.
Nikon, Tokyo, will soon establish a used-stepper dealing section in its stepper business unit. Nikon has shipped more than 6300 steppers (including those used in LCD applications) and some 90% are still in use. Previously, there was not much of a demand for used steppers, but according to Nikon sources, "recently the demand for the used models has been increasing." I-line wafer steppers accounted for the majority of the increase.
Fujitsu has disclosed that it will establish a new firm, Fujitsu LSI Solution, this month. The company will purchase the LSI design business unit of NKK, a leading steelmaker in Tokyo. The new firm will be responsible for system LSI development and marketing for telecommunications and mobile related applications. Fujitsu will obtain all the LSI designers from NKK, who dropped its semiconductor division.
Sumitomo Chemical, Tokyo, Japan, plans to increase production capacity of its GaAs epitaxial wafers. The firm will be adding GaAs epitaxial equipment at its Chiba Plant, near Tokyo, and will increase its epi wafer production by 25% to 140,000 3- to 6-in. wafers/year by the end of March. These wafers are mainly used in cellular phones and related telecommunication equipment.
Seiko Epson, Suwa, Nagano Prefecture, established in July a wholly owned semiconductor manufacturing subsidiary named Epson Hatogaya, in Hatogaya, Saitama Prefecture. The property was formerly TI Japan's Hatogaya Plant. Capitalized with 490 million yen (US$4.5 million), the new firm will manufacture LCD driver ICs. The new facility will have a total of 300 employees, most of whom will be transferred from TI Japan.
Nissan Chemical Industries, Tokyo, plans to establish a facility that will manufacture post-ash residue removers that do not contain hydroxylamines next year at its Toyama Plant in Toyama Prefecture. The residue was developed by ATMI, Danbury, CT, which has a marketing and manufacturing subsidiary in Japan, named ATMI Japan. This unit will be a part of ATMI Japan's sales promotion programs.
Hitachi, Tokyo, has developed the world's highest resolution SEM, as small as 0.5nm at a voltage of 30KeV. Shipment of this SEM, model S-5200, is expected in January 2001. Hitachi's annual sales target for the first year is 60 units. The list price is 84 million yen and up, depending on the system configuration. Hitachi will market the system to semiconductor houses, biotech firms, and universities.
ASIA PACIFIC
Nippon Foundry postpones 300mm fab; to increase 200mm wafer production
Just weeks after announcing its plans to construct a 300mm plant, Nippon Foundry, of Tateyama City, Chiba Prefecture, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Taiwan's UMC, said it has decided to construct a 200mm fab instead. Completion of the 300mm plant will be postponed to 2003; construction is slated to begin in 2002.
Officials said "a Japanese consumer electronics firm requested to have a capacity of 15,000 200mm wafers per month at Nippon Foundry," so the firm made the decision to construct a new 200mm facility. The consumer electronics company has not been named, but it is rumored that the firm will wholly or partly invest in the new plant.
Nippon will start construction of the 200mm wafer processing line soon. The new facility will have a production capacity of 6000 to 7000 wafers/month and will be located adjacent to the existing plant. The facility is scheduled to be operational in the 3Q02. In the new plant, 0.18mm devices will be manufactured for digital consumer electronics-related SOCs.
Motorola Malaysia will build a $79 million technology complex that combines the manufacturing, research and development, and distribution for two-way radio and energy units. The center will be Motorola's fifth Energy Systems group manufacturing facility. Phase one of the technoplex began last week and is estimated to cost $10 million. The entire complex is slated to be completed in four phases and is expected to take 10 years.
Macronix International Co. Ltd., Hsin-Chu, Taiwan, and Tower Semiconductor Ltd., Migdal Haemek, Israel, have signed a 5-year manufacturing and technology cooperation agreement. Tower will supply Macronix with IC wafers designed by Macronix using Tower's process technologies.
Cymer Inc., San Diego, CA, has opened its new customer training center in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan. The facility, located within Cymer's Taiwan sales and service office, will provide comprehensive laser training — in both Mandarin Chinese and English — to chipmakers and lithography tool manufacturers. The courses offered will include topics such as laser theory, system operation, and basic maintenance. In addition, the training center features a variety of metrology tools for servicing the lasers and verifying output light specifications.
EUROPE
TePla AG, Munich, Germany, will acquire MetroLine Industries Inc., Corona, CA, to gain access to the North American market, enhancing its market position as a worldwide operating plasma system producer. TePla will purchase MetroLine through a stock trade and cash for 20 million DM.
ASM International N.V., Bilthoven, the Netherlands, is expanding the development and demonstration capacity of its Japanese and US frontend subsidiaries to handle the increase in sales and to meet the strict requirements for the development of advanced semiconductor-manufacturing equipment for wafer processing. ASM Japan K.K., its Japanese subsidiary, opened this past June; ASM America Inc., its US subsidiary, was to have broken ground in September. ASM International also has research centers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Custom Silicon Configuration Services, Brussels, Belgium, has set up a new signal integrity (SI) lab that specializes in high frequency analysis, design, characterization, and test of electronic assemblies. The SI lab provides signal integrity management services to optimize performance of single-chip or multichip packaging solutions and RF front-end modules.
Hot topic: Who exactly is building 300mm fabs?
The recent strength in the IC market has enabled manufacturers to loosen their purse strings on 300mm investment budgets. Mass fabrication on the larger wafers should start before the end of 2001, says Trevor Yancey, VP of technology at IC Insights, Scottsdale, AZ. But with the possibility for an industry downturn beginning in 2002, the start of so many 300mm fabs over the next few years may be ill-timed, says Yancey. See article starting on p. 79 for an informative table of 300mm fab builders.
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Wafer defects may not be a problem for 300mm
A senior fellow and materials science program manager at International Sematech, Howard Huff makes some bold statements about wafer specs in the Industry Insights on p. 210. Some data suggests that reducing various contaminants and defects in silicon wafers may not necessarily be required to improve IC performance.
PURCHASE ORDERS
FSI International says it has received a follow-on order of approximately $35 million for its POLARIS 3500 microlithography clusters to be installed in a major US semiconductor manufacturer's 300mm fab. The order for these systems is in addition to the 5-unit order announced on July 31. These POLARIS 3500 systems will begin to ship in FY02. When installed, these systems will bring this customer's installed base to approximately 100 POLARIS Cluster units.
Metrology equipment supplier, Nanometrics, Sunnyvale, CA, has received multiple orders totaling $6 million, from a Korean-based semiconductor manufacturer for its Metra 7000 series overlay measurement systems and its NanoSpec 9100 film analysis system.
ASML, Tempe, AZ, has received an order for multiple 300mm Twinscan systems from a first-time customer, a leader in US semiconductor manufacturing. The first unit of the order will be installed by the end of 2000, with volume production beginning in 2001.
Amtech Systems Inc., Tempe, AZ, has secured an order for $6.4M of semiconductor equipment, a new record for the company. The order, which will deliver 11 diffusion furnace systems over the next 12 months, marks Amtech's entry into the optical component telecommunications market.