Asia Focus
09/01/2000
Sony, Fuji to hike capacity
Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), Tokyo, has started construction of a 200mm wafer-processing facility in Nagasaki, Kyushu Island, to be named Fab 2. SCE will spend a total of 90 billion yen (US$827 million) to construct Fab 2 and increase production levels at nearby Fab 1.
The company's goal in constructing Fab 2 is to increase manufacturing capabilities for 0.18mm graphics synthesizer LSIs for PlayStation2.
The new fab is expected to be a 7-story building with 20,000m2 of cleanroom space and to be operational by next April with an initial production capacity of 6000 wafers/ month. SCE also announced that production capacity at Fab 1 will be increased to 12,000 wafers/month by early 2001.
In related news, Sony Corp. plans to add a new 100 billion yen (US$924 million) CCD/LCD manufacturing plant next year on Kyushu Island. It's likely that the plant will be located at the foot of Mt. Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Meanwhile, Fuji Electric, Tokyo, announced plans to establish a 20-billion-yen (US$184 million) power IC wafer-processing plant in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. Final production capacity at the new facility is expected to be 15,000, 200mm wafers/month. However, the company said it expects to reach some 7500, 200mm wafers/month in early 2002. Present capacity at the Matsumoto Works plant is 10,000, 150mm wafers/month, 80% of which are power ICs.
Ushio and Komatsu enter excimer joint venture
Komatsu Ltd. and Ushio Inc., both headquartered in Tokyo, have entered into a joint venture agreement to manufacture and sell excimer lasers for lithography.
Following approval from the companies' board of directors, the new company, named Gigaphoton Inc., officially opened in August. The companies expect the new joint venture to bring in net sales of approximately 6 billion yen (US$56.8 million) in FY01, with a net loss of approximately 600 million yen. In FY02, net sales are estimated to be 12.7 billion yen, with a net income of 700 million yen.
The new venture will have total assets of 9 billion yen and capitalization of 2 billion yen, with an equity ratio of 50:50 from each company. The new venture will be located in Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo, and will initially have a total of 180 new employees.
Mitsubishi to boost investment 50%; NEC, Fujitsu may follow suit
Mitsubishi Electric, Tokyo, Japan, plans to increase investment in its semiconductor division from 100 billion yen (approximately $922.8 million) to a record-breaking 150 billion yen (approximately $1.384 billion). The company made the decision to hike spending to keep up with the rising demand for cell-phone-related ICs.
The 150 billion yen will be used during this fiscal year, with 70 billion yen being spent on lines for flash and other memories. Some 62 billion yen will be used for system LSIs (SOCs), and the remaining 18 billion has been reserved for high-frequency optical devices and advanced technology development.
Additionally, the company disclosed that it will spend some 65 billion yen to construct a 200mm wafer-processing line for 0.18-0.15mm devices. The new plant will be located at Mitsubishi's Saijyo plant in Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku Island.
The new 200mm facility is scheduled to be operational in the first quarter of the next fiscal year, with an initial capacity of 15,000, 200mm wafers/month. By FY02, capacity is expected to double to 30,000, 200mm wafers/month.
Company officials said static RAMs and SOCs will also be manufactured at the Saijyo plant. Flash memory production will be added at a later date.
In other news, NEC is considering whether to increase its investment in its semiconductor division by as much as 10%, which will take it to the 220 billion yen level, from the original 200 billion yen that was earmarked at the beginning of the current fiscal year. According to NEC sources, the company is thinking about establishing its first 300mm fab in Higashi Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, in 2003.
Meanwhile, Fujitsu has already increased its fiscal year investment in its semiconductor division from 160 billion yen to 200 billion yen, but company sources say "(it's) still not enough."
NEC, Sony, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, AMD, and Toshiba's newest semiconductor plants are all slated to be 200mm rather than 300mm. That makes Hitachi the only company that is constructing a 300mm fab with UMC in Hitachi Naka City, Ibaraki Prefecture, and indicates that 300mm wafers will not be in full production in Japan until 2003.
Toshiba and others create next-level wafer equipment
Toshiba Corp.'s Semiconductor Co., Tokyo, has been aggressively collaborating with Japanese equipment houses in an attempt to develop next-generation wafer-processing equipment.
Toshiba and ULVAC, Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, have jointly developed a new copper-seed sputtering system for manufacturing devices with 0.13mm design rules. Long-throw sputter and ionized sputter cannot be used for sizes smaller than 0.15mm, so the companies have developed "self-ionized sputter" to overcome the limitations of the other two processes. ULVAC exhibited the new system, called LTS + substrate-biased sputter, at Semicon West in July.
Meanwhile, Toshiba has been working with Tokyo Electron Tohoku, Esashi City, Iwate Prefecture, a subsidiary of Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL). Together, they've developed a hot-wall batch-type chemical vapor deposition system for the formation of (Ba, Sr) TiO3 DRAM capacitors. With another TEL subsidiary, Tokyo Electron Kyushu, Kumakoto, Kyushu Island, Toshiba has developed a nonrotating photoresist coater that uses a nozzle-scan technique to reduce photoresist waste by 90%.
The TEL work will be presented at academic conferences, including the International Symposium of Semiconductor Manufacturing in Tokyo.