World News
08/01/2000
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
Fab capacity utilization edges up as book-to-bill soars
Front-end fab capacity utilization was 97.2% for May, up 1.1% from April's revised figure of 96.1%, according to the latest Industry Pulse Pro report from market researcher VLSI Research, San Jose, CA. Utilization has been growing since January, but VLSI projects it to decline slightly in coming months before starting upward again in September.
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VLSI also said that the world IC book-to-bill ratio in May was higher than projections at 1.32, and was a revised 1.35 in April. The firm projects a ratio for June of 1.18. In addition, the market researcher has upwardly revised all book-to-bill figures since the beginning of the year. Until this month's report, VLSI saw the book-to-bill ratio hovering in the 1.0 range but the most current report shows that ratios have been much higher, ranging from 1.1 to 1.35 (see chart).
Orders for semiconductors totaled $17.7 billion for May, up from $17.3 billion in April. Sales in May were $12.7 billion, up from $12.4 billion in April, but less than the $15.3 billion sales in March.
Semi bookings steady at $2.75B in May; SEAJ sees strength with $1.6B in orders
North American equipment orders continued on an upward trend, with bookings in May rising to $2.75 billion, up from $2.71 billion in April, according to the latest report from Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (Semi).
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The booking figure is a 1% rise over the April number and an increase of 81% over the $1.5 billion posted in May 1999. Shipments in May rose to $2.11 billion, up 6% from $1.99 billion in April and 73% over the May 1999 level of $1.6 billion, said the trade association. All figures are three-month moving averages.
The May book-to-bill ratio came in at 1.30, down from a revised 1.37 in April, and 1.46 in March.
May is the eighth consecutive month of bookings growth and record order levels for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, although the rate of growth is moderating, Semi president Stan Myers said. He added that Semi expects to report "positive industry sentiment" in the Mid-Year Consensus Forecast to be released at Semicon West next month.
Meanwhile, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), reported that worldwide orders of semiconductor equipment from Japanese toolmakers reached 171.5 billion yen (approximately US$1.626 billion) in April. That is a 1.1 billion yen increase over the March figure of 170.4 billion yen and a 114% jump from last April's 80.2 billion yen.
Sales of equipment into the Japanese market, including imports from foreign tool suppliers, totaled 47.5 billion yen, less than half of April's 101.5 billion yen, but closer to March's 59 billion yen and an increase of 58% over April of last year. The book-to-bill ratio for April was 1.21, up from 1.14 in March.
USA
MKS Instruments Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire Spectra International, Morgan Hill, CA, a privately held company with products and technology in process monitoring. Spectra has manufacturing operations in California and the UK with a total of 70 employees worldwide. The products of both companies will be combined into the MKS Instruments Spectra Products group. MKS Instruments Inc. supplies gas measurement, control, and analysis products.
In a deal that is valued at about $550 million at recent stock prices, Mattson Technology, Fremont, CA, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire STEAG Electronic Systems AG's Semiconductor Division and CFM Technologies. The transaction is expected to close in January 2001. When the merger is complete, Mattson will combine its offerings into three product groups: plasma products, thermal products, and wet processing. A president has been named for each group. Mattson does not plan to combine any of the global production facilities for at least the next 12 months.
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In a move that will double its BiCMOS capacity, Philips Semiconductors, The Netherlands, announced it was planning to buy IBM's MiCRUS semiconductor fab in East Fishkill, NY. Philips plans to have six fully operational 200mm fabs running by year's end. The MiCRUS fab produces roughly 250,000 200mm wafers/year using 0.35 and 0.25µm CMOS processes. The MiCRUS operation began as a joint venture between IBM and Cirrus Logic, and was later bought out by IBM. The facility employs 950 people, all of whom Philips expects to retain.
Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc., Willow Grove, PA has received a $29 million order from Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. for model 8028 ball bonders. The new order is in addition to the $29 million order for bonders announced in April. The machines will be used for production of high-lead count plastic BGA packages. They will ship during FY00 to ASE's Kaohsiung, Taiwan production facility.
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PDF Solutions Inc. has announced completion of its acquisition of AISS GmbH, which provides software to model and compensate for the physical effects involved in IC maskmaking and lithography. The integration of PDF's characterization vehicles and analysis software with AISS' mask and lithography technology will dramatically improve the company's ability to diagnose and correct yield inhibitors for deep submicron manufacturing processes. Under terms of the agreement, AISS will become a wholly owned subsidiary of PDF.
In a move designed to triple its gallium arsenide (GaAs) device capacity, Motorola has converted its Phoenix, AZ-based Compound Semiconductor-1 (CS-1) fab to 150mm wafers from 100mm wafers. The chipmaker said the conversion, along with additional equipping of the facility, resulted in an increase in total die output by a factor of greater than three. All of Motorola's GaAs chips are produced at the CS-1 fab.
Ultratech Stepper, San Jose, CA, has shipped its first 157-nm microstepper to a Japanese semiconductor consortium. The system will be used as a research and development tool for resist and materials characterization. It incorporates a fluorine laser from Cymer, San Diego, CA, allowing optical lithography for devices with feature sizes below 0.10mm, and is a successor to Ultratech's 193nm tool. The microstepper was assembled at Ultratech's new 65,000 ft2 facility in Wilmington, MA.
ATMI, Danbury, CT, has bought several batch tools to expand its silicon epitaxial technology at Epitronics Services, Mesa, AZ. The expansion will allow Epitronics to enter the $6 billion power discrete semiconductor market, which the company said is growing at a compounded annual rate of nearly 9%. Epitronics can now process more than 100,000 wafers/month.
Also, ATMI said it will consolidate operations in Texas and California into a new materials center to be built over the next year in Burnet, TX. The new 120,000 ft2 facility will include cleanroom, manufacturing, R&D, administration, and warehouse space. The new facility will be ATMI's prime location for CVD source materials; low-k source materials; advanced metal oxides; copper CMP slurries; arsenic materials; photoresist strippers and cleaners; and HDP-CVD sub-atmospheric delivery systems.
Planar Systems, Beaverton, OR, has finished moving into a new 70,000 ft2 plant that increases its capacity to manufacture electroluminescent flat panel displays by 50 percent. The plant, operating around the clock, has the capacity to produce 80,000 VGAs and 160,000 1/4 VGAs annually. Demand for flat panel displays is increasing among manufacturers of medical, transportation, and industrial equipment.
With demand growing in the compound and silicon-based semiconductor markets, Solkatronic Chemicals, a business unit of Air Products and Chemicals, Lehigh Valley, PA, is adding speciality gas capacity at its Morrisville, PA, facility. The company is expanding capacity for hydrogen selenide, silicon tetrafluoride, and its Blue Ammonia product for gallium nitride processes. The company expanded production of ammonia, silicon tetrafluoride, and arsine in the last quarter of 1999.
In addition, Air Products has brought onstream a large helium liquefier at its Liberal, KS, helium purification/liquefaction facility. Processing over 600 million standard cubic feet/year of product, the liquefier further expands the company's ability to meet the growing helium needs of its customers in the semiconductor industry.
KDF Electronic and Vacuum Services, a maker of physical vapor deposition systems, has moved its headquarters and manufacturing facility from Orangeburg, NY, to Rockleigh, NJ. The company said the new 34,000 ft2 facility allows additional manufacturing and more room for research and development and puts it near other high-technology companies with their headquarters in New Jersey.
The merger of Photronics and Align-Rite International has been completed. The deal, in which Photronics, Jupiter, FL, acquired Align-Rite in a stock swap, was valued at approximately $100 million. The company is now one of the largest suppliers of strategic photomasks in the world. The merger, which is being treated as a pooling of interests, leaves the company with 14 facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America.
Middlesex and Tec-Sem jointly announce the formation of a strategic alliance to supply total material handling solutions for 300mm, 200mm and smaller wafers as well as for reticles. Middlesex has facilities in Boston, Tokyo, and Lugano, Switzerland. Tec-Sem is located in Tagerwilen, Switzerland and has sales representatives in all major semiconductor markets. Tec-Sem is assuming responsibility for sales and service in Europe for the combined products, while Middlesex reciprocates in doing so in North America. In Asia, the companies will share their effort.
Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions, a business unit of the Test & Transactions segment of Schlumberger Ltd., has moved its worldwide headquarters in San Jose to 150 Baytech Drive. The new campus, encompassing nearly 200,000 ft2 of space in three buildings, includes engineering development laboratories for the company's semiconductor metrology, wafer inspection, and test technologies, as well as the SABER Silicon Valley Technology Center.
Veteran semiconductor equipment industry publicist Mathews & Clark Communications has changed its name to Positio Investor & Public Relations. That's Latin for "most visible," says president and managing partner Stewart Chalmers, "and that's what we do." M&C was founded in 1975 by Walt Mathews and the late Joseph Clark.
J&S Technical Associates has selected PLASPRO Corp., Allentown, PA, as its manufacturing arm. J&S retains all rights to its products, but PLASPRO will serve in a number of capacities to ensure J&S customers will always have access, and receive immediate attention to their needs. J&S specializes in wet processing equipment and service for the semiconductor industry. The company also puts its skills to use designing and installing fire suppression systems.
In an effort that will increase manufacturing space by 50%, photoresist removal system supplier GaSonics will relocate its corporate headquarters in San Jose, CA. By the FQ00, roughly 75 employees will move to the new headquarters at 404 East Plumeria Drive. As part of the changes, GaSonics will continue to occupy a 90,000 ft2 facility on Junction Ave. in San Jose, where it is adding a new training center, upgraded cleanrooms, and an existing demo center. The headquarters move will provide an additional 28,000 ft2 of space for finance, marketing, sales, human resources, and technical support activities.
Test equipment maker Credence Systems Corp., Fremont, CA, has signed a letter of intent to invest in NewMillennia Solutions (NMS), Irvine, CA. NMS markets test equipment for high-volume Rambus RIMM memory modules and develops test-related intellectual property. Credence will take a 19.8% stake in the company, and Credence president and CEO Graham Siddall will sit on the NMS board of directors. The focus of the collaboration will be on developing new testing systems for high-volume, high-performance ASIC applications.
Applied Materials, Santa Clara, CA, has begun a joint program with reliability test equipment supplier QualiTau, Sunnyvale, CA, to test electromigration structures in advanced chip interconnects formed with copper and low-k dielectric materials. The first QualiTau system has been installed and is in use at Applied Materials' EPIC facility in Santa Clara, which allows customers to test an integrated multilevel interconnect process before installing it in a fab.
Japan
Anticipating an increase in global demand, Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Tokyo, Japan, plans to expand its production capacity of nitrogen trifluoride at its Japan and US factories. Nitrogen trifluoride is used in production of microchips and liquid crystal panels and as an etching and clearing agent to eliminate dust and particles in CVD apparatus. The company has decided to nearly triple the production capacity of its Shimonoseki factory and its Michigan unit, Anderson Development Co., to a total of 400 tons/year. The two factories are expected to start expanded production in FQ01.
FEI Company, Hillsboro, OR, has announced that a leading Japanese producer of giant magneto resistive (GMR) thin film data storage heads has placed a $12.5 million order for multiple in-line DualBeam systems. The systems will be installed at the customer's fabrication lines in Japan and California and will provide advanced 3-D process control.
Asia Pacific
Malaysia's first foundry, 1st Silicon, expects an early October production ramp-up for a planned monthly production of 30,000 200mm wafers, using 0.25mm CMOS technology for digital and mixed signal applications, according to CEO Claudio G. Loddo. Next year, 0.18mm process technology will be available for logic devices in Q3 and for mixed signal devices in Q4.
Also, the top management teams of 1st Silicon (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., and SHARP have reached an agreement to expand the relationship of the two companies. SHARP is a key technology and business partner of 1st Silicon, providing 1st Silicon with its 0.25mm digital logic and mixed signal CMOS technologies.
 Workers examine wafers at Winbond, HsinChu, Taiwan: Only 2% of wafers were affected by earthquake. (Photo courtesy of Winbond Electronics Corp.) |
The most recent earthquake in Taiwan had little effect on semiconductor manufacturing, industry sources said. A quake with a magnitude of 6.7 on the Richter scale shook Taiwan June 11, causing minor damage. A second quake with a magnitude of about 4.3 struck the next day. The earthquake of September 1999, which killed 2400 people and caused major delays in semiconductor manufacturing, had a magnitude of 7.6, almost 10 times as severe as the June 11 event.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said it had less than half a day's loss in wafer moves and normal production returned quickly. Winbond Electronics Corp. said about 2% of wafers in the production process were affected. The Central News Agency reported that United Microelectronics Corp. also suffered no power loss and quickly returned to normal operation.
With demand for semiconductors growing worldwide, South Korea's Hyundai Electronics has announced plans to become one of the world's leading chip foundry businesses. The company is planning a much stronger focus on nonmemory semiconductors and will concentrate on five major products — microprocessors, LCD drivers, CMOS image sensors, RF chips, and digital multimedia chips. After its merger with LG Semicon in October 1999, Hyundai split its semiconductor business into memory and system IC segments.
Europe
Intel has settled on plans for another $2 billion fab. The company said it plans to invest the money to construct a new fab and expand its facilities in Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland.
The Leixlip site currently produces Intel's Pentium III and Celeron processors. The new facility will produce 200mm wafers that will incorporate 0.13µm design rules. The wafers will use copper interconnects and the facility will have the ability to convert the production line to 300mm in the future.
Construction on the newly named Fab 24 was slated to begin immediately. The one million square-foot facility will include 135,000 ft2 of cleanroom space and is expected to be completed in 2H01.
KDF, Rockleigh, NJ, has received a multiple order of 943GT PVD batch in-line systems from Ericsson Microelectronics. The systems will be installed at Ericsson's facility in Kista-Stockholm, Sweden before third quarter. The 900 series dual loadlock, in-line, sputter-down , batch systems are configured with an optional high vacuum loadlock and two or three target positions.
Plasma systems company TePla AG, Kircheim, Germany, has bought Instant Surface Technology SA, Yverdon, Switzerland, a developer of systems for the partial plasma treatment of surfaces. TePla CEO Friedrich G. Meyer said the acquisition is an important step in the company's growth strategy for the Surface Technology unit. Plasma treatment allows surface properties of plastics to be optimized for a range of industrial applications.
Expansions in the US
EPI MBE Products Group announces the completion of additional manufacturing space for the production of its GEN2000 multiwafer production MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) system at its 75,000 ft2 state-of-the-art facility in St. Paul, MN. In addition, EPI purchased more than 20 acres of surrounding property for future expansion in order to meet the demand of the rapidly growing $11 billion compound semiconductor industry.
Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates (VSEA), Gloucester, MA, has recently completed an expansion of its Gloucester operations to include 94,575 ft2 of manufacturing space. VSEA has added more than 200 manufacturing positions since the beginning of the year; its manufacturing staff now totals nearly 900.
Inspection system supplier QC Optics expanded operations at its Wilmington, MA, headquarters to accommodate a two-tier demo lab for advanced photomask inspection tools. Under the expansion, QC converted a 1000 ft2 space into the demo lab, where the company installed its newest inspection system for 0.25mm defect detection.
M/A-COM, Lowell, MA, is adding a high-volume 150mm wafer manufacturing line and expanding its capacity in gallium arsenide (GaAs). The company, a unit of Tyco International Ltd., is modifying existing capacity at Sanders' Microelectronics Center in Nashua, NH, under an agreement it says will bring the wafer line into production much faster than is typical. The company says the line will be in full operation by the first half of 2001. M/A-COM plans to build monolithic microwave ICs on the GaAs wafers, for wireless telecommunications applications. The new fab line is just up the road from the company's existing GaAs fab in Lowell.
CMP system supplier SpeedFam-IPEC doubled its manufacturing space at its headquarters in Chandler, AZ, to 22,000 ft2. The firm expects the expansion will help it meet increased demand for CMP systems. Market researcher Dataquest forecasts that the CMP market will more than double in size between 1999 and 2004, when the sector is expected to be a $2.5 billion business.
Silicon Genesis Corporation (SiGen), developer of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer technologies, is expanding its new SOI wafer fab in San Jose, CA, and is now shipping sample quantities of SOI wafers to customers in the US, Europe and Asia, including wafer manufacturers and chipmakers. SiGen expects the facility to achieve an eventual capacity of 20,000 wafers/month. The facility is the first bonded-thinSOI (<1mm) fabrication plant in North America.