Asia Focus
08/01/2000
1st Silicon plans production ramp
1st Silicon Malaysia CEO Claudio G. Loddo anticipates an October ramp-up at the Asian company for a planned monthly production of 30,000, 200mm wafers using 0.25µm CMOS technology for digital and mixed signal applications.
Next year, 0.18µm process technology will be available for logic devices in 3Q and for mixed signal devices in 4Q. 1st Silicon's 0.25mm process has single- or double-poly, and up to five metal layers, whereas for the 0.18mm process there will be between four and six metal layers for both logic and mixed signal devices. The key 0.25mm process will use a twin-well structure and shallow trench isolation.
1st Silicon plans to negotiate agreements with existing test, assembly, and packaging companies to offer back-end services, too. In addition, the foundry will operate a series of design centers. Of crucial importance to any wafer fab is the ability to find steady customers and technology partners, said Loddo. 1st Silicon has already found both in Japanese chip manufacturer Sharp, which is supplying technology as well as buying product. Sharp will buy up to 20% of the fab's output over five years. Loddo sees about 480 potential customers in the market, mainly in telecommunications and high-end consumer, but also in customer-specific applications.
Low Kwong Meng, 1st Silicon VP of operations, said, "With the equipment arrival in May and the commencement of the installation of over $400 million [of] equipment at the new fab, our focus for the next few months will be on equipment and process start-up, followed by process integration and production qualification." More than 50 experienced engineers from 1st Silicon have been trained at Sharp, and more than 100 engineers have been trained in the past six months in Japan, the US, and in Europe.
Loddo, a native Italian, was CEO of Thesys Microelectronics, a producer of ICs and discrete devices, which evolved from a former East German semiconductor center of excellence known as VEB Karl Marx. His experience in Germany was very helpful in finding investors. $200 million from the Ausfuhrkredit-GmbH export credit organization has been secured by the German government's Export Credit Agency. The government of Malaysia and the state of Sarawak are contributing $225 million to the $1 billion project. Another $100 million is being provided by the Deutsche Privatbank. After production ramp-up, Loddo estimates the value of the fab will be $4 billion.
1st Silicon has budgeted more than $500 million for equipment purchases. Equipment was mainly ordered from Applied Materials, including etch systems for dielectric, metal and silicon materials, chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), rapid-thermal processing (RTP), physical vapor deposition (PVD), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) defect review equipment. Nikon steppers and FSI tracks and wet processing equipment were delivered in May. Further deliveries are expected in June 2000 from suppliers Asyst, DNS, FSI, KEM, KLA-Tencor, Nikon, Novellus, TEL, and Varian. —Achim Strass, Contributing Editor
S. Korea's Hyundai to concentrate on chip foundry business
In response to increased demand for semiconductors worldwide, Hyundai Electronics plans to become a leading chip foundry business. "Our objective is to develop the foundry business, moving Hyundai into position as the world's third leading supplier of foundry services within the next three years," said Huh Yeum, chief manager of Hyundai Electronics Industries' System IC business unit.
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. "With the focus on our five major application-specific standard products, we will also develop a high value-added semiconductor business in the digital home appliances and telecommunications arena," Yeum's statement said.
The company is projecting sales of nonmemory products to reach $700 million this year and $1.3 billion in 2001. By 2003, they will account for 20% of the company's total semiconductor sales, and 45% of Hyundai's total business will be in flash, SRAM, and system IC products. That will make DRAM a smaller part of the business and better insulate Hyundai from fluctuations in the DRAM market.
The foundry business is growing strongly. The world leader, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), Hsinchu, Taiwan, for instance, is projecting sales of 300,000 silicon wafers in Japan this year, tripling sales from 1999. And the Fabless Semiconductor Association, San Jose, CA, forecasts wafer demand to grow by 39% this year and 48% in 2001. While PCs still account for a large part of the market, demand is growing in other applications, especially communications, the association says.
"The foundry market is certainly growing, and holds a great deal of opportunity for foundry companies," said James Hines, principal analyst in the semiconductor-manufacturing group of Gartner/Dataquest. While most of the growth so far has come from fabless companies, integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) are increasingly turning to foundries, he said. And because IDMs make up roughly 90% of the semiconductor market, the potential for growth is huge. Hines said the foundry market had $7.5 billion worth of sales worldwide in 1999, and he projects a compound annual growth rate of 22%, to $20 billion by 2004.
Because foundries such as TSMC and UMC, Hsinchu, Taiwan, now have advanced technology available to produce high-end devices for customers, companies with their own fabs can outsource more of their products, a less risky proposition than building new fabs only to see demand drop.
While there is some concern in the industry that foundries should be more geographically spread out, rather than concentrated in Taiwan with its frequent earthquakes and shaky relations with China, Hines said the expertise of the Taiwanese foundries outweighs those worries for most customers.— Neil Savage, Contributing Editor
Sumitomo hikes production and spending; Canon and Nikon increase stepper production *** Compound semiconductor wafer supplier Sumitomo Electric, Osaka, will increase production of its GaAs wafers during the second half of its fiscal year (October
Sources indicate that the increased demand has been spurred by the popularity of networking via cell phones, especially in Japan. The firm also plans to spend some 3 billion yen (US$28.4 million) to expand production of InP, ZnSe, and GaN at its Itami Works plant in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture. With the increase in spending and production, Sumitomo expects annual sales of its semiconductor material division to more than double to the 30 billion yen level in 2002 from its present 12 billion yen level.
Separately, Canon, Tokyo, announced plans to spend some 10 billion yen (US$95 million) to increase production capacity of its wafer steppers to 400 units/year at the company's Utsunomiya Plant. In 1999, Canon shipped 160 semiconductor wafer steppers and 20 LCD steppers. In 2000, Canon expects to ship more than 250 wafer steppers and 50 LCD steppers, and the company is forecasting that in 2001 it will ship more than 300 wafer steppers and 50 LCD steppers.
Meanwhile, Nikon intends to increase stepper production capacity in Japan, by expanding capacity at its plant in Kumagaya Works, Saitama and at its subsidiary, Tochigi Nikon, Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture. At this time, Nikon produces some 560 units/year and it expects that figure to increase to 710 units/year, which consists of 650 wafer steppers and 60 LCD steppers.
Mitsui to double production of NF3
With the number of fab expansions and new construction on the rise, the suppliers of the semiconductor gas NF3 are feeling a push from the industry to increase production.
Doing its part to keep up with skyrocketing demands, Mitsui Chemical, Tokyo, plans to double its annual production of the vacuum chamber cleaning gas to more than 400 tons by the first quarter of 2001. Mitsui said it will increase production at Shimonoseki Plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture and at its wholly owned subsidiary Anderson Development Co., Adrian, MI.
Meanwhile Kanto Denka, Tokyo, said it will also double the amount of NF3 produced at its Shibukawa Plant in Gunma Prefecture. The increase is ongoing and will bring production to a level of 240 tons annually. The plant plans to increase its production to 300 tons annually by the end of the year and to 400 tons in 2001.
SST sources indicate that the shortage is causing the price of NF3 to increase. Industry sources also said that there are only four firms in the world that supply semiconductor-grade NF3 gas: Air Products, Mitsui, Kanto, and Central Glass in Japan.
TSMC's Fab 6 capabilities
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s newest facility, Fab 6, is located in the Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park in southern Taiwan. After its groundbreaking in July 1998, the 200mm wafer manufacturing facility successfully completed pilot wafers in December 1999 and first production wafer outs in January of this year.
Fab 6, which according to company representatives is the largest single fab in the world, will contain nearly 1000 sets of manufacturing tools and will employ 2000 production and engineering personnel, as well as a support staff of 320, when fully loaded and staffed in 2001. The manufacturing area of its cleanroom alone is 190,000 ft2, the length of almost four American football fields.
The facility is expected to support a run rate of 32,000 wafers/month by the end of this year, increasing to nearly 50,000 wafers/month in 2001. At this point, Fab 6 capital expenditure will be more than $2 billion.
 TSMC's Fab 6, located in southern Taiwan, is reportedly the largest single fab in the world. (Photo courtesy of TSMC) |
Fab 6 will produce wafers using advanced CMOS technology ranging from initial production at a 0.25mm geometry down to a 0.10mm geometry (date to be announced). The plant will feature state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities, including all-scanner lithography for quick exposure of large, extremely fine-grained reticles. In addition, it will use a variety of leading-edge manufacturing techniques like shallow trench isolation, titanium cobalt silicide technology, chemical mechanical polishing, low-k dielectrics, and copper interconnects. Fab 6 will also house TSMC's pilot 300mm line beginning with equipment move-in later this year. Expected capacity for the pilot line processes will be transferred to TSMC's first full-production 300mm facility, Fab 12.