World News
10/01/2001
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
Chip sales down for July; N.A. tool orders up third month in a row
Worldwide semiconductor sales continued to slide in July, dropping to $10.86 billion from June's $11.6 billion, according to the latest report from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).
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Sales were down 37.2% from the $17.29 billion logged a year ago. Geographically, the Americas dropped the most for July, sliding 51.2% year-over-year to $2.7 billion from the $5.54 billion posted in July 2000. The region was down 7% sequentially from the $2.9 billion posted last month.
Worldwide-front-end capacity utilization, however, increased in July, rising to 79.6% from June's 78.5%, according to VLSI Research. VLSI Research also reported that the worldwide IC book-to-bill ratio dropped to 0.77 in July. That number's a 0.02 decline from June's revised 0.79. The research firm predicts that number will rise to 0.93 for August.
The North American equipment book-to-bill ratio rose to 0.67 in July, marking the third consecutive month orders have risen, according to Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International. (Semi). While orders have risen slightly each month, July's numbers show a marked increase from revised June numbers. Shipments have continued to drop, hitting 1138.9 in July, down from June's 1294.7.
According to its Express Report, SEMI said worldwide bookings for July totaled $764.2 million, 5% above the revised June level of $727.5 million but 74% below the $2.9 billion in orders posted for the same period last year.
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Semi reports drop in silicon shipments
Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments declined by 21% in 2Q01 compared to 1Q01, according to Semi. The shipments totaled 988 million in2 in 2Q01, down 21% from the 1250 million in2 during 1Q01, and down 28% from 2Q00. "Silicon demand has nose-dived this year, causing the silicon suppliers to implement cost-cutting in the form of layoffs or frequent plant shutdowns," said Stanley Myers, president and CEO of Semi.
"Virtually all 200mm investment plans have been put on hold. The market will eventually improve, but the question remains as to how quickly silicon suppliers could respond to a demand increase. Furthermore, the current economic challenges threaten the industry's ability to provide next-generation-diameter products in quantity and quality as required by the markets."
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USA
Credence Systems Corp., Fremont, CA, has completed the acquisition of Oregon-based Integrated Measurement Systems (IMS) for some $155 million in a stock-for-stock transaction. Fluence Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of Credence, will be combined with IMS to form a new wholly owned subsidiary called Integrated Measurement Systems Inc. — A Credence Co.
JMAR Technologies, San Diego, CA, has completed the purchase of all outstanding equity of Vermont-based Semiconductor Advanced Lithography Inc., a provider of x-ray lithography stepper systems. At the closing, SAL was merged into JMAR/SAL NanoLithography Inc., a California corporation which is a wholly owned subsidiary of JMAR Technologies. The new entity's first strategic target is to provide manufacturers of high-speed gallium arsenide semiconductors an integrated XRL processing capability before the end of 2002.
Photronics Inc., Jupiter, FL, is breaking ground for a 13,000 ft.2 addition to its existing manufacturing operation in Brookfield, CT. The expansion will provide an additional 6000 of cleanroom space that will be certified to Class 1 standards. Total employment at the expanded site will grow more than 10% to over 270 employees.
Photronics has also acquired a controlling equity interest in PKL Co. Ltd., a supplier of photomasks in Korea. The additional equity is being acquired through negotiated transactions with a number of large shareholders, and will bring Photronics' ownership of PKL to approximately 51% and its total investment in PKL to $50 million.
Microsemi Corp., Irvine, CA, has licensed Diodes Inc., Westlake, CA, to manufacture and market discrete semiconductor devices using Microsemi's patented Powermite 3 surface mount package. Diodes Inc. will make devices having Microsemi's 3-terminal Powermite packaging at its facilities in mainland China. Microsemi will receive royalties for Powermite 3 products sold by Diodes.
MKS Instruments Inc., Andover, MA, has formed the Advanced Process Control (APC) product group. The group will provide measurement technologies to monitor and control manufacturing processes in the semiconductor and optoelectronic industries. Peter Solomon, founder and president of On-Line Technologies, which was acquired by MKS in April, will lead the APC Group.
Motorola Inc., Austin, TX, is set to phase out two wafer fab lines in Mesa, AZ, over the next two and a half years. The phasing out of MOS-6 and the Bipolar Manufacturing Center will affect some 1200 employees, many of whom are expected to be transferred to other jobs within the company. Motorola had cut 24,000 jobs this year through June, reducing its work force from 123,000 to 99,000.
Dow Corning Corp., Midland, MI, has been awarded US patent no. 6,231,989, "Method for Forming Coatings." This method allows production of low-dielectric films for future IC technology nodes.
LSI Logic Corp., Milpitas, CA, has terminated an agreement calling for X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries AG, Erfurt, Germany, to purchase LSI Logic's Colorado Springs semiconductor manufacturing facility. According to LSI, X-Fab did not secure the required funding to close the proposed $120 million transaction. LSI plans to close its Colorado Springs facility this fall, and has resumed efforts to find a new buyer.
Lam Research Corp., Fremont, CA, and KLA-Tencor Corp., San Jose, CA, have established a program to integrate some of KLA-Tencor's metrology capabilities into Lam's 2300 product family. The program began several months ago, and will initially add metrology capability to Lam's 2300 etch systems.
In other Lam news, the company is reducing its work force by 10% worldwide, in conjunction with other cost-cutting measures.
Teradyne Inc., Boston, MA, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire GenRad Inc., Westford, MA, a manufacturer of electronic automatic test equipment and related software. The transaction would be valued at some $260 million in the aggregate.
Semitool Inc., Kalispell, MT, has received two US patents for applications and systems using ozone and water for cleaning and stripping semiconductor substrates. Patents 6,267,125 and 6,273,108 detail technology that Semitool says eliminates some chemicals, reduces cycle times, and decreases water consumption.
Designer and manufacturer of laser-based defect detection systems QC Optics Inc., Wilmington, MA, has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by KLA-Tencor, San Jose, CA. The terms of the agreement state that KLA-Tencor will pay $1.00/share, or $3 million for QC Optics' outstanding shares. The transaction is expected to close this month.
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JAPAN
Japan's latest government-funded industry research initiative for 50nm generation technology — MIRAI (Millennium Research for Advanced Information Technology) — plans to start by designing and developing its own new semiconductor production tools. Intel researchers would also reportedly participate. Project leaders said they intend to become the world's top semiconductor research organization within three years. The seven-year project starts with a budget of $30 million (x3.8 billion) this year and about 100 researchers. The project will be organized into five separate research projects: high-k gate stack technology; low-k modules; new transistor structures and metrology; lithography and masks; and circuit systems.
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Tokyo, Japan, is set to begin a consignment business fabricating micron-scale structures on silicon substrates for MEMS. The company will leverage its experience in semiconductor manufacturing to offer MEMS processing tasks. It expects this line of business to generate $33.2 million in FY03.
Toshiba Corp. is considering plans to merge its memory chip business with Germany-based Infineon Technologies. These plans would be part of a global restructuring that includes cutting about 20,000 jobs from the Japanese company's work force of 188,000 by FY03. Infineon is the world's fourth-largest DRAM maker, and Toshiba the sixth-largest, according to Gartner Dataquest Inc.
Advanced optics company Hoya Corp., Tokyo, Japan, says it will triple its capacity to make ArF phase shift photomask blanks at its Nagasaki plant. The plant now makes 1000-2000 mask blanks/month.
Fujitsu is cutting 9% of its global work force in an attempt to consolidate global operations and turn its fortunes. The cuts will total 16,400 jobs from its global work force of 180,000, according to company officials. About 11,400 of the cuts will be outside Japan; 5000 will be in Asia; 3000 will be in North America; and the remaining 3400 will be spread around the globe. Fujitsu will spend x25 billion to consolidate its 12 fabs in Japan down to nine, to reduce assembly and test facilities from seven to five and to consolidate all R&D at its new Akiruno center. Fujitsu also plans to make its Gresham, OR, plant a 50-50 joint venture with Advanced Micro Devices.
In other Fujitsu news, the Japanese company and Ramtron International Corp., Colorado Springs, CO, have completed their work on a two-year joint development program to develop an embeddable 0.35µm, ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) manufacturing process. The new process, expected to be production-ready during 2H01, is targeted to improve the cost-effectiveness of standard FRAM memory devices.
Shin-Etsu MicroSi, Tokyo, Japan, and Ultratech Stepper, San Jose, CA, will collaborate in evaluating new materials and exposure tools for the MEMS, bump, photonics and TFH markets. The companies will focus on new leading-edge materials and tools for current and future applications.
EUROPE
Osram GmbH, Munich, Germany, will acquire all of Infineon Technologies' shares in their joint venture, Osram Opto Semiconductors GmbH & Co. OHG, at a cost of $507.2 million. Osram Opto Semiconductors will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Osram GmbH.
SEMX Corp., Armonk, NY, has entered into an agreement with Electrovac Fabrikation Elektrotechnischer Spezialaitikel GmbH, Klosterneuburg, Austria, to become the exclusive distributor of Electrovac's hermetic, glass-to-metal-seal packages, as well as its direct bond copper and aluminum silicon carbide substrates.
General Semiconductor Inc., Melville, NY, will close its facility in Macroom, Ireland, which manufactures TVS diodes and rectifiers. The company will transfer these product lines to its Taiwan and China facilities. Also, the company has instituted a cost-cutting plan at all of its facilities worldwide. It will outsource certain mature product lines, and will make additional headcount reductions totaling some 3% of its work force. The new programs, coupled with prior layoffs, are expected to reduce headcount by some 23%. The company employed 5700 people as of December 31.
STMicroelectronics, Geneva, Switzerland, has signed an agreement with Huawei Technologies, Hong Kong, for the joint development of a silicon chip for subscriber line interface cards in telephone networks. ST and Huawei engineers will jointly develop the chip, which will be manufactured by ST, and used exclusively by Huawei.
ASIA PACIFIC
Shanghai Belling, a Chinese state-owned company, has decided to build a 200mm wafer plant instead of a 150mm plant in Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. The company is presently seeking a potential strategic alliance partner, from which it can acquire second-hand facilities that a new 200mm plant will need and related expertise and know-how.
Sumitomo Chemical, Osaka, Japan, plans to start production of high-purity gallium in Shanghai this fall, through a new joint venture with Inabata & Co., Osaka, Japan, and Technical Sourcing International of the US. Sumitomo will own 70%; the other companies each 15%. The plant will produce 40 tons/yr of high-purity gallium using Sumitomo technology, and Sumitomo will market all the output, mainly to its customers in Japan.
Winbond Electronics Corp., Taipei, Taiwan, has won approval from the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park administration to use a land parcel at a military base for the construction of a 300mm fab. The construction is expected to begin in 2H02. Winbond will invest some $3.5 billion into the plant, and will create more than 1500 new jobs. Production is set to begin in 2004 at a rate of 7000 300mm wafers/month. Expansions will boost output to 40,000 wafers/month by 2007.
Air Liquide's subsidiary, Air Liquide Shanghai, and Air Products and Chemicals' subsidiary, Air Products and Chemicals (China) Investment Co., have signed an agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture, Wuxi-Hi-Tech Gases Co. The company will be based in Wuxi, China. Startup is scheduled for 2H02, and will have an air separation unit with a daily capacity of 430 metric tons of liquid oxygen, nitrogen, and argon.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s Hsinchu, Taiwan, 300mm wafer plant at Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park has completed trial production of 0.15µm wafers. Fab 12 is producing Etron Technology's 8Mb SRAM as well as logic and SRAM test chips for TSMC's evaluation. The plant is expected to start mass production of 0.13µm wafers in 4Q01, with a monthly capacity of 4500 by the end of the year.
Chip assembly and test service provider ST Assembly Test Services Ltd. (STATS), Singapore, will pay $28 million in cash for a majority stake in Winstek Semiconductor Corp., a privately held company. Taiwan-based Winstek offers semiconductor testing services for optical, mixed-signal, digital, and radio frequency components. The transaction will provide STATS with a 51% interest in Winstek.
Prodeo Technologies, Tempe, AZ, a provider of engineering and manufacturing solutions to the semiconductor industry, has signed a letter of intent with Shenzhen Electronics Group (SEG) to form a joint venture to manufacture semiconductor process equipment in Shenzhen, China. Prodeo will provide technology, IP, and manufacturing expertise, while SEG will provide funding, manufacturing personnel, and manufacturing facilities.
Silterra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Kulim, Malaysia, has received ISO 9002 certification from the British Standards Institution. ISO 9002 is a set of managemnet practices to ensure that a company meets its customers' quality requirements.
United Microelectronics Corp., Taipei, Taiwan, has been in talks with Shanghai Belling Co., China, for a wafer plant joint venture. UMC would provide 200mm wafer fab equipment in exchange for a 50% stake in the new wafer plant to be built by Shanghai Belling. According to sources, the deal was to be finalized in September.