World News
07/01/2001
WORLDWIDE HIGHLIGHTS
B-to-B numbers hit all-time low in April
The North American book-to-bill ratio saw historic numbers in April — unfortunately, they were a new low.
The ratio dropped to 0.42 for the month of April, according to Semi, which also revised its March book-to-bill ratio to 0.59, down from 0.64.
Worldwide April bookings totaled $711.8 million. That figure is 41% below the revised March level of $1.03 billion and 74% below the $2.72 billion on orders logged for the same period last year.
April shipments totaled $1.68 billion, 17% below March's revised $2.03 billion, and 15% below April 2000's $1.99 billion.
Worldwide semiconductor sales also dropped again in the month of April, sliding to $13.72 billion, according to the latest report from the Semiconductor Industry Association, San Jose, CA. That figure is a 10.2% drop over the $15.28 billion logged for the same period last year and 5.8% below March 2001's $14.56 billion.
Every geographic region declined again in April except the Asia Pacific region, which saw a gain of 3.4%, reaching $3.54 billion for April, compared to the $3.42 billion logged for March.
The European region fell to $3.07 billion for the month, dropping 6.2% over the $3.42 logged sequentially. Japan logged $3.35 billion for April, a decrease of 6.5% over March's $3.59 billion. The Americas saw the sharpest decline, falling 8.8% from March's $4.11 billion to $3.75 billion.
Some encouraging news came from VLSI Research, San Jose, CA, which reported in its latest Industry Pulse Pro that worldwide front-end capacity utilization was up for the month of April, increasing to 85.2% from March's 82.4%. The firm expects this figure to continue at a steady incline until November, reaching 97.3% and dropping slightly to 95% in December.
Semi seeks to give global equipment suppliers a voice
Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (Semi), San Jose, CA, is creating an internal committee of major equipment suppliers that the consortium's head hopes will act as an "interface or liaison" with other industry segments, particularly chipmakers.
 |
"We're in the process of setting up within Semi a committee, an infrastructure that would both feed information on a timely basis to members and would give them an infrastructure to deal with issues," said Semi President Stanley Myers. "We're getting our membership involved in the business issues — cycles, economics. It might go so far as new concepts of e-diagnostics; it's really for a better understanding of the suppliers' viewpoint. Our objective is to try to take on what the IEF has been doing and get some supplier-based input."
Jim Greed, retired president of VLSI Standards, who has been working as a consultant with Semi on the committee, said it will include the top 15 global suppliers (by revenue), but also three test companies and another 15 companies, now being identified, whose activities are largely regarded as "very, very critical," said Greed, including photomask shops, automation, and others.
In related news, Semi North America and the Semiconductor Industry Suppliers Association (SISA) are merging programs and operations. SISA employees were offered jobs with Semi and members of the SISA board of directors will join Semi's North America Advisory Board.
USA
Intel Corp., San Jose, Ca, has opened a 300mm wafer research laboratory in Hillsboro, OR. Named RP1 (Research and Pathfinding), Intel said the $250 million facility is the first of its kind dedicated to research in advanced silicon process technologies on 300mm wafers. Intel will use the facility to develop next-generation photolithography, high-performance transistors, advanced optical and copper interconnects, and environmentally friendly manufacturing processes using new materials and chemistries.
LSI Logic, Milpitas, CA, has received permission to complete the last leg of its acquisition of C-Cube Microsystems Inc., Milpitas, CA. LSI has also acquired the majority ownership of the company, and the transaction, which began on April 13, is valued at approximately $850 million.
Agere Systems, Allentown, PA, and RF Micro Devices Inc., Greensboro, NC, will form a strategic alliance to develop, design and manufacture ICs for next-generation, data-capable digital cellular phones and other communication products. RF Micro Devices will invest approximately $58 million over two years to upgrade cleanrooms and purchase equipment to be installed in Agere's Orlando, FL-manufacturing facility. Agere and RF will work on radio frequency chips based on SiGe. RFMD will deploy engineers to Agere's site. Singapore's Sunright has acquired San Jose, CA-based Tessera's operations for the manufacturing of precision single- and double-layer flexible circuit substrates for advanced semiconductor chip packaging. As part of the acquisition, Sunright has acquired a license to Tessera's flexible circuit substrate technology. Tessera will be renamed Flex2Chip Inc., and following the acquisition, Sunright plans to establish a mass production facility for advanced flex circuit substrates for chip scale packaging and other advanced packaging technologies. The new facility will immediately expand from being a captive flex circuit substrate manufacturer to offering its products broadly to the packaging marketplace, the company said.
Amkor Technology, West Chester, PA, and Shinko Electric Industries Co. Ltd., Nagano, Japan, have entered into a two-year joint development agreement that will give each company access to each other's patents and technology.
Ashland Inc., Dublin, OH, has purchased the assets of Alternative Engineering Resources Inc., a process-maintenance and tool-refurbishment services provider. The new business, located in Chandler, AZ, will operate within the Electronic Chemicals Division (ECD) of Ashland Specialty Chemical Co., a division of Ashland Inc.
Brooks Automation, Chelmsford, MA, has signed a letter of intent to acquire the intellectual property for the e-diagnostic infrastructure developed by KLA-Tencor, San Jose, CA, for the deployment of its iSupport program. iSupport allows service and support teams to remotely access tools in customer fabs in real-time to diagnose and resolve problems online.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Hsinchu, Taiwan, will set up an R&D center in Silicon Valley. The focus of the center will be to undertake component development and introduction of 0.11-0.07µm and more advanced processes. The move is meant to better utilize international talent and allow the company to get closer to its clients, says TSMC president F.C. Tseng.
General Chemical Corp.'s Electronic Chemical Group, Parsippany, NJ, has received ISO 9002 certification of its high-purity, electronic chemicals manufacturing facility in Hollister, CA. The facility produces specialty solvents for the semiconductor, disk drive, and other high-tech markets.
Credence Systems Corp., Fremont, CA, will acquire Integrated Measurement Systems Inc. (IMS), Beaverton, OR, in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $170 million. IMS will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Credence when the transaction closes, which is expected to be in 3Q01.
TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., Hillsboro, OR, has acquired Florida-based Sawtek Inc. in a $1.3 billion stock swap deal. Sawtek will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of TriQuint and will continue making electronic signal processing components under the Sawtek name.
Veeco Instruments Inc., Ronkonkoma, NY, has renamed its Industrial Measurement operation NeXray LLC. The new name was chosen to symbolize the division's focus on the x-ray fluorescence market, Veeco said.
Scientific Systems, Dublin, Ireland, has received ISO 9001 certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) at its San Jose, CA facility. Scientific Systems is a plasma process sensor and instrument designer and manufacturer for the semiconductor and optics industries.
Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Lehigh Valley, PA, has entered the tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) photoresist developer market with the opening of a new blending and packaging facility in Tempe, AZ. A wet chemical that makes up the largest segment within the photoresist ancillaries group of products, TMAH photoresist developer, is comprised of approximately 2% TMAH in deionized water. Semiconductor manufacturers use the product to dissolve exposed positive photoresist following DUV exposure.
Entegris Inc., Chaska, MN, has closed facilities in Castle Rock, CO, and Munmak, Korea and has shifted worldwide operations to optimize global production. About 170 full-time positions (out of approximately 1800 full-time employees) in the Colorado and Korea facilities were eliminated.
SpeedFam-IPEC Inc., Chandler, AZ, reduced its worldwide headcount by 12%, about 120 employees, as part of its continued focus on reducing operating costs during the industry slowdown. On March 1, the company announced a cost-savings plan that included an 18% work force reduction, a 10% salary cutback for executives, the deferment of management raises until business conditions improve, and a decrease in overall discretionary spending.
Silicon Valley Group, San Jose, CA, recently acquired by ASM Lithography NV, Veldhoven, Netherlands, is planning to cut its work force by about 400 people, or 10%, in reaction to a slowdown in the industry. The company also said it would shut down operations during the weeks of July 2 and September 4, 2001.
By 2H01, Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, IL, will inaugurate a chip plant in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in a partnership with the Brazilian state government and the Ministry of Science and Technology. The plant, slated to produce chip prototypes, will help the Brazilian government reduce an electronic component trade deficit.
Semitool, Kalispell, MT, has received a patent for copper seed layer enhancement. The company says its seed layer enhancement technology can extend the application of copper to design rules beyond 0.1µm with current process technology. Semitool's technology also allows a reduction of PVD layer thickness by as much as 75%, which eliminates overhang.
Dow Chemical, Detroit, MI, plans to cut 4500 jobs (8% of its work force), which is double the earlier job-reduction estimate. The company plans to cut annual costs by $1.1 billion by early 2003, more than double its $500 million projection when the Union Carbide takeover was announced in 1999.
Photronics, Jupiter, FL, has realigned its global photomask manufacturing network by consolidating its facilities in Florida, California, and Germany. As the final phase of its June 2000 merger with Align-Rite International, the plan focuses on increasing the company's capacity utilization, leveraging its manufacturing efficiencies and adding resources to accelerate technology development. As part of the facility consolidation, Photronics will reduce its workforce by 8-10%. The company will be relocating its Northern California operations to a new facility in Silicon Valley.
JAPAN
Mitsubishi Kakoki Kaisha Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, has obtained exclusive domestic sales rights from the German firm DAS GmbH for the Escape manufacturing waste gas abatement system. Mitsubishi Kakoki will also manufacture the systems at its factory in Kawasaki.
Disco Corp., Tokyo, Japan, has begun operations at its new plant in Hiroshima prefecture, making air spindles that connect diamond sharpeners and motors for dicing devices that cut wafers. The company has invested x2 billion in the plant and equipment and initial production will total approximately 2000 air spindles/month, with plans to double next year. The company has also purchased a site in Chiba prefecture for another new factory, where it plans to make grinders and precision diamond tools.
Kawasaki Steel Corp., Tokyo, Japan, will separate its semiconductor chip business from steel operations and will establish a wholly owned semiconductor subsidiary, Kawasaki Microelectronics, effective this month. The venture will be capitalized at x5 billion, and headquartered in Chiba. Approximately 480 employees will continue ASIC design and manufacturing. The other steel makers in Japan, such as Nippon Steel, Kobe Steel, and NKK, have already retired from the semiconductor chip business with big deficits. Very recently, Kobe sold all the stock of its joint DRAM manufacturing venture to US-based Micron and has removed itself from the chip business.
NEC Corp., Tokyo, Japan, has announced that NEC Semiconductor's Scotland plant will withdraw from DRAM manufacturing by 2002. NEC will gradually shrink DRAM production in China and shift to logic LSI manufacturing. NEC's DRAM production in Japan will be integrated into NEC Hiroshima, Higashi-Hiroshima, by March 2002. The NEC/Hitachi joint DRAM manufacturing and marketing company, Elpida Memory, Tokyo, is constructing a 300mm DRAM volume manufacturing plant on the site of NEC Hiroshima. NEC will withdraw from conventional LCD display manufacturing in 2002 and will invest instead in making plasma displays. The company will concentrate on small displays for mobiles and large size ones (18-inch or bigger) at its subsidiary in Akita.
Hitachi, Tokyo, Japan, and Matsushita Electrical, Osaka (maker of Panasonic equipment), have reportedly agreed to collaborate on manufacturing and development in the consumer electronics field. Hitachi has said that the two companies have yet to reach the agreement as reported, but said the agreement is still under negotiation. According to Hitachi sources, the collaboration will include development of next-generation digital consumer electronics and joint development of (digital) system LSI chips for the application to compete with the SONY-Toshiba collaboration.
 |
Equipment orders from Japanese companies rebounded in march, totalling x88.5 billion, up 12% from February's x42.86 billion.
Oki Electric, Tokyo, Japan, plans to establish a $645.1 million logic IC wafer processing plant adjacent to its existing plant in Miyazaki on Kyushu Island. It will employ 0.18µm design rules and 200mm wafers at a level of 25,000 wafers/month. The final decision is to be made this year, based upon demand recovery toward fall. Oki will invest jointly with a strategic partner, probably Sony, according to sources, to save the total capex.
Sony, Tokyo Seimitsu, and the Japanese e-beam startup Leepl (Low Energy Electron-beam Proximity Lithography) are calling for companies to join their new consortium to exchange information and set standards for low-energy electron-beam proximity lithography. Sony will install the first of these Leepl tools in its Semiconductor Development Division in Atsugi this fall. The system should be ready for commercial production by summer 2003, and will aim at low cost production of 0.07µm devices by 2004. Former Canon engineer Takao Utsumi founded Leepl last June. TSK owns 49% of the venture, and is remodeling an old Caterpillar-Mitsubishi factory in Hachioji it recently purchased for some $16 million (x2 billion) to build 50 of the tools a month starting in 2003.
Sony and Fujitsu will end their joint development efforts when they finish work on 0.13µm processes for systems chips next month. Sony will now partner instead with Toshiba Semiconductor for 0.10 and 0.07µm process development, apparently casting its vote for some of Toshiba's researchers' recent spate of interesting new ideas for low cost production. Toshiba looks for big volume orders from Sony for future PlayStation models and other digital consumer products. Sony aims to support its Sony Computer Entertainment unit, which is already working with Toshiba and IBM on development of next generation microprocessors, and assure itself a stable supply of semiconductors for its products.
EUROPE
Lambda Physik AG and Jenoptik Laser Optik Systeme GmbH, both of Germany, have formed a joint venture to develop and produce radiation sources in the extreme ultraviolet range. The new company, XTREME technologies GmbH, will have sites in Gottingen and Jena, and will develop electrically excited discharge plasmas and laser-produced plasma sources. Plans are to have a prototype beam source by next year, the companies said.
Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, and Saifun Semiconductors Ltd., Netanya, Israel, have established a joint venture, Ingentix, to develop, manufacture, and market flash memory products based on Saifun's nitrided read only memory (NROM) technology. Ingentix will focus on developing MultiMediaCard storage products, and it plans to release a 64Mb low-cost card in 3Q02. The company will be located in Germany and Israel.
DuPont Photomasks Inc., Round Rock, TX, will close its photomask manufacturing facility in Hamilton, Scotland, relocating equipment to the company's 10 other photomask production sites worldwide. The shutdown is expected to have no effect on customer deliveries, DuPont said, and 36 employees will be affected by the shut down.
ASIA PACIFIC
Applied Materials has started construction of a new Southeast Asia headquarters in Singapore, and has opened a new cleanroom manufacturing facility for semiconductor components in Taiwan. The Southeast Asia headquarters in Singapore's Changi Business Park will incorporate a training center where customers can learn to use the company's wafer processing equipment. Applied has more than 500 employees in Singapore and Malaysia.
Lam Research Corp., Fremont, CA, is opening a combined sales office and training center in Singapore. The 20,000-square-foot-plus facility houses sales offices, training rooms, and a training lab. Its expansion plans include adding a Lam 200mm and 300mm capable 2300 etch series system and a Teres CMP system.
Silicon Storage Technology Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, and Nanya Technology Corp., Taoyuan, Taiwan, have entered into a joint product development agreement in which Nanya will serve as a foundry for the other company's 0.25 and 0.18µm flash memory products based on memory technology. Initial wafer production is expected to begin later this year at Nanya's Taoyuan facility. The companies will also work together to jointly develop application specific flash memory products.
GCT, Hsinchu, Taiwan, has completed construction at the Hsinchu Science-Based Park and expects to begin small-scale production of 6-in. epitaxial wafers in 3Q01. The company, founded in April 2000, plans to produce 6000 chips/month in 4Q01.
Youhan Semiconductor Materials Co. Ltd., Beijing, China, and Linhe Industrial Development Zone, Beijing, have reached an agreement by which the two entities will invest approximately $240 million in a semiconductor material-based project. The first phase will be completed within the year and the second phase in the next three to five years, the companies said. The base's major products will include silicon chips of various types and sizes, according to a Youhan source.
ProMos Technologies Inc., Taipei, Taiwan, and Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., Hsinchu, Taiwan, are expected to compete in 300mm production. ProMos Technologies plans to install 100 300mm manufacturing machines in Taiwan next month. The company plans to import semi-finished raw material for the 300mm wafers from Infineon, which will shorten the time period for producing 300mm wafers from 60 to 45 days. Powerchip will set up a 300mm trial production line using 0.15µm technology in Taiwan.
The board of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TMSC), Hsinchu, Taiwan, has approved the sale of its 50 million shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Technology Corp. (TSTC) to Amkor Technology, West Chester, PA. Under the terms of the agreement, TSMC will receive approximately $3.5 million in cash and 505,050 shares of Amkor. If TSTC meets its 2001 revenues, TSMC will receive an additional $2.6 million of Amkor shares or equivalent cash value.
Rohm, Kyoto, Japan, plans to invest $10 million (500 million pesos) to expand its chip assembly operations and production of resistors and capacitors at its plant in the Philippines. The company will also donate some $8.2 million (x1 billion) for an information technology building at Doshisha University in Kyoto.
Winbond Electronics Corp. is considering building a 300mm wafer plant in the island's Hsinchu Science Park, after changing plans to set up the plant at the Tainan Science Park due to possible vibration problems posed by a high-speed railway planned for nearby. Winbond expects to start construction by year's end, with an eye toward upgrading its wafer manufacturing technology to less than 0.1µm in 2004. Macronix International Co. Ltd. is also expected to set up three 200mm and 300mm wafer plants at Hsinchu, and Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. started construction of a 300mm plant in the park this month. The Powerchip plant is expected to begin mass production in 3Q02.
____________________________________
 |
Instant evaluation
ASML's LithoCruiser, which will be featured at Semicon West, allows real-time viewing of lithography process windows based on simulation of circuit features. It allows engineers to evaluate instantly almost all photomask and wafer-imaging variables — from OPC treatment strategies to defocus, exposure, lens aberration, numerical aperture, and illumination. For more on the LithoCruiser, see the Semi West Product Panorama starting on p. 209.
____________________________________
 |
SoC vs. stacked SiP
Japanese chipmakers are investing in the development of stacked system-in-a-package technology, a packaging strategy that may offer better cost/performance and significantly faster development time than system-on-a-chip. For the full story, see AsiaFocus on p. 48.