Issue



AsiaFocus


09/01/1999







This month in AsiaFocus:

UMC eyes 300mm fab
Malaysian fab 1st Silicon readies for ramp
Asia Briefs

UMC eyes 300mm fab, names foundry ops head

Following plans to consolidate its Taiwan-based foundry companies, UMC Group has named a CEO to oversee the combined foundry operations and has set a timeline for its first 300mm fab.

Peter Chang, current president of UMC Group company United Semiconductor Corp. (USC), will take up responsibility for UMC's foundry operations, reporting to co-CEOs John Hsuan and Don Brooks.

Among Chang's responsibilities will be the new 300mm facility, an estimated US$3 billion project. Construction of the fab shell in the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park in southern Taiwan is slated to begin by the end of this year or early 2000, said a UMC spokesperson. Plans call for the shell to be completed by the end of 2000, to be followed by a completed cleanroom in 1Q-2Q of 2001. The ultimate capacity of the facility will total 40,000 wafers/month, broken out in two 20,000 wafer/month modules, with construction of the second module to follow the first. Each line will be capable of 0.13µm and copper processing. Equipment installation and first product are expected by 3Q01. This is generally in line with schedules disclosed by TSMC, Intel, and Texas Instruments in recent months, assuming that volume production does not commence until 2002.

Earlier this year, UMC announced the plan to consolidate its three joint venture companies and the publicly held UTEK Semiconductor (see Solid State Technology, August 1999, p. 36). The move is intended to help UMC be a more financially efficient organization. At the same time, the company is planning to accelerate its capacity expansion plans by about a year, upping output to more than 2.4 million 8-in. equivalent wafers next year.

During the consolidation process, Chang will continue as president of USC, a position he has held since USC's startup in 1996. Prior to USC, Chang was VP for UMC's Fab 1 and Fab 2 operations. --Christine Lunday

Malaysian fab 1st Silicon readies for ramp

If you spotted a tanned Italian gentleman roaming the halls of Semicon West with checkbook in hand, there's good chance it was Claudio Loddo looking for equipment for his new wafer fab in Southeast Asia. Loddo, CEO of 1st Silicon (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, has spent the past 18 months bringing Malaysia's first state-of-the-art wafer fab closer to reality.

"We expect to have a watertight building by the end of this year, with equipment and hookup taking place in early Q2 of next year," says Loddo, who was planning to finalize and fine-tune 1st Silicon's equipment set during Semicon West, with purchase orders being issued in August.

The Sarawak-based company has on board a core team of 110 people, 80% of whom are engineering staff recruited from South Korea, Southeast Asia, US, and Europe. As the project gets closer to completion, another 500 to 600 operators and technicians will be hired from the local community.

The fab is wholly owned by the Sarawak government, but the government's stake will drop to 20% as foreign shareholders are brought in over the next two years. In addition to a $200 million syndicated loan from German banks, the Malaysian Federal Government has granted the startup a sovereign guarantee of $300 million. "Out of a $1 billion project, we are almost halfway there in terms of money," says 1st Silicon CFO Suri Ramanathan.

For a clue on what tool set the Malaysian startup is considering, look to Sharp Corp. of Japan, 1st Silicon's technology provider. However, Loddo insists 1st Silicon's fab will not be a "copy exact" of Sharp. "Commonality and critical path have to be considered so we don't go in different directions. Other than that, we will choose equipment to best suit us," he says.

While some in the industry have scoffed at the thought of a $1 billion fab in such a remote location, Loddo dismisses such talk. "It really doesn't matter where you are located provided you comply with the specifications that the industry wants from you," he says. In fact, 1st Silicon is not as remote as it might seem. The site, in the Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone on the outskirts of Sarawak's Kuching City, already has four established electronics manufacturing facilities, including a disk media plant built by Komag. Kuching itself is a little more than a one-hour flight from Singapore, where Loddo expects to source most of the fab's consumables.

In the wake of failed Southeast Asian fab ventures like SubMicron and Interconnect Technology, 1st Silicon has had to work hard to establish credibility. In particular, Loddo has had to overcome fallout from Interconnect, the first but failed attempt at building a fab in Sarawak. "We have been fighting the ghost of Interconnect, the bad reputation. But we are not the same company. Our style is different," Loddo says. -- Craig Addison,
Asia correspondent

ASIA BRIEFS

Steag RTP Systems, San Jose, CA, has secured multiple AST 3000 RTP system orders, one from Taiwan's largest foundry and three from the region's second largest. "Foundries are becoming an increasingly important segment of our business," noted Bob Hollands, Steag VP of marketing, adding that foundries are some of the most aggressive users of RTP technology. Two systems have already shipped, and three more are scheduled for delivery throughout this year.

Unitive International N.V. and Unitive Electronics Inc. have formed Unitive Taiwan, a new joint venture company in Taipei. Unitive's advanced semiconductor processing services include wafer bumping, I/O redistribution, and repassivation. The production capacity of the new operation is expected to reach 100,000 wafers by January 2000. Principals include Daniel Teng, president, and Ray Chang, chairman.

Ashland-ACT Korea Ltd. has opened a new manufacturing facility for advanced photoresist strippers near Seoul. The facility was expected to begin manufacturing photo resist strippers for customer qualification in August.