Phillips expands nijmegen

04/01/1997

Philips expands Nijmegen

To support volume production of its fifth-generation RF wideband transistors, Philips Semiconductors is investing US$15 million in its state-of-the-art discrete products wafer fab at Nijmegen, which is already the largest semiconductor plant in Europe.

The discrete fab is one of five on the Nijmegen site. Its 3000 m2 is now fully operational, with all critical wafer-handling areas meeting Class 100 cleanroom conditions. Both MOS and bipolar technologies are used to manufacture products such as general-purpose broadband transistors, video modules, CATV modules, cell-phone RF power modules and transistors, and modules for cellular base stations.

The $15 million will be used to equip the fab with equipment required in the double-polysilicon process that Philips uses in the manufacture of its fifth-generation transistors. The first equipment to be installed will be for EPI layer deposition, rapid thermal anneal, and fine-line metallization.

Philips began volume shipments of its TM-1000 Trimedia processor, as the first versions in 0.35-micron CMOS became available. The 100-MHz clock frequency devices, with 5.5 million transistors per chip, are targeted at specialized systems such as multimedia set-top boxes and as graphics, video, and audio coprocessors for PC systems.