INDUSTRY NEWS

Asia

Moto invests more in China

Motorola says an integrated chip manufacturing complex in Tianjin will be the centerpiece of the company's new $1.9-billion investment plan in China. The complex known as MOS 17 will focus on manufacturing Motorola's Digital DNA semiconductors for wireless communications devices, automobile electronics, and other consumer products. The chipmaker also will use a portion of the investment to expand a telecommunication products plant in Tianjin. The expenditures raise Motorola's total investment in the area to $3.4 billion and makes the firm the largest foreign investor in China.

Devices made at the Tianjin integrated semiconductor manufacturing site will be initially sold to Motorola customers in China and the Asia-Pacific region. The chipmaker cites market statistics showing that demand in China for cellular phones will experience an annual compound growth rate of 37% over the next five years. In addition, the semiconductor market in China is growing 17% annually and will reach total sales of approximately $18 billion by 2004. At full production in 2002 the Tianjin facility will employ 2400 people. Motorola employs 10,000 workers in China and operates 18 research centers.

Cymer opens training center

Cymer, a supplier of excimer lasers for deep-UV photolithography, has opened a customer training center in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The San Diego­based company says the center houses its advanced ELS-6000 2-kHz laser as well as an ELS-5000 laser. Cymer will provide laser training in both Mandarin and English to its customers from chip houses and to manufacturers of lithography tools. Cymer claims to have the largest installed base of any excimer laser supplier in Southeast Asia.

Philips expands in Shanghai

Responding to a growing demand for advanced LCDs, Philips Flat Display Systems is expanding its 12,000-sq-ft LCD plant in Shanghai and has broken ground on a second facility, which will begin production by the end of 2001. The expansion will permit Philips to increase production of its application-specific color and monochrome passive- and active-matrix display modules by more than 40%. The 1- to 8-in. displays can be put in mobile communication devices as well as in automotive navigation systems.

Middle East

Tower picks fab builder

Tower Semiconductor has chosen M+W Zander of Stuttgart, Germany, to oversee construction of Tower's new fab in Migdal Haemek, Israel. The turnkey project will cost approximately $200 million and be completed in three phases. Meissner-Baran, an Israel-based subsidiary of M+W, will participate in the construction project. Groundbreaking is scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter of 2000. Designated Fab 2, the plant will make 0.18-µm chips on 200-mm wafers. Production is scheduled to begin in early 2002 with a maximum capacity of 33,000 wafers per month. At full strength the fab will employ approximately 1000 workers.

In a related development, Alliance Semiconductor will invest $75 million in Tower's fab project. The money will be disbursed in stages over 18 months based on satisfactory completion of key construction, equipment, and production milestones, Tower says. The pact calls for Alliance to receive a guaranteed portion of the fab's available wafer capacity at "competitive pricing." Alliance makes high-performance memory and logic devices including SRAMs, DRAMs, and flash memory chips.

Europe

Label firm finds distributor

LGInternational, a manufacturer of cleanroom labels, has signed Intertrade Scientific (ITS) of Milton Keynes, England, as its European distributor. LGInternational is based in Portland, OR. ITS will sell the vendor's CleanMark labeling products throughout the European Community. The distributor has specialized in marketing process and metrology equipment from suppliers in Europe, United States, and Japan since the 1970s.

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