INDUSTRY NEWS

World Beat

Big chip consortium planned?

Some of Japan's largest chipmakers may form a joint company to produce next-generation chips, according to a news report. Reuters reported December 29 that 11 of Japan's major semiconductor manufacturers could begin as early as this year to build a fab to produce chips with linewidths ≤100 nm. Costing an estimated $1.52 billion, the project would be the first such manufacturing collaboration for the chipmakers, the report said. Participants include Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Oki Electric Industry, and Matsushita.

Facing stiff competition from manufacturers in the United States and South Korea, the Japanese chipmakers decided to investigate pooling their resources. Production would focus on system ICs with the capacity to process large amounts of data for use in digital televisions and communications equipment, the report said. Each company would sell the devices under its own name.

Foundry buys ion system

A Shanghai-based foundry has purchased an ion implant system from Applied Materials. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) bought Applied's new Quantum LEAP tool for installation early this year at its Section 4 foundry. When running at full capacity, the foundry will produce 25,000 wafers per month at the 180 nm technology node, Applied says. The vendor says the Quantum system is capable of handling high-volume production. The ultra-low-energy implantation tool operates at 200 eV. Applied notes that China is expected to become the second-largest global market for semiconductors by the end of the decade. The equipment manufacturer has recently opened a 90,000-sq-ft marketing and technical training center in Shanghai. The facility is the fifth office Applied has established in China.

Luxtron opens service center

Luxtron, a vendor of in situ metrology systems, has opened a service center in Japan. The facility will serve customers in the Asia-Pacific region. Located in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo, the service center offers technical support and repair services for Luxtron's clients in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other countries in the region. Luxtron is based in Santa Clara, CA, and specializes in endpoint control, temperature measurement, and deposition rate monitoring equipment.

Europe

SensArray hires European firm

SensArray of Fremont, CA, a manufacturer of thermal measurement systems, has hired Veonis Technologies to sell the tools in the European semiconductor market. Based in Munich, Veonis will also service the equipment, which include data acquisition systems for use in wafer temperature stabilization in the making of chips, LCDs, and memory disks.

Israel

Foundry finds IP distributor

Avant! of Fremont, CA, has signed an agreement with Tower Semiconductor of Migdal Haemek, Israel, to develop and distribute library products for the Israeli foundry's 180-nm process. Device fabrication will be in Tower's Fab 2 facility for contract customers. Avant! will adapt its Libra-Visa-Library capability to Tower's TS18/1.5V and TS18/ 1.8V processes. The components include standard cells and memory compilers for graphics, multimedia, and telecommunications use.