Vendor plans Singapore move

Electroglas has decided to move its manufacturing operations from San Jose to Singapore. The company, which manufactures wafer probers and related process management tools, will begin production at the Asian site by mid-2002. Full production of probers will begin by mid-2003. Electroglas says the move brings the company closer to its growing customer base in the region.

Electroglas will continue to manufacture probers at its San Jose headquarters until it completes the transition. Company headquarters will remain in San Jose, and Electroglas will keep its inspection products division at its current location in Corvallis, OR. All other units will remain in their locations as well.

Wafer operations merge

Sumitomo Metal Industries and Mitsubishi Materials have merged their silicon wafer businesses. Called Sumco, the new company began operating in February out of its Tokyo headquarters. The new venture reportedly starts out life with nearly 25% of the silicon substrate market. The companies, which had been collaborating on a venture to develop 300-mm wafers, announced the merger plans in April 2001. Both manufacturers share equally in the partnership, which comes at a time of relatively slow growth for suppliers of blank wafers. Sumco has 15 plants located worldwide. Reijiro Mori, former advisor to the president and director of Sumitomo, is president of the new company. Minoru Mizukoshi, formerly chairman of Mitsubishi Materials Silicon, is vice president.

Samsung readies SOC ICs

Samsung Electronics says it will use recently developed 130-nm logic process technology to mass-produce system-on-chip devices and microprocessors. The South Korean chipmaker uses copper interconnect technology with the 130-nm process, because copper has lower resistance and heat emission than aluminum interconnects. Samsung says it will use the new technology to manufacture high-performance microprocessors and more than 20 next-generation SOC devices in 2002. The chipmaker expects to sell at least $1 billion worth of the devices annually by 2005.

Samsung has developed three process technologies to suit different SOC designs: a generic process for overall SOC devices; a high-speed process for cpu and network devices; and a low-power-consumption process for mobile handsets and PDAs.

Foundry readies process

Dongbu Electronics claims its Class 1 fab in Eumsung, South Korea, is on schedule to qualify a new 130-nm CMOS by the end of June 2002. The new CMOS process, DL013GD, will be employed to meet demand for next-generation SOC designs for the wireless, networking, and advanced consumer electronics markets, according to Dongbu. The technology features FSG and low-k intermetal dielectric options. In addition, the process has up to eight layers of metal and polytransistor gate lengths ≥80 nm. The introduction follows Dongbu's recent launch of a low-voltage 180-nm process.