MICRO: World Beat

Slovakian fab plans are on

ON Semiconductor plans to build a second fab at its plant in Piestany, Slovakia. The 150-mm wafer line will use ON's HD3e technology to make low-voltage MOS power devices for wireless, computing, and automotive use. The chipmaker expects to complete the first phase of the project at the 915,000-sq-ft site by early 2003. ON says it will hire an additional 90 workers for the new fab. The company already employs 250 at the site.

Middle East

Tower fab makes first lot

Tower Semiconductor's Fab 2 pilot line has produced its first lot of 0.18-µm chips at yields that are better than expected, the chipmaker reports. Tower met its production schedule with the wafer lot, produced at its new Fab 2 plant in Migdal Haemek, Israel, using technology transferred from Toshiba. Tower, which specializes in advanced flash memory devices and CMOS image sensors, broke ground on the site in February 2001 and installed the first tool set in January 2002. The fab will begin full production later this year.

SAES opens Shanghai plant

SAES Getters Technical Service has opened a plant in the Zhang Jiang Hi-Tech Park in the Pudong area of Shanghai. The company is the second established in China by the parent firm, SAES Getters Group. SAES says China is the largest consumer of getters for CRTs and one of the most important markets for SAES products. The technical service manufactures UHP products and performs QA and QC functions. Based in Italy, SAES Getters has invested approximately $25 million in its Chinese operations. The plant is built on a 19,800-sq-ft site that SAES Getters Technical Service purchased in 1998.

Mask plant upgrade planned

DuPont Photomasks Inc. (DPI) says it will become the first photomask manufacturer in China to install a production line for producing masks that support 180-nm design rules. The expanded capability is part of the vendor's plans to renovate its plant in Shanghai. DPI says the Chinese chip market will grow at a 28% annual rate over the next five years, reaching approximately $40 billion in 2005. The production line will contain Alta 3700 laser pattern generators from Etec Systems, the company says.

Rhetech names China rep

A subsidiary of Semitool, a manufacturer of wet-chemical processing systems, has appointed Seki Technotron Asia as its sales representative in China. The subsidiary, Rhetech, sells fully remanufactured Semitool spin rinser dryers, single-wafer processers, spray solvent tools, and spray acid tools. Seki Technotron will support the Rhetech line from a new sales and service facility in the Pudong area of Shanghai.

Philips opens two plants

Royal Philips Electronics has opened two new plants in Shanghai to support the company's components division. One plant makes LCDs and houses approximately 19,800 sq ft of cleanroom space for two standard STN lines. An adjacent 121,770-sq-ft factory is an optical storage facility that manufactures drive mechanisms, loaders, and optical pickup units for use in CD-R and CD-RW drives. It replaces an older facility and enables Philips to place its manufacturing operations in a single location. Both plants are located in the Wai Gao Qiao Free-Trade Zone.

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