INDUSTRY NEWS

World Beat

Asia

SMIC eyes $1B in tools?

In a sign that the equipment sector may be gathering steam, SMIC, the Chinese foundry company, is planning to buy approximately $1 billion in tools for a new fab, reports a financial market research firm. Susquehanna International Group of Bala Cynwyd, PA, says SMIC may purchase more than $1 billion in equipment for its Fab 4 in Beijing. Kevin Vassily, an analyst with Susquehanna, reports that deliveries will begin in March 2004. SMIC is reportedly processing between 10,000 and 15,000 wafers per month for Toshiba under an SRAM contract. The Chinese company also operates two factories in Shanghai.

Firm seals venture deal

A California-based finance company has put together a multimillion-dollar semiconductor equipment deal for a new joint venture between AMD and Fujitsu. GE Global Electronic Solutions (GES) of San Diego structured the deal, valued at approximately $100 million, for FASL Japan.

A wholly owned subsidiary of the two chipmakers, FASL manufactures flash memory chips. The venture's three fabs are located 120 miles north of Tokyo in Aizu-Wakamatsu City. The deal involved the sale and lease-back of 143 pieces of equipment, GES says. The tool package includes lithography, metrology, deposition, etch, implant, and furnace systems.

Lytron opens service depot

Lytron, a manufacturer of recirculating chillers and related heat-transfer components, has opened a service center in Hatogaya City, Japan. Operating in partnership with Alpha Electronics, the Lytron Asian Service Depot will repair and service the supplier's line of Kodiak recirculating chillers and modular cooling systems for customers in the Pacific Rim. Alpha's technicians have been working with Lytron's customers for four years. The Woburn, MA–based company says the service center will be able to make repairs within 48 hours.

Torrex snags reorder

A new company specializing in low-pressure CVD and atomic layer deposition (ALD) has received its first repeat order for its minibatch LPCVD tool. Torrex of Livermore, CA, received the order from Powerchip Semiconductor, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of DRAMs. The start-up and the chipmaker had been collaborating to develop the FlexStar LPCVD system into a production-worthy tool. "We have met two more major milestones in our company's history, having received our first repeat order and acceptance into high-volume manufacturing," notes Julio Guardado, Torrex's president and CEO.

SCP Global wins tool orders

A semiconductor capital equipment vendor has received several tool orders worth more than $25 million. Boise, ID, toolmaker SCP Global is selling 300-mm automated wet process tools, to be used in DRAM manufacturing, to new and repeat customers in Taiwan. In addition, orders for 200-mm equipment have come from repeat customers. One such tool will be delivered to Japan for use in etch applications, while another one will be sold to a domestic U.S. customer for nitride strip use. Finally, the company will be shipping a tool to a European analog mixed-signal device manufacturer to perform standard RCA cleans.

Europe

ASIC design center opens

A French IC design firm has opened a design center in Belgium that will focus on ASIC integration. LEA of Rennes has created a business called LEA ASICs for Broadband Communication (ABC) in Antwerp. LEA ABC joins other ASIC centers operated by the company in France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Far East.

In a related development, LEA has signed an agreement with Europractice IC Service, which provides prototype ICs and low-volume production services. The service is coordinated by IMEC, the university-based research center based in Leuven, Belgium. LEA and Europractice want to develop new ASICs involving xDSL. LEA, which specializes in ADSL/VDSL active and passive filters, will focus on broadband telecommunication uses. The French firm says its Active Wire is the first ADSL splitter filter integrated in silicon with CMOS processes at 0.5 µm.

Genus sells ALD tools

An unnamed European DRAM manufacturer has bought several StrataGem 200 ALD systems from Genus, the vendor announced. The chipmaker is the second DRAM manufacturer to use the deposition tools in a production setting. The latest customer will use the systems for 200-mm wafer processing on chips at the 90-nm technology node, Genus says. The supplier notes that the chipmaker is the first one to use ALD at the 90-nm node.