Continuing its conservative approach to capital expenditure and capacity additions, UMC is raising CapEx for 2010 to between US$1.2 and US$1.5 billion. CapEx for 2009 was reported as US$550 million. The increased spending was due to strong demand for leading-edge technology, which is capacity constrained at its two, 300mm fabs. UMC said that overall fab utilization fell slightly in the fourth quarter to 86%, down from 89% in the seasonally strong third quarter. Utilization rates are expected to remain in the high-80’s for the first quarter of 2010 and wafer shipments to be flat with the previous quarter.
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VLSI Research has awarded Oerlikon Systems a ‘five star rating’ for customer satisfaction in 2009. The five star ratings are handed out by chip equipment users (representing 95% of the world’s semiconductor market) and compiled by VLSI Research as part of their 2009 Customer Satisfaction Report.
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Linde North America has launched its new sub-atmospheric dopant gas
source for the semiconductor and related industries. The Genii
Sub-Atmospheric Gas Sources are used for ion implantation and use
chemical complexing or electrochemical generation to deliver a high
performance as required by IC manufacturers.
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Are you uncertain about the 2010 IC industry recovery? It may help to consider these actual data points and current expectations that offer support for an increasingly positive outlook for the IC industry this year. The 10 points listed should provide the reader with some encouragement with regard to the IC industry and its suppliers in 2010. Is it clear skies and smooth sailing for the rest of the year? Not, quite. Some potential “pot holes” on the road to 2010 success include: a possible spike in oil prices to greater than US$100 barrel; a major terrorist attack that weakens consumer confidence and the economy along with it; and/or, another major shock to the financial system like a major collapse of a country’s economy.
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Guest blog by Tod Higinbotham, Executive Vice President, Process Solutions, ATMI
AZ Electronic Materials has appointed Geoff Wild as chief executive
officer. Wild will succeed Thomas von Krannichfeldt who retires from the
position after five years. von Krannichfeldt remains a member of the
board.
Conexant Systems has announced that Phillip E. Pompa has joined the
company as senior vice president of product marketing. Pompa will lead
Conexant’s worldwide marketing campaign to gain shares in all targeted
segments and work closely with Conexant’s sales and engineering teams
to define differentiated new products. He will report directly to
Christian Scherp, Conexant’s co-president.
Intevac has announced that Luke Marusiak will re-join the company as
executive vice president of emerging equipment, where he will be
responsible for Intevac’s solar and semiconductor businesses. Marusiak
has previously served as the company’s CEO and COO.
Product Briefing Outline: ASM International has developed its ‘PowerFill’ epitaxial silicon (Epi Si) trench fill process, which enables void free filling of deep trenches with doped, epitaxial silicon. PowerFill is claimed to be about 3 times faster than competing processes, reducing manufacturing costs and creating an additional degree of freedom in power device design. Fairchild Semiconductor is the first customer to qualify the process for its advanced power management devices, having completed verification at its fab in Korea. ASM believes the new process enables power management devices and circuits to be realized in a smaller footprint thereby reducing die cost and form factor.
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Product Briefing Outline: Eco-Snow's advanced, automated MaskClean 150 System is a dry CO2 alternative to conventional cleaning methods for removing particulate and light organic contamination from the surface of photomask substrates. The system is helping a major U.S. photomask manufacturer save money and improve the quality of its photomasks and reticles with a cleaning technology designed for the 28nm DRAM half-pitch technology node. The system reclaims masks by removing contaminants left behind by wet cleaning; preserves mask quality by reducing the number of erosive wet cleaning cycles required and reduces the cycle time required to create masks, since fewer cleanings are needed.
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Arizona State University's (ASU) developed training program for professionals has announced details for the 2009 ‘Facility Manager's Development Program' (FMDP), due to start in September this year.
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Xilinx, Inc. has announced plans to restructure the company, including
getting rid of 6% of its workforce, or 200 employees, which would have
a pre-tax charge of US$11-US$13 million for the June quarter, mostly
dealing with severance pay expenses.
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