 Soitec the largest manufacturer of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers has broken ground on its new 300-mm wafer fab in Singapore. The groundbreaking ceremony marked the start of construction at the company's first fab in Asia, located in Singapore's Pasir Wafer Fab Park and called Fab 3. The new facility will utilize complete mini-environments in order to reduce wafer contamination risk and increase yields.
Fab 3 is expected to start supplying its customer around the world with SOI wafers in mid-2008, as it ramps to a final production capacity of one million wafers per year, according to the company. "The construction of this, our newest and most advanced fab, represents the success of our business strategy to drive adoption of SOI and build the production capacity necessary to satisfy growing industry demand," noted Auberton-Herve. "The performance and power-usage benefits associated with SOI are enabling a growing number of advanced electronic devices, especially leading-edge consumer digital products that are increasingly manufactured in Asia. With its strategic location in the heart of Asia, this new fab will help us develop even closer working relationships with our growing customer base in the region while also giving us access to the world-class business environment and talented workforce we were seeking in selecting the location of our third production facility." The total investment in Fab 3 is expected to be approximately 350 million Euros; and when completed, it is anticipated that approximately 500 people will work inside this state-of-the-art facility, according to the company. Key customers include, AMD, IBM, Chartered Semiconductor and Sony.
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