News of Entrepix's FastForward volume pricing agreement (VPA) with ATMI won't be the last thing you hear from the CMP foundry/equipment outsource company in the coming weeks.
I chatted with Entrepix president/CEO Tim Tobin and VP/GM Bob Tucker last week, when the honchos opened up the corporate kimono a wee bit and let me have a peek. Several deals have been signed recently, with formal announcements pending, from the foundry and equipment services parts of the business.
"We're in imminent closure of a large contractual obligation that has other implications that are very positive for us," Tucker said, careful not to give away too much. "It would represent an in-source at yet another site, so we would take our tools and put it into their site and run their module for them essentially. But it also has regional site implications for us, in terms of being able to have some replicant capability outside of our Tempe facility." (Hmmm, "replicant capability." Send in the clones!)
"In other words," Tobin interjected, "we can bring in other peoples' wafers to that facility." "And," said Tucker, drafting on his boss's thought, "supplement the equipment so that we can be doing both supporting their business internally, then also be able to, from a proximity standpoint, support other customers in that locale."
The guys also told me about two deals with OEMs that are on the verge, similar in some respects to the ATMI VPA agreement. Although he wouldn't dish the companies' names, Tobin assured me "they are big names in OEMs---you'll absolutely recognize them."
On Entrepix's own infrastructure front, Tobin told me that the company has "taken possession of our third Mirra tool. It's intended to be an oxide/tungsten type tool, for 200 mm...for more mainstream, production-type polishing."
As for 300 mm, the company has an arrangement with an outside facility that "partners with us to allow us access to their tool set. We bring our engineers on their site, so our engineering expertise is able to add the value to our customers because of our experience with all the different materials and products we work with. But having access to the 300-mm tool set, externally, does two things: one, it gives our customers good data. It also allows our partner to better utilize their toolset."
When asked about any trends they're noticing in their unique corner of the industry, Tobin said that "we're definitely seeing a furthering of the premise... that the semiconductor industry isn't leaving any elements untouched out of the periodic table. There are some incredible technologies that are being attempted to be developed, and we're seeing that trend continue."
Tucker piped in, his enthusiasm pulsing. "I see more and more MEMS and nano type stuff all the time. I see things with magnetic memory...there's companies that are doing various magnetic memory cells that require really important polish control to achieve properties.
"We clearly see in our space over the last six to nine months there's been alot of discussion about 200-mm operational excellence, extending the life of those factories, and not only that, but what technologies go into those factories that will keep them full for a long time. [This] lends itself to some of the work that we see, because they're doing more combinational technologies," such as MEMS with CMOS, power with CMOS, and the like.
Although polishing has not traditionally been part of the power-chip process flow, these new families of blended or hybrid system devices require CMP steps, an expertise that Entrepix is more than happy to provide.
Tim will be part of the panel I'm moderating next week at Semicon West in San Francisco, "The Next Big Outsourcing Thing: Process Development and Modules." Taking place in the Esplanade Hall at the Moscone Center, the panel starts at 1030 a.m. on Tuesday, July 17, and also features pros from Freescale Semi, SVTC, Toppan Photomasks, and Innovion.
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