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Chinese tool start-up AMEC names boards, gathers momentum |
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Dec 05, 2006 at 01:49 PM |
Last month I wrote a post about Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Co.
(AMEC), an intriguing semiconductor equipment "global start-up" based in Shanghai. The company just announced the makeup of its various boards and advisory groups, which include some heavy hitters from the equipment, chipmaker, and investment communities. (See pdf of AMEC release here.)
AMEC's chairman/CEO Gerald Yin has been visiting the West Coast for planning meetings this week. I chatted briefly with the company exec on the phone yesterday about AMEC's progress in moving toward production.
He said the company expects to make beta shipments of both its CVD and etch tools by spring/summer, with systems going to a number of customer fabs in Asia. AMEC has been actively hiring---the company hopes to expand to between 200 and 300 employees later in the year---with field and sales support positions a priority. Gerald stressed the importance of regional support and infrastucture as part of the company's game plan.
Gerald offered some details about AMEC's headquarters site in Shanghai's Jin Qiao Export Processing Zone, about 15 minutes east of Chinese foundry SMIC's fabs. The company has land sufficient for what he calls Phases I and II of its expansion plans. Along with enough office space for a few hundred employees, AMEC has a manufacturing building capable of beta-level to small-volume-production-level loads, he says. The facility has a Class 1/1000 engineering process area and Class 10,000 manufacturing space. (You can see views of the cleanroom if you look closely on AMEC's new Website.) He said that the company has developed a "pretty large [qualified] supplier base," made up of mature vendors as well as newcomers.    Â
Although he wouldn't yet offer any specific details of the technology behind AMEC's CVD and etch equipment, Gerald described the tools as "very competitive, high-performance platforms." Citing one of the company's slogans---"economic innovation"---he said the systems are are "not just low cost, but very advanced tools, with advanced productivity." As to questions about AMEC's intellectual property standing, he explained that "we do everything very diligently...and honestly," with many patents already filed in areas such as reaction chamber and mainframe designs.Â
As AMEC transitions from late-stage development to early production during the first half of 2007, it will be very interesting to see how the upstart Chinese tool company fares as it tries to establish a foothold in the often-pugilistic semiconductor capital equipment market.
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