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Toshiba has announced it will build a new production facility to relocate its semiconductor operations and redress the problems caused by the 2011 floods and to meet future growth demands. The plant, which will be operated by subsidiary Toshiba Semiconductor Thailand Ltd (TST), will be 135,000 square metres and be due for completion in the spring of 2013, production will begin in the subsequent months.

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Toshiba said it would continue to subcontract power semiconductor assembly and test to its former Malaysian IC assembly and test operations after being acquired by Amkor. Toshiba and Amkor expect to complete the transaction by early January 2012. Read more >>

Mixed-signal IC fabrication specialist, Integrated Device Technology (IDT) is moving to the fabless business model with the sale of its Hillsboro, Oregon wafer fabrication facility. However, the fab is not to close but is being acquired by Alpha and Omega Semiconductor, which under a foundry service arrangement with IDT AOS has the option to acquire the wafer fabrication facility and related assets for US$26 million. Read more >>

ATREG and Colliers International have secured the sale of Freescale Semiconductor’s East Kilbride, Scotland facility to Clowes Developments (Scotland) Limited, a property developer. However, Freescale is said to be leasing back 70,000 sq. ft. of campus offices from Clowes for research and development, applications engineering, systems architecture, and product engineering purposes. This agreement maintains Freescale’s presence at the location. Read more >>

Taiwan-based facilities engineering systems integration specialist, Uangyih-Tech Industrial Co has received orders worth approximately, US$18.94 million from TSMC. Read more >>

TSMC has purchased this week, over US$100 million in cleanroom facility and engineering equipment from three suppliers. TSMC place an order worth approximately US$84.5 million with Fu Tsu Construction Co, a US$29.3 order with China Steel Structure Co and a smaller order, worth approximately US$15.2 million was placed with Chen Yuan International.

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Citing the introduction of a range of new materials for advanced semiconductor fabrication processes, CEA-Leti and Entegris are to study cross-molecular contamination to and from semiconductor wafers and containers to identify potential yield impacts and draw-up limitation strategies. The 2-year study will be conducted at Leti’s 8,000m² cleanroom facilities with 200mm and 300mm pilot lines. Read more >>

In conjunction with opening new CMP pad operations in Taiwan and expanded production in Singapore, 3M has also expanded its development laboratory and cleanroom located at its headquarters in Saint Paul, Minn. The expansion includes a 300mm CMP tool and defect metrology for product and application development. This makes 3M the only pad conditioner supplier to have in-house capabilities for 300mm wafer testing and wafer defect inspection. Read more >>

Both of Globalfoundries next two 300mm fabs are said to be ready for first phase tool install, though the foundry didn’t say when tool installations would begin. The Dresden, Germany fab, dubbed Fab1 campus is the second 300mm fab at its Dresden location and is expected to increase the overall output of the Fab 1 campus to 80,000 wafers per month once fully ramped, though timelines were not disclosed. Read more >>

In-keeping with semiconductor industry fast-track construction techniques and schedules, Toshiba and manufacturing partner, SanDisk have officially opened their third 300mm wafer NAND flash fabrication facility at Toshiba's Yokkaichi Operations in Mie Prefecture, Japan, dubbed Fab 5. The JV partners said that volume production had started in July 2011, having started construction of the new facility in July, last year. Initial production was said to be at the 24nm node first wafer outs in August, 2011. In time, the fab will transition to more advanced process generations, starting with recently announced 19nm technology.

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