I agree, buildings(FAB's) can be replaced people cannot...
Quake rocks Taiwan; chip makers assess potential damage to
foundries
Semiconductor Business News
(09/20/99, 05:25:07 PM EDT)
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A strong earthquake jolted Taiwan early Tuesday morning, resulting in structural damage to buildings
and massive power outages, but the island's chip manufacturing plants appeared to escape harm, according to initial
reports collected by SBN and its sister publication, Electronic Buyers' News.
The lack of power appeared to be causing semiconductor manufacturers the biggest problem several hours after the
quake struck at 1:47 a.m. Taipei time. The quake measured 7.6 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological
Survey.
News wires reported major structural damage in Taipei and at least five people killed by the quake in the city.
Immediately after the quake, semiconductor managers worldwide attempted to find out if Taiwan's growing silicon
foundry industry had suffered any major damage. About two-thirds of the world's third-party foundry capacity is located in
Taiwan, said the U.S.-based Fabless Semiconductor Association, citing data presented at last week's Semicon Taiwan
conference.
The quake was reportedly centered in Taiwan's Natou province, located about 80 miles south-southeast of the island's
major science park in Hsinchu.
A U.S. spokesman for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.--the world's largest silicon foundry--said TSMC's
facilities in Hsinchu appeared to be undamaged by the quake. "All of TSMC facilities have been stabilized and all
employees are safe," said the spokesman at TSMC USA in San Jose.
"We're waiting to see if the Science Park [in Hsinchu] comes back up," said the TSMC spokesman, referring to
electrical power. More details are expected later Tuesday morning in Taiwan, when officials can assess the situation.
Foundry service provider United Microelectronics Corp., also based in Hsinchu, was attempting to assess damage at its
facilities. UMC's U.S. operation in Sunnyvale, Calif., indicated that the initial assessment indicates no disruption to the
company's wafer-processing lines.
"We talked to one of the process engineers there, who said things appeared to be fine, although he's a pretty junior-level
guy, so I wouldn't say that's the official report," said Jim Ballingall, vice president of worldwide marketing at UMC, based
in Sunnyvale. "The power went out as you might expect; however, back-up power was working, which is a good sign."
Back-up power will allow UMC to keep key tools, such as furnace annealing equipment, up and running. When it lost
power during a huge outage that afflicted the island in July, UMC lost only about 0.5% of all in-process wafers, Ballingall
said. The company expects to provide more details in a statement later today.
Meanwhile, word out of chipset maker Via Technologies Inc.'s U.S. headquarters in Fremont, Calif., was that damage
was slight.
"We have not much at this time to report, but there hasn't been much damage at the facility," said Jonathan Chang,
director of operations and sales at the company.
Chang said he was more concerned about the status of the company's foundry partners, which include TSMC and
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc., Taiwan's largest test and assembly house. Chang said Via will have a better
understanding of the extent of the damage by tomorrow.
U.S. fabless semiconductor companies immediately began calling Taiwan foundry suppliers after hearing of the quake,
which occurred around 12:47 p.m. California time today. "We're now attempting to get information back to our
members," said Jodi Shelton, executive director of the Fabless Semiconductor Association, located in Dallas. "We hope
to know more later this evening."
"The good news seems to be that there is no structural damage being reported by the foundries--in particular TSMC, but
the bad news is the power outages," she added.
Reporting provided by EBN's Mark Hachman and Andrew MacLellan in Silicon Valley, and SBN's Bill McIlvaine in New
York and J. Robert Lineback in Dallas. |
