Korea's Dongbu enters foundry business, will move into chip production next month
By Mark LaPedus
Semiconductor Business News
(04/19/01 15:54 p.m. EST)
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- After keeping a low profile in the market, South Korea's Dongbu Electronics Co. Ltd. is quietly gearing up in hopes of becoming the next major force in the silicon foundry business.
The Seoul-based company--a unit of the Dongbu Group--has begin processing test wafers in its new fab, with plans to enter into volume production next month, said Peter Hillen, who is in charge of Dongbu's new U.S. subsidiary, Dongbu Electronics, based in Mountain View, Calif.
Dongbu's initial fab is an 8-inch, 0.25-to-0.13-micron plant. The fab is capable of making 45,000 wafers a month, but the plant will not be running at full capacity until business picks up in the foundry business, said Hillen, a long-time chip veteran, who is executive vice president and president of worldwide sales and marketing for Dongbu Electronics.
In total, the company hopes to build seven fabs over the next several years, including both 8-inch and 300-mm plants, he said in an interview. Before joining Dongbu in January, Hillen was vice president of marketing for the Magnetic Storage Division at Cirrus Logic Inc. of Fremont, Calif.
As previously reported, Dongbu obtained its technology from Japan's Toshiba Corp. Under the plan, Toshiba will invest $50 million in Dongbu's fab and will gain access to an undisclosed portion of its output (see July 3 story ).
Initially, the Korean company will process wafers based on its 0.25-micron technology, dubbed DL025G/LV. In 2002, it plans to move to 0.18- and 0.13-micron technologies, of which it internally calls DL018LV and DL013G.
Dongbu--which is expected to disclose its entire foundry plans in the next few weeks--appears to have finally solidified its chip strategy after several false starts.
In the late 1990s, for example, the company originally hoped to enter the gallium arsenide (GaAs) device business, but it scrapped those plans. Following those events, Dongbu switched gears and decided to enter the DRAM business. It even signed a technology agreement with IBM Microelectronics, but Dongbu also dropped those plans as well.
Last year, Dongbu re-emerged in the industry, this time in the foundry arena. But for some time, it has kept a low-profile about its plans, leaving some observers to believe the company was struggling--or had another change of heart.
On the contrary, the company claims it has some ambitious plans in the foundry business. "We have plans to make a run at TSMC and UMC," Hillen declared, referring to the two Taiwanese foundry giants, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and United Microelectronics Corp.
"This won't happen overnight," he said. "So my immediate goal is to bring us in the second-tier and compete against the likes of Chartered."
He was referring to Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd., the world's third largest pure-play foundry player.
Dongbu will also face some stiff competition from its neighbors in South Korea, including Anam Semiconductor Inc. (ASI), Hynix Semiconductor Inc., and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
Anam, which has an 8-inch, sub-micron fab in Korea, is actually part of U.S.-based, chip-packaging giant Amkor Technology Inc. Anam provides a range of foundry services for chip makers.
Hynix Semiconductor Inc., formerly Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., has become more aggressive in the foundry business, stating that it hopes to become a $1 billion player in this arena over time. Meanwhile, Samsung has provided foundry services over the years as well.
In reality, Dongbu is among a new crop of new--and untested foundry players--in the market. Among those new providers include two new foundry startups in Malaysia--1st Silicon (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. and Silterra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.--both of which have entered limited production.
China also boasts some new foundry providers as well, including Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co. Ltd., Shanghai Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., and others.
In addition to the competition, Dougbu is entering the foundry business in the midst of perhaps the industry's worst downturn. "There is still a lot of interest out there for new foundry providers in spite of the downturn," the Dongbu executive insisted.
"We've have a lot of interest, but we have no orders right now," he added. |
