Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Semi Equipment Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: robert b furman who wrote (27990)	1/18/2006 10:14:06 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95480

Powerchip doubles it's capex to $2.3B Powerchip buys fab to make Macronix flash Mike Clendenin EE Times (01/18/2006 7:49 AM EST) TAIPEI, Taiwan — Memory chip company and foundry Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. is set to buy a 300-mm wafer fab shell from fellow Taiwanese company Macronix International Co. Ltd. in order to help it meet growing demand for high-density data flash. Macronix (Hsinchu, Taiwan) is selling the fab, which has no equipment but the potential for 35,000 wafers per month, for about $166 million. That’s about $10 million less than its book value. As part of the deal Macronix is set to partner with Powerchip (Hsinchu, Taiwan) on future development of flash chips, including those made on 90-nanometer technology, and use Powerchip as a foundry. This, it said, would help it improve margins. The deal makes sense, in that Powerchip is a DRAM specialist, but has been developing flash in recent years to meet booming demand fueled by the sale of MP3 players, USB drives, digital cameras and other consumer electronics. Macronix has long focused on non-volatile memory. Powerchip also has a good track record in manufacturing, being one of the first DRAM companies to aggressively ramp 300-mm wafer technology, while Macronix has struggled to make its manufacturing operations pay off. Powerchip recently said it would double its capital expenditure budget this year to $1.8 billion in order to ramp up the fab. The company is also building two additional 300-mm wafer fabs in central Taiwan, which are set to boost its capacity by another 120,000 wafers per month. One of Powerchip’s local rivals, Promos Technologies Inc., also said this week that it would double its capex budget to $2.3 billion as it intensifies the building of 300-mm wafer fabs. Interestingly, the build-up in capacity comes at a time when the Taiwan government is cracking down on China investments by the island’s big chipmakers. Taiwan fears losing the core of its chip-making prowess to China, which it has considered a rival since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. It is also wary of too much economic dependency on China. Just last week, the chairman of foundry United Microelectronics Co., Robert Tsao, was indicted for helping to build a Chinese foundry without Taiwan government approval (see story). Powerchip is seeking such approval to build in China, but has indicated it may not follow through because of Taiwan rules that limit technology transfers to 0.25-micron technology. That is not competitive for DRAM. Macronix’s deal with Powerchip is due to close on April 1.

To: robert b furman who wrote (27990)	1/18/2006 11:00:08 AM
From: Kirk ©	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95480

"Batch is dead." Not really dead... they just do it all on one wafer to be more efficient. -g- Lets see if we can make a case for where to invest future dollars. I started working at HP when we were converting a 2" line to a 3" line. It was a huge deal and getting bipolar models (for transistors, resistors etc.) for chips on 3" wafers was a huge project for a few engineers for many years in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Pies are squared so 2" wafers had 3.14 sq inches of silicon, much of it unusable due to edge effects. I believe a batch of wafers at that time was 12.. so a batch was 37.7 sq inches of usuable silicon. Today many process are single wafer. It allows easier rework and better process control. Also, getting even gas distribution to all parts of a wafer is much easier in single wafer mode. a 12" wafer has 3.14x6^2 sq inches of usable silicon with far less loss to edges. 3.14x36 vs 3.14x12 or 3 times as much silicon processed on a single wafer than in a "full batch" 25-30 years ago. So, compared to very long time ago... we are still in batch mode and processing more square inches at a time. -g- otherwise you are correct. 12 8" wafers in a batch are 12 x pi x 4^2 = 12 x pi x 16 1 12" wafer in a batch is 1 x pi x 6^2 = 1 x pi x 36 192pi vs. 36 pi or a factor of 5.33 that assumes a 12 wafer batch. Maybe they did more and perhaps less? The real metric is dollar cost per sq cm of processed silicon. If you can get better yield with single processing, then it really works in your favor to go to single wafer processing for more and more critical steps. I think this is why automated systems are the place many want to invest because it can make single wafer processing "look like" batch processing to your labor costs... same labor cost to load a wafer or a batch of wafers into a tool so if the tool can self load and unload one wafer at a time, it lowers labor costs. It looks like it is batch processing but getting single wafer quality.