SGS-Thomson forging deeper ties in Asia Pacific

Electronic News, July 1, 1996 by Crista Hardie

Singapore--SGS-Thomson Microelectronics is forging deeper ties in the Asia Pacific region with the addition of a state-of-the-art wafer fabrication plant adjacent to its existing fab and Asian headquarters at Ang Mo Kio Industrial Estate.

Over the last year, SGS-Thomson saw a sharp increase in its Asia Pacific revenues--up 58 percent in 1Q96 over the prior year. Overall, the company has maintained positive growth, but earlier indicated manufacturing capacity was still constrained over most of its leading product lines (EN, April 22).

Ang Mo Kio 8, as the planned Singapore facility is called, will give the company an additional capacity of 5,000 200mm (8-inch) wafers per week, serving disk drives, multimedia, mobile communications and advanced consumer products, the company said. Total planned investment is approximately $700 million. Construction is slated to begin in October, with volume production targeted for late 1998.

SGS-Thomson also has a number of factories--in production or in progress--in Europe and the U.S. and last week indicated it may build another wafer fab in Italy, although further details of the possible expansion were not provided.

The company was the first semiconductor firm to establish a wafer manufacturing facility in Singapore, in 1984. The older plant now has a run rate of 32,000 125mm (5-inch) wafers per week, primarily for analog, logic and power semiconductor devices.

Singapore has since become a burgeoning center for fab business, with foundry company Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. its most notable resident. Pasquale Pistorio, president and CEO of SGS-Thomson, recognized the region as a hotbed for semiconductor activity.

"In recent years the Asia Pacific semiconductor market has been the fastest growing in the world, and is expected to continue to outpace the industry growth for several years in the future," he said.

"By increasing our commitment in quantity and in quality, we are taking steps to ensure that our infrastructure keeps pace with the changing and growing requirements of the market. In this way, our Asia Pacific customers' requirements for a diverse range of submicron technology products will be met," he said.

Ang Mo Kio 8 will be equipped for 200mm CMOS and BiCMOS wafer production using Ultra Large Scale Integration (ULSI), starting at 0.5-micron line geometries, the company said. The facility will be built on 32,000 square-meters of land, and will employ "mini-environments" to reduce the total amount of Class 1 cleanroom area needed. Only enclosed areas housing the critical operations of the wafer diffusion process will be Class 1, with a Class 100 clean air environment being maintained throughout the fab, the company said.