Boom turned to bust? Chip industry's future!

Malcolm Penn, Future Horizons.

Malcolm Penn, chairman and CEO, Future Horizons, asked the question at the SEMI ISS2011 Europe event at Grenoble, France, early this week: Whether this is the time to rethink the industry assumptions?

For instance, fabs have no strategic value, until you haven’t got one and lost control of your business. ASPs will keep on falling, just like house prices kept on rising? The semicon industry growth rate has slowed to ‘7 percent per annum, which is only possible if ASPs keep falling 4 percent given an 11 percent unit growth.

Foundry wafers will always be cheap and freely available, just like cheap debt, right? Multiple sources will keep the foundries ‘honest’, since it is assumed that multi-sourcing at 20/22nm is going to be ‘interesting‘. It is also OK to focus on more than Moore competence, as today’s ‘More Moore’ is tomorrow’s ‘More Than Moore’.

Industry fundamental #1 – Economy: This was NOT a recession, someone turned off the lightsPre-Lehman, the chip industry was in very good shape. There was strong unit demand, and no excess inventory.There was limited wafer fab capacity, and no overspend/cutting back. Next, the ASPs were recovering, although, structurally driven. However, the strong global world economy was being deliberately slowed. The money really stopped moving in the post-Lehmann crash!

The economic coupling Is statistically weak. The economy is just one part of the equation. The chip industry marches to its own drum as well.

Industry fundamental #2: Unit demand: The Moore’s Law giveth and taketh away! Long-term average ICs/wafers grow only very slowly. There are more complex ICs counter balance die shrinks (1-2 percent productivity gain). Besides, 9-10 percent new capacity is needed to match the 11 percent average IC unit growth.

Industrial fundamental #3: Fab capacity: Let’s look at the IC manufacturing fundamentals — four quarter minimum lag from decision to impact.
* Total equipment capex = 85 percent of the total capex
* Wafer fab capex = 70 percent total equipment capex
* Order today = Wafer fab capex one quarter later* Wafer fab capex = Additional capacity two quarters later
* Additional capacity = IC units out one quarter later.

Pig cycles and cobwebs will keep happening due to long supply-side lead times (4 Months – production / 2 Years – fabs / 5+ years – design).

The fab capacity is still seriously tight. The Q4-10 status is still down 7.5 percent vs. Q3-08 peak. Also, the first relief happened in Q4-10 (from Q3/Q4-09’s spend) following six flat quarters.

The IC wafer fab capacity for Q3/Q4-09 spend, was equal to +80k ws/w In Q4-10. The 2010 spend was equal to ~400k ws/w additional by Q4-11? The wafer fab capex is still running ‘fab tight!’ Here are some more pointers:
* Not yet overheating, despite 140 percent 2010 growth.
* 2010 spend same as 2006; 10 percent lower than 2007 and 80 percent of 2000’s all time peak.
* Q1-11 book to bill <1; slowing Q2-11 sales.
* 2011 up between 5-15 percent, still within ‘safe haven’ region.
* TSMC thunders on with capex up 30 percent sales up 22 percent; the leadership gap up.

Is the Indian semicon industry losing the plot?

Every time I see a new electronics or related segment being talked about in India — be it medical electronics/healthcare, RFID and smart cards, or for that matter, telecom, why do I get this feeling that the Indian semicon industry is slowly losing the plot? One hopes not!

The Indian technology industry is talking about practically everything, except semiconductors. Yes, I know we have a great pool of designers who work in the MNCs. Also, there are plenty of Indian design services companies doing excellent work (for others?). India’s strength in embedded is folk lore. Despite all of this, we are, where we were a few years ago!

Back in 2007, I’d done a story on how there were very remote chances of having a fab in India. Back then, some industry folks expressed  optimism that the fab story was not dead! However, that story is well and truly dead and buried, as of now! Today, no one wants to talk about a fab — fine, then!

Let’s do a reality check on India’s semiconductor score-card!

So far, India has not even managed to have a small foundry, forget about having a fab! Nor has the Indian industry managed to develop, nurture and build many (or any?) fabless companies of note. Can you tell me how many Indian fabless semicon companies have come up in the past five years? How many globally known Indian semicon product start-ups are there in our country for that matter? Okay, how many Indian semicon product start-ups are there in our country?

For that matter, how many ATMP units have come up in India? I do recall some industry folks mention in the past that there will be some ATMP units happening. Where are they? Okay, who, in India, is even trying to develop IP libraries?

Even if there is some success in building electronic product companes — that is and will be limited success! Neither is there any evidence of cutting-edge R&D being done in India. Please do not mix this up with the work being done by the Indian arms of the various MNCs.

Why, I don’t even think that the industry-academia partnership has developed substantially, leave alone mature!

If medical electronics, or some other related area, were to go on and succeed in the near future, it would be counted as a success for the Indian electronics industry, and not for the Indian semicon industry! Even if this did happen and it was counted as a ‘semicon success, can anyone make a guess as to how many of the chips going into such devices would be actually made in India – by Indian firms?

I had mentioned back in Feb. 2009  that “Can the Indian semicon industry dream big? (And even buy Qimonda?)! To refresh your memory, there was a large 300mm fab up for sale in Dresden, Germany. Well, even that never happened, or well, the Indian industry did not think it to be of much importance!

Back in August 2009, there was news about Texas Instruments (TI) placing a bid of $172.5 million for buying Qimonda’s 300mm production tools from its closed DRAM fab. While this highlighted TI’s focus on building the world’s first 300mm analog fab, I can’t stop wondering: what would have happened had an Indian investor actually bought Qimonda’s fab!

Perhaps, it would be better for the Indian semicon industry to stick to its globally known strengths of providing excellent semiconductor design services and embedded design services. At least, there will be clear direction in these areas.

Of course, there exist huge opportunities in all of the areas (or gaps) that I’ve touched upon.

Is enough being done for Indian industry-academia collaboration in VLSI education?

Do you, as a semiconductor/VLSI/EDA company, run university or educational programs for colleges and institutes? Am sure, you do!

Well, are you providing these various colleges and institutes with the latest tools and EDA software? Perhaps, yes! So, do you regularly check whether your tool is being used properly, or at all? What do you do if the tool remains unopened or unused? Okay, before all of that, are you even guiding the faculty and students to tackle real world problems associated with chip design?

Do the students (and the faculty) know the intricacies of 22nm, 32nm, 45nm, and so on? Are you able to assist students in taping out? Right, is the syllabus taught in all of these colleges good enough to produce the kind of talent and skills that the semiconductor/VLSI industry requires currently, and in the future? Is everything being taught, the latest?

As they say — it takes two to tango… and, it takes two hands to clap! To the Indian academia — how many among you are “really” serious about being trained on a regular basis by the semicon/VLSI/EDA industry? What have you all done about it so far, all of these years? How many colleges and institutes among you (and do you) regularly put up or raise your hand to the industry and say — we lack the knowledge in a particular area and need training – please help us!

The question is: what are you, as a semicon/VLSI/EDA company, doing about training the various faculty and the students in various colleges and institutions across India? Do you have a proper program in place for this activity? Well, is enough being done regarding the industry-academia collaboration in VLSI education in India? What more needs to be done?

Are you, as a college or institute teaching VLSI, happy with the quality of talent coming out? Are you really satisfied with the quality of B.Tech/M.Tech projects? Do you seek industry’s help regarding training on a regular basis? What steps do you take to reach out to them? And, what are you doing about it all? Do you take that initiative seriously?

For that matter, are there easy-to-use systems that enable effective and industry-relevant education? Are those being made use of properly? Can entry barriers be lowered for students and faculty so they can explore an IP idea that has business potential? How many of the colleges have done this? I know of some folks trying to develop such solutions, but that’s a separate story for another day!

Coming back on track, apparently, some semicon companies and few well known Indian institutes are really exceeding themselves, but the same story does not hold true everywhere. Why is it so?

There could be a variety of reasons, and not all are listed here. Is it a lack of initiative on part of the industry and the institutes? Don’t they even talk to each other? Are institutes not able to approach semicon companies and vice versa? Or, is it the locations of the institutes themselves? Is it that not all institutes are concerned about teaching their students how to solve real world chip design problems?

An industry friend had once remarked: As of the last three-four years, students from the Eastern part of India have no clear pathway that they can pursue to get into VLSI design. The reasons are — there are no training institutes in the East, which can teach Synopsys or Cadence tools or even the basics of Xilinx FPGA design.

A very interesting panel discussion titled Forging win-win industry-academia collaboration in VLSI education was held during the Cadence CDNLive India University conference.

Moderated by Dr. C.P. Ravikumar, technical director, University Relations, TI India, the panelists were Dr Ajit Kumar Panda from NIST Behrampur, K Krishna Moorthy, MD, National Semiconductor India, Dr K. Radhakrishna Rao, head, analog training, TI. India and R. Parthasarathy, MD, CADD Centre.

I have already covered Dr. Ravikumar’s remarks separately.

Let’s see what the other panelists have to say about all of this, and whether they have answers to all of the questions or problems. Well, this is another long post, so please bear with me! 😉

Intel opens manufacturing doors to Achronix! Becomes mini foundry?

For those who are not aware, yesterday, Achronix Semiconductor Corp. announced strategic access to Intel’s 22nm process technology, and plans to develop the most advanced FPGAs.

According to the release, the Achronix Speedster22i FPGA family will shatter existing limitations of FPGAs, allowing cost effective production of high performance devices over 2.5M LUTs in size, equivalent to an ASIC of over 20 million gates.

What’s really interesting in all of this is the involvement of Intel and Achronix’s use of Intel’s 22nm technology.

Now, about two weeks ago, Intel announced investment plans between $6-$8 billion on future generations of manufacturing technology in its American facilities. This will fund deployment of Intel’s 22nm manufacturing process across several existing US factories, along with construction of a new development fab in Oregon. The projects will support 6,000-8,000 construction jobs and result in 800-1,000 new, permanent high-tech jobs.

Following this Achronix activity, could it be just the beginning where Intel also allows several others to make use of its latest process technologies, or is it going to be just a one-off thing? Probably, the first one! Here’s why!

On visiting Intel’s site, there’s a blog post by Bill Kircos, director, Product and Technology Media Relations, Global Communications Group at Intel.

He says: “With Achronix, we are selectively offering access to our 22nm fabs. For perspective, this deal would only make up a tiny amount of our overall capacity, significantly less than 1 percent, and is not currently viewed as financially material to Intel’s earnings. But it’s still an important endeavor for us that we’re committed to deliver on. I can tell you the folks over at Achronix are very excited about the opportunity and the expected performance boosts they will see in their Intel manufactured products. We are too.”

Bill has asked for readers’ views on Intel opening up its manufacturing facilities to others. I have given a thumbs up!

Intel has become a mini foundry for the time being. Depending on whether customers find some ‘alignment’ — which am sure they will — this looks to be a good move on part of Intel.

Finally, I had a very excited caller this morning — an industry friend — who simply gushed — ‘you should write about this’! My guess: he and several others are likely to approach Intel for assistance, if not now, then surely in the near future.

Smaller companies would stand to benefit in the long run if they can have access to Intel’s latest process technologies. Of course, we are talking about really sophisticated chips here!

While we have to see what GlobalFoundries and TSMC have to say, Intel’s latest move will probably make it a really interesting level-playing field among foundries.

Is global semicon inventory level headed for oversupply in Q3?

Early this month, iSuppli had indicated that semiconductor inventory levels may have headed into oversupply territory in Q3.

It said: “Semiconductor Days Of Inventory (DOI) for chip suppliers are estimated to have climbed to 75.9 days in the third quarter of 2010, up 1.5 days from Q2. DOI in Q3 also was 4.8 percent higher than the seasonally adjusted average for the period.”

iSuppli added that the value of inventory was not been this high since the second quarter of 2008, when semiconductor suppliers’ stockpiles peaked at $35.4 billion.

Thanks to Jon Cassell and Debra Jaramilla at iSuppli, I was able to speak with Sharon Stiefel, analyst for semiconductor inventory and manufacturing for iSuppli on this situation.

Is there really an oversupply?

Sharon Stiefel, iSuppli.

I asked Sharon Stiefel that given the growth that 2010 has seen so far, why are semiconductor inventory levels heading into oversupply territory in Q3?

She said that semiconductor inventories, overall, have risen both in terms of DOI and dollars for the past several quarters, and not yet achieved pre-recession levels last seen in 2008. “The overly lean conditions of 2009 and early 2010 are giving way to inventory levels, which are more appropriate for the strong growth experienced in 2010.

“Oversupply in Q3 2010 is not a foregone conclusion, but is possible that if the companies are not able to match manufacturing run rates with demand as the year winds to a close,” she added.

Which sectors have been witnessing or recording some softness in demand and why?

Stiefel said: “Companies reporting Q3 revenues over the past two weeks have reported a softening in demand, particularly in PC and consumer end markets, attributed to the continued uncertainty in the global economy, leaving consumers unwilling to spend.  A company with more exposure to these sectors has more potential of excessive inventories, versus a company with a more balanced product portfolio.”

Industry needs to moderate inventories
It is also said in iSuppli’s release that: ‘The industry will need to moderate inventories at the appropriate time in its growth curve in order to capture current revenue opportunities while they still exist.’ So, when exactly is that appropriate time?

Stiefel noted: “The appropriate time is when sales opportunities exist – projected quarters of growth, rather than revenue contraction. Semiconductor revenues are projected to grow in Q3 2010, contract in Q4 2010 and Q1 2011, and then resume moderate single digit growth for the remainder of 2011.”

Overview of emerging power management opportunities

First, I must thank my friends, Lou Hutter, SVP and GM, Analog Foundry Business Unit, and Aabid Husain, VP of sales and marketing, from Dongbu HiTek Semiconductor, for sharing the presentations made during an EE Times virtual conference on emerging power management opportunities held on Sept. 16.

The conference participants were:
* Stephan Ohr, panel moderator and research director, Analog and Power Semiconductors, Gartner Inc.
* John Pigott, Freescale fellow, and analog IC guru and designer, Freescale Semiconductor.
* Ralf J. Muenster, director strategy and business development, National Semiconductor.
* Wayne Chen, VP for Technology and Operations, Triune Systems.
*  Lou N. Hutter, SVP and GM, Analog Foundry Business Unit, Dongbu HiTek Semiconductor.

Gartner’s Ohr started by indicating Gartner’s position on power management products. The standard analog ICs were a $15.2 billion market globally in 2009. Voltage regulators made up $7,394 billion, amplifiers $2,675 billion, data converters $2,567 billion, other analog $1,331 billion, and interface ICs $1,198 billion, respectively.

Voltage regulators – power management ICs accounted for 48.8 percent of the analog market. Voltage regulators continue to show strongest growth, growing at a CAGR of 11.1 percent for the period 2009-2014.

Power management ICs forecast
The global revenue forecast for power management ICs by market segment is as follows:

Military and aerospace: This is likely to grow at a CAGR of 3.2 percent during 2009-14.
Industrial/medical: This is likely to grow from $1,118 million in 2009 to $1,779 million in 2014, at a CAGR of 9.7 percent.
Automotive: This is likely to grow from $415 million in 2009 to $622 million in 2014, at a CAGR of 8.4 percent.
Communications: This is likely to grow from $529 million in 2009 to $988 million in 2014, at a CAGR of 13.3 percent.
Wireless: This is likely to grow from $1,353 million in 2009 to $2,149 million in 2014, at a CAGR of 9.7 percent.
Storage: This is likely to grow at a CAGR of 13.3 percent during 2009-14.
Computing: This is likely to grow from $2,114 million in 2009 to $4,013 million in 2014, at a CAGR of 13.7 percent.
Consumer: This is likely to grow from $1,627 million in 2009 to $2,564 million in 2014, at a CAGR of 9.5 percent.

Server and wired communications remain the biggest drivers.

Emergence of BCD technology
Lou Hutter from Dongbu HiTek discussed the technology considerations for emerging power management markets. He focused on the emergence of BCD (Bipolar/CMOS/DMOS) technology.

There are multiple benefits of BCD technology. These include integration of bipolar, CMOS, and DMOS components. It enables the integration of logic, analog control, and power on same die. It also enables high-and low-voltage, and high-and low-power functions on same die. BCD further enables reduced chip count, and improves reliability through fewer package interconnects. It also enables reduced BOM costs.

Emerging markets, such as automotive, solar and energy harvesting, stand to benefit from BCD. Dongbu is offering the 0.18um platform, which boasts of IP portability and more. Dongbu is offering the BD180LV-30V power process (Epi), to be followed by the BD180LV-30V power process (Non-Epi) in 3Q10, the BD180X 40-60V power process in 4Q10, and finally, the HP180 precision analog in 2Q11.

Hutter explained the BD180LV-30V Optimized Power and BD180X – 60V Optimized Power processes. Optional modules in Dongbu Hitek’s BCD technology include Schottky Diode, thick Cu, PLDMOS, NVM, low power CMOS, low noise CMOS, respectively.

iSuppli raises 2010 foundry forecast; interesting lessons to learn for India from China's story!

Yesterday, iSuppli raised its revenue forecast in 2010 for pure-play semiconductor foundry revenue, owing to the renewed demand for consumer-oriented electronics products.

Len Jelinek, director and chief analyst for semiconductor manufacturing, iSuppli.

“During the first three quarters of 2010, foundries were under intense pressure to meet customer demand,” said Len Jelinek, director and chief analyst for semiconductor manufacturing at iSuppli. “The pressure is leading to increased revenue, as consumer spending has come back with a vengeance following a dramatic downturn in the fourth quarter of 2008 and for all of 2009.”

iSuppli has raised its revenue forecast for all semiconductor foundry activity for 2010 to $29.8 billion, up 42.3 percent from 2009’s $22.1 billion. It had previously predicted revenue would rise 39.5 percent this year.

By 2014, total pure-play foundry revenue will reach $45.9 billion, managing a CAGR of 9.4 percent from $26.8 billion in 2008. Pure-play foundries are contract manufacturers whose business consists of producing semiconductors on behalf of other chip companies.

Thanks to my good friend Jon Cassell, I managed to hook up with Len Jelinek to find out more.

Enhancing foundry forecast
I started by asking Jelinek what were the chief reasons for enhancing the foundry forecast. Jelinek said: “The forecast increase is based on the anticipated strength in demand for products in Q2 and beyond. Additionally, it is also simple math. The foundry market had a good Q2, and last year, Q1 and Q2 were quite challenging. So, by having a good first half of the year, the percentage must increase.”

Also, given that there has been renewed demand for consumer electronics products, what are the specific CE products, besides netbooks, mobile phones, that have been seeing renewed demand, and why?

He added that televisions have shown significant growth. “Also, if you look at all of the consumer products that are growing — they are the new products that require advanced chips. The foundry suppliers are the primary suppliers of advanced technology 45nm and below. These are also the most expensive products that a foundry manufactures. This of course means that the revenue will go up. This trend will continue into the future because, with the exception of Intel, Samsung, IBM and Toshiba, there are no IDMs that have large volume production capacities at 45nm.”

What needs to be done to build an Indian electronics ecosystem!

A raging debate has been going on for long within the Indian semiconductor industry — what really needs to be done here to build a robust electronics ecosystem. Well,  a highly engaging panel discussion, titled: “The electronics ecosystem: Plans and strategies for innovation and growth, organized by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) was held today.

L-R: Gaurav K. Punjabi, senior manager - Events & Alliances, ISA, Aabid Hussain, VP of Sales & Marketing, DongBu HiTek, Lou Hutter, senior VP and GM of Analog Foundry Business unit, Dongbu HiTek, Arnob Roy, president-engineering, Tejas Networks, Poornima Shenoy, president, ISA, Felicia James, Analog strategy director, Dongbu HiTek, Rahul Arya, director, marketing and technology sales, Cadence, D. Rajakumar, GM, 3MTS, Ganapathy Subramaniam, president and CEO, Cosmic Circuits, and N. Ramakrishnan, president and CEO, Mandate Chips & Circuits.

Moderated by Rahul Arya, director, marketing and technology sales, Cadence Design Systems (I) Pvt Ltd, the panelists included:

* Lou Hutter, senior VP and GM of Analog Foundry Business unit, Dongbu HiTek, Korea;

* N. Ramakrishnan, president and CEO, Mandate Chips & Circuits Pvt Ltd;

* D. Rajakumar, GM, Third Millennium Test Solutions (3MTS);

* Ganapathy Subramaniam, president and CEO, Cosmic Circuits Pvt Ltd; and

* Arnob Roy, president-engineering, Tejas Networks.

Indian electronics product industry provides biggest opportunity for semicon
According to Tejas Networks’ Arnob Roy, product companies addressing a large local market have the potential to trigger an ecosystem. He added that the Indian electronics products industry is the biggest opportunity for Indian semiconductor industry.

Presenting an overview of the Indian electronics product market, which stands at $45 billion today, inclusive of $18-20 billion in telecom, $20 billion in consumer, industrial, automotive, etc., actually presented a great opportunity for the semiconductor industry. The Indian electronics product market represents close to 10 percent of the global electronics products market, which has been growing at approximately 22 percent year-on-year compared to 3-4 percent globally.

The Indian electronics product market is likely to grow to $120 billion by 2015. Roy added that domestic products for this market can be the biggest trigger for the semiconductor ecosystem. India consumes semiconductors worth $8 billion today, which would grow to $30 billion by 2015.

India has all the key ingredients — such as a large, growing domestic industry,  a large talent pool of technical and managerial resources, and tremendous leverage of “cost of innovation”. However, the Indian market has its own innovation needs. Domestic systems companies need to drive the innovation requirements for the semiconductor market.

The Indian electronics industry can contribute significantly to the GDP as well and reduce the trade deficit. Its contribution today is negligible, as compared to the USA – 40 percent, Israel – 22 percent, and Korea and China – 15 percent, respectively.

Roy said that there is a need to nurture the Indian industry to meet domestic and strategic needs. There is also a need to create a ‘market pull’ for “made in India” products. In this regard, it would be wise to adopt a similar approach as China, while it was creating companies such as Huawei, ZTE, Haeir, etc. There is also the need to make available risk capital, and develop skills in product conceptualization, product management, marketing, branding, etc.

Dongbu HiTek’s Lou Hutter stated, “We believe in the Indian industry and we would like to be part of and help drive growth.”  He added that Dongbu HiTek has been visiting India with the goal to establish something here! This is the first clear sign of a global foundry having shown keen interest to be a major player in India, which is excellent news.

He pointed out that the global analog/power market has been growing at a CAGR of 2x times the semiconductor market. While India has advantages such as a world-class education system, vibrant emerging market and proven engineering strengths, it also needs to address major challenges such as trying to build up market presence, lack of or presence of few ‘Indian’ global brands, developing marketing and business knowledge, and have access to manufacturing.

On the subject of how Dongbu HiTek can help the progression of the Indian semiconductor industry, he said that the company works with IDMs, engineering services companies, fabless and systems companies, and it could do the same in India. “Collaboration is really the essence in an ecosystem,” he added.

GlobalFoundries enabling the next wave of 'foundry' innovation

According to Mojy Chian, Senior Vice President, Design Enablement, GlobalFoundries, continued innovation in the foundry business demands a new approach. He was speaking at the recently held International Electronics  Forum (IEF) 2010 organized by Future Horizons in Dresden, Germany.

GlobalFoundries is bringing a highly integrated model to foundry, which involves the extension of customer operations, early customer-foundry engagement, as well as close collaboration and joint technology development. This would enable faster time to volume and market, leading to smooth ramps to mature yields. Chian added that design, manufacturing, and EDA/IP solutions must work in unison to accomplish this.

According to him, the industry desperately needs a new approach. Here, he discussed GlobalFoundries’ 28nm collaborative innovation, which involves four phases.

Phase 1: Exploration

* For advanced technology, foundry engagement begins 2.5 years before product tapeout.

* Starts with exploration of design architecture, specification, and methodology.

* Foundry value proposition drives corresponding process selection.

* Early engagement locks in the process to the customer’s design requirements.

Phase 2: Optimization

* Design architecture and IP development begins.

* Performance, power, density, cost, TTM targets analyzed.

* Trade-off analysis of design and process targets, TTM, and manufacturability.

* Design and process technology are co-optimized.

Phase 3: Iteration

* Initial process and design test structures taped out.

* Process targets frozen – PDK 0.1 is released.

* Design implementation methodology finalized.

* Design performance and power targets are defined.

Phase 4: Implementation

* Concurrent and target-driven process and design implementation.

* Fine tuning of process and design – design implementation in high gear.

* Test chips taped out, chip level validation, PDK 0.2, 0.5, 0.9, and 1.0 released.

* Incremental march towards process qualification and risk production.

The ultimate goal: process qualified on same day as tapeout! Target-driven technology development and design enablement are at the core of accelerating time-to-market.

Design Enablement at GlobalFoundries is said to be an unique approach to bridging the gap between design and manufacturing. There is close collaboration and early engagement. Although product engineering heritage is not typically found at foundries, GlobalFoundries has been able to make use of the best practices from Chartered’s foundry experience.

All of this leads to optimized performance, leakage and yields, accelerated time to market, reduced design and manufacturing risks, integrated system-level functionality.

Dongbu HiTek comes India calling! Raises hopes for foundry services!!

Find this a bit difficult to believe? Yes, its true! Top executives from South Korea’s Dongbu HiTek, which ranks among the semiconductor industry’s leading foundries, came India calling at an event organized by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA) this week, where I happened to be an attendee.

On first impression, Dongbu’s seminar on foundry services surely raises a lot of hope that India could eventually have an ‘active foundry services provider’ after all! And definitely, a player, who won’t be that expensive, one hopes, should it happen.

There’s a reason why I am using the term ‘active foundry services provider.’

While, Dongbu’s visit may not mean that India can have an actual foundry or foundry services overnight, instead, the country could well have a foundry services player, who, I felt, is quite serious about India and the Indian semiconductor industry. However, what all of this will translate into eventually, remains to be seen, as these are still very, very early days. And, Dongbu is still exploring India!

Lou N. Hutter, senior VP and GM, Analog Foundry Busines, Dongbu HiTek.

Lou N. Hutter, senior VP and GM, Analog Foundry Business and Aabid Hussain, VP of sales and marketing, Dongbu HiTek Semiconductor Business conducted a workshop on Feb 9, co-ordinated by Mandate Chips (an ISA member) and supported by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA).

Operating two world class wafer fabrication facilities — in Bucheon and Sangwoo — and leveraging key technology achievements spanning two decades, the company continues to meet the needs of fabless ventures. Its business philosophy is driven by an aggressive mission to deliver the highest quality product backed by the most responsive customer service. Overarching this mission is the vision to become the best-in-class supplier of foundry services.

To realize this vision, Dongbu HiTek pursues a “collaborate and thrive” growth strategy. Accordingly, the company continues to maintain close relations with customers and has put in place an advanced business model that adds higher value to its products and services.

Headquartered in Seoul, Dongbu has two foundries – one in Bucheon and the other in Sangwoo, both in South Korea. Fab 1 in Bucheon has a monthly capacity of 54,000 wafers in the 0.35, 0.25, 0.18 and 0.15um technology nodes. The main technologies include logic BCD, analog CMOS, HVCMOS, etc. Fab 2 in Sangwoo has a monthly capacity of  34,000 wafers in the 0.25, 0.18, 0.11um and 90nm nodes. The main technologies include logic, mixed signal, flash, RFCMOS, CIS, HVCMOS, etc. Fab 1 was acquired from Amcor in 2001 while Fab 2 has been built grounds up.

Aabid Husain said, “As we move out to higher volumes and smaller nodes, we will do new technology nodes in Fab 2.” Taiwan has been among Dongbu’s key markets and MediaTek is among its leading customers. Dongbu also has a long association with Japan. Hussain said that Toshiba has been Dongbu’s technology partner, and also draws a lot of wafers from Dongbu’s fabs. Dongbu has an office in Santa Clara, USA, and started another office in Austin last year. It plans to add another office in Boston during Q3-2010.

Husain also highlighted Dongbu’s YourFab service. An easy-to-use web based system, it facilitates real-time WIP monitoring. The service is accessible at all times from anywhere. It provides design kits and technology reports, besides PC and inline data.

Dongbu HiTek’s ShuttleChip program allows customers to share a single MultipleProject Wafer (MPW) to verify the performance of their respective prototype designs in silicon before committing to volume production. Husain said, “Indian companies can take great advantage of this program.

The ShuttleChip Program reduces the cost-burden of manufacturing chips while it also engages foundry customers at the early phase of prototype development. Accordingly, it sets the stage for close collaboration between Dongbu HiTek and its foundry customers throughout the entire manufacturing process.