Investment & Expansion
systems (MEMS) production facilities in Crolles, France. The company will
insert a new cleanroom into an existing facility with work to be completed
by July and full volume production by year-end.
The announcement follows final closing of a second round of financing and
the appointment of a new CEO, Peter Pfluger. The company received in
February 2000 the remaining EUR5.25mn of a EUR10.5mn second round contracted
in July 2001 with CDC Innovation, Sercel Holding, Crédit Lyonnais Venture
Capital, Schneider Electric Ventures and a "business angel".
TRONICS Microsystems reports increasingly strong requests from customers
for enhanced production capacity for high performance MEMS products.
Currently, the company is rapidly ramping up production of high performance
custom inertial sensors based on specialised thick silicon-on-insulator
(SOI) micromachining.
The new facility will be equipped with 50mm and 150mm compatible equipment.
The new facility will at first encompass a production area of 630m2 with
390m2 of cleanroom space. Capacity will be 10,000 wafers per year.
Samsung Electronics plans to expand its 200mm Austin facility in Texas to
become one of the most advanced semiconductor plants in the USA through a
three-year investment in advanced equipment and facility upgrades. Samsung
Austin Semiconductor currently produces 128Mbit and 256Mbit DRAM memory
chips. Samsung says the expansion will enable it to produce "nanotechnology"
semiconductors, including 1Gbit memory.
The project was formally announced at a Nanotech Day ceremony held at the
Austin facility. The ceremony was attended by former US President George
Bush.
Austin represents about 10% of Samsungs chip-making capacity. About 17% of
the new investment will go towards upgrading the physical plant - mostly a
3600m2 expansion of the existing manufacturing area. The residue, a little
more than $400mn, will be used to upgrade equipment.
Samsung Austin employs about 930 persons and will increase this number by
about 300 over the next three years with this investment. The additional 300
jobs will have an average wage of almost $53,000 per year. During the
construction phase, the expansion could generate about $135.2mn for the
local economy and create more than 1100 temporary jobs.
The plant currently produces on a 0.123micron design rule. The new
development will push this down by about 35% (90nm?). The fab currently
produces 35,000 wafers per month, which will be increased to 45,000 wafers
per month after the expansion programme.
Nanotechnology consulting company Científica has expanded its business with
the opening of new offices in London, UK, New York, USA, and Mumbai, India.
The information and consulting business will relocate to London. New York
and London are the cities where many of the commercial decisions concerning
the future of nanotechnology will be taken.
Científica CEO Tim Harper comments: "Anyone talking about trillion dollar
markets and billions of dollars of venture capital money is missing the
point of nanotechnology. Nanotech will be an enabling technology, and afford
incremental improvements before it becomes disruptive. It will affect all
areas of business, but most of these effects will not be called nano, and
they will be off the radar of most nano pundits and gurus."
Harper explains the reasoning behind the Indian office as being threefold.
First, the office will give the organisation access to the tremendous market
of Asia. Second, the impact of nanotechnology will be seen in many basic
industries in which India is a world power house. Finally, the office will
be responsible for the publishing activities of the organisation, taking
advantage of the highly cost-effective printing facilities in the country.
The companys parent, CMP Cientifica, will continue in Spain, concentrating
on R&D into nanoelectronics, networking between scientists and research
project co-ordination.
Sirenza Microdevices plans to relocate its corporate headquarters and all
manufacturing operations to the Interlocken Technology Park in Broomfield,
Colorado. The move, scheduled to be completed by July 2003, follows
Sirenzas recently completed purchase of substantially all of the assets of
Colorado-based Vari-L Company. Sirenza will lease 6600m2 in two buildings
with one serving as corporate headquarters and the other as a manufacturing
operation. Both buildings are undergoing significant tenant upgrades at a
total cost of $1.2mn. The move will allow Sirenza to consolidate
manufacturing operations currently located in Sunnyvale, California, and
Tempe, Arizona, and all four of Vari-Ls former Denver facilities into a
single complex. Total workforce at the new complex is expected to be between
190 and 210 people.
Sirenza Microdevices supplies high-performance RF components for the
wireless and wireline telecom markets. The companys product lines include
amplifiers, power amplifiers, discrete devices, RF signal sources, RF signal
processing components, fibre optic components, high-performance
multicomponent modules (MCMs) for transmit and receive applications, and
hi-rel components for military and aerospace applications
AngelTech Live III: Join us on 12 April 2021!
AngelTech Live III will be broadcast on 12 April 2021, 10am BST, rebroadcast on 14 April (10am CTT) and 16 April (10am PST) and will feature online versions of the market-leading physical events: CS International and PIC International PLUS a brand new Silicon Semiconductor International Track!
Thanks to the great diversity of the semiconductor industry, we are always chasing new markets and developing a range of exciting technologies.
2021 is no different. Over the last few months interest in deep-UV LEDs has rocketed, due to its capability to disinfect and sanitise areas and combat Covid-19. We shall consider a roadmap for this device, along with technologies for boosting its output.
We shall also look at microLEDs, a display with many wonderful attributes, identifying processes for handling the mass transfer of tiny emitters that hold the key to commercialisation of this technology.
We shall also discuss electrification of transportation, underpinned by wide bandgap power electronics and supported by blue lasers that are ideal for processing copper.
Additional areas we will cover include the development of GaN ICs, to improve the reach of power electronics; the great strides that have been made with gallium oxide; and a look at new materials, such as cubic GaN and AlScN.
Having attracted 1500 delegates over the last 2 online summits, the 3rd event promises to be even bigger and better – with 3 interactive sessions over 1 day and will once again prove to be a key event across the semiconductor and photonic integrated circuits calendar.
So make sure you sign up today and discover the latest cutting edge developments across the compound semiconductor and integrated photonics value chain.
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