Investment & expansion
Some 25 of the 32 engineers recently hired will be used to design RF CMOS devices, especially in the area of the low-cost ZigBee wireless communications standard, GPS and future wireless programmes.
The original group of 12 engineers has been increased by seven and will continue to design advanced circuits for automotive body electronics, using Atmel's silicon-on-insulator BCDMOS technologies.
Mexico is looking take on a greater role in the high-tech sector at its Silicon Border development in the State of Baja California. The aim is to establish an attractive strategic alternative for cost-effective and centralised semiconductor operations in North America. The park is situated in Mexicali, along the western border of the USA and Mexico.
"This joint commitment among federal government, state government and private enterprise is indicative of a growing confidence in Mexico's national economy and its emerging role in a technology-driven global economy," says governor Eugenio Elorduy Walther of Baja California, Mexico.
"The State of Baja California is proud to support the national economic initiatives introduced by [Mexican] President [Vicente] Fox with a collaborative agreement to establish a world-class centre for semiconductor operations in our capital city that will help drive the industry and our country forward into an exciting future."
An agreement with the State of Baja California grants Silicon Border exclusivity for technology-focused park development, including commercial land use and access to mission-critical water, electricity and gas in a 40km2 area just a couple of hours from San Diego and Imperial Valley in the USA. Tax-free periods are available for companies with wafer fab costs of up to $2bn.
DJ Hill, chairman of Silicon Border, comments: "Building upon the NAFTA foundation, the leadership of the Mexican government has responded beyond our expectations to enable a very competitive North American manufacturing environment that will contribute to the stability and success of the global high-tech supply chain."
"It's time to introduce the US semiconductor community to the land of opportunity right under our noses," says Ron Jones, CEO of Silicon Border.
"Silicon Border is creating a 'safe haven' for the industry, especially in light of the fact that the combination of our infrastructure and government incentives results in a cost infrastructure equal to or better than that available to our supply chain in Asian countries - including Taiwan and China."
Other industries sought for the site include biotechnology, telecoms, optoelectronics, computers and peripherals, and precision machinery and materials.
Carsem's Suzhou factory in China has completed initial customer qualifications and begun shipping production volumes of Micro Leadframe Package (MLP) products. The 16,000m2 facility shipped its first production parts to Semtech, a California supplier of high-quality analogue and mixed-signal semiconductor products.
The Carsem-Suzhou factory construction was completed in January this year and more than 100 of its current staff of 180 employees have received extensive training in Carsem's Malaysian factories during the past six months.
The installed full turnkey assembly and test equipment is focused on the production of the entire range of MLPQ (quad) and MLPD (dual) packages, which is a saw-singulated version of QFN & SON compliant packages satisfying JEDEC's MO220 and MO229 standards. The packages are available in a wide range of body sizes as well as in a "green" Pb-free option.
