Tower Semiconductor opens Taiwan office
"Tower began serving customers within the Taiwan market more than five years ago, and since then, we have grown the number of local customers to a full dozen," said Russell Ellwanger, CEO of Tower. "Opening a representative office in Taiwan is part of Tower's strategy to enhance its business activities in the Asia Pacific region, and serves as a foundation to further expand our presence throughout additional countries within the area."
The Taiwan-based representative office will provide applications and logistical support to Tower's existing customers, and will also perform marketing activities aimed at the local market to increase its customer base. The company's specialty foundry focus is a perfect match to many Taiwanese fabless companies that seek professional manufacturers, such as Tower, who provide specialised expertise within designated manufacturing areas.
Tower serves about a dozen customers in Taiwan, amongst them are Macronix, Modiotek, Winbond, MagicPixel and ViTi. Tower provides cost effective manufacturing foundry services in digital CMOS process technologies.
Currently, Tower operates two foundry facilities in Israel: Fab1 is a 6-inch wafer Fab and produces in 1.0- to 0.35- microns. Fab2 is a state-of-the-art, 8-inch wafer Fab that manufacturers in 0.18-, 0.16- (in aluminum) and 0.13-microns (in copper). Tower is in the process of ramping its Fab2 to over 30,000 wafers per month.
