Foundries News

• TowerJazz seeks acquisitions (Friday Feb. 04, 2011)
  At a recent event, Russell Ellwanger, CEO of TowerJazz Inc., disclosed that the specialty foundry vendor is looking to make an acquisition, according to the company.
  
  
• X-FAB and MFI Combine MEMS Foundry Offerings (Thursday Feb. 03, 2011)
  X-FAB Silicon Foundries and MEMS Foundry Itzehoe GmbH (MFI) today announced they will join forces to address the market for high-volume MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) and will combine their existing MEMS foundry capabilities and resources.
  
  
• Spreadtrum and TSMC Achieve 3G TD-SCDMA Baseband Processor Milestone (Friday Jan. 28, 2011)
  Spreadtrum and TSMC today unveiled their achievement on the first commercialized 40nm Time Division - Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) baseband processor.
  
  
• UMC Produces Customer CMOS-MEMS Sensor Products (Thursday Jan. 20, 2011)
  UMC today announced that the company has produced customer Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensor products, with volume production scheduled for this year.
  
  
• NVIDIA and TSMC Ship One-Billionth GeForce Graphics Processor (Friday Jan. 14, 2011)
  NVIDIA and TSMC today celebrated the shipment of the one-billionth GeForce graphics processor designed by NVIDIA and manufactured by TSMC.
  
  
• IBM and Samsung Announce Joint Research into New Semiconductor Technology (Thursday Jan. 13, 2011)
  IBM and Samsung today announced they will collaborate on basic research into new semiconductor materials, manufacturing processes and other technologies. The agreement calls for the two companies to jointly develop new semiconductor process technology that can be used in a broad range of applications -- from smart phone handsets to communications infrastructure.
  
  
• GLOBALFOUNDRIES Unveils Industry's First 28nm Signoff-Ready Digital Design Flows (Thursday Jan. 13, 2011)
  GLOBALFOUNDRIES today introduced the industry's first 28nm silicon-validated signoff-ready digital design flows to help chip designers deliver the next generation of power-sensitive mobile and consumer electronic devices.
  
  
• TSMC December 2010 Sales Report (Monday Jan. 10, 2011)
  TSMC today announced its net sales for December 2010: On an unconsolidated basis, net sales were approximately NT$33.75 billion, a decrease of 5.5 percent over November 2010 and an increase of 10.8 percent over December 2009. Full-year sales for 2010 totaled NT$406.96 billion, an increase of 42.4 percent compared to 2009.
  
  
• Tower to Receive NIS 150 Million Non-Refundable Cash Grants from the Israeli Investment Center, a Governmental Agency (Monday Jan. 03, 2011)
  TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, today announced that the Israeli Investment Center Committee has officially approved grants of up to NIS 150 million (approximately $42 million) to the company, related to investments in fab2 capex over the years 2006-2011.
  
  
• austriamicrosystems upgrades its non-volatile memory portfolio with ultra high reliability and high temperature EEPROM blocks (Wednesday Dec. 15, 2010)
  austriamicrosystems Full Service Foundry business unit announced today a further expansion of its non-volatile memory portfolio for its 0.35µm process family. The entire EEPROM IP block portfolio now includes 14 non-volatile memories (EEPROM and/or Flash) starting with small blocks offering 20x8 bit and 64x8 bit memory size.
  
  
• TSMC November 2010 Sales Report (Friday Dec. 10, 2010)
  TSMC today announced its net sales for November 2010: On an unconsolidated basis, net sales were approximately NT$35.72 billion, an decrease of 4.4 percent over October 2010 and an increase of 21.7 percent over November 2009.
  
  
• Intel confirms 450-mm fab plans (Thursday Dec. 09, 2010)
  Amid a flurry of speculation, Intel Corp. confirmed that its new fab in the United States is being constructed for the 450-mm wafer era.
  
  
• TSMC to reportedly boost capex, build new fab (Monday Dec. 06, 2010)
  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. plans to increase its capital spending in 2011 compared to this year and is planning a new 300-mm fab in Taiwan that will open in 2015, according to reports emerging from the company's supply chain management forum.
  
  
• Rockchip and SMIC in Commercial Production of 65-nm Multimedia Chips (Monday Nov. 29, 2010)
  Rockchip today announced that its design of a high-end digital-analog mixed SOC chip has successfully entered into commercial production at Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation using SMIC's 65-nm Low-Power process.
  
  
• TSMC Obtains Termination of ITC Investigation into 37nm and Smaller Products (Wednesday Nov. 17, 2010)
  TSMC announced today that it was able to secure a favorable resolution to an International Trade Commission investigation for alleged patent infringement by its 28 nm process technology.
  
  
• SMIC and Brite Semiconductor Collaborate to Provide Integrated IC Design and Manufacturing Services (Monday Nov. 15, 2010)
  SMIC today announced an agreement to invest in Brite Semiconductor, a Shanghai-based IC design and turnkey service company. The agreement allows Brite to provide customers with complete semiconductor design and manufacturing solutions based upon SMIC’s leading foundry and IP technology.
  
  
• TSMC October 2010 Sales Report (Thursday Nov. 11, 2010)
  TSMC today announced its net sales for October 2010: On an unconsolidated basis, net sales were approximately NT$37.37 billion, an increase of 2 percent over September 2010 and an increase of 28.1 percent over October 2009.
  
  
• Shortlink and LFoundry in RF and Mixed-Signal IP Partnership (Wednesday Nov. 10, 2010)
  Shortlink AB and Landshut Silicon Foundry GmbH today announced a partnership agreement to provide Shortlink low power RF and mixed-signal custom IP in LFoundry’s industry leading LF150 modular 150nm CMOS process technology. The Shortlink IP offering will include SRD transceivers, RF receivers and transmitters, PLL, VCO, ADC, DAC and amplifiers.
  
  
• SMIC Reports Third Quarter 2010 Results (Thursday Nov. 04, 2010)
  SMIC today announced its consolidated results of operations for the three months ended September 30, 2010. Revenue up by 7.6% to $410.1 million in 3Q10 from $381.1 million in 2Q10 and up by 26.8% compared to 3Q09.
  
  
• TowerJazz Raises $100 Million in Debentures Offering (Thursday Nov. 04, 2010)
  TowerJazz today announced the completion of its previously announced fundraising in Israel, following a public tender executed today resulting in excess demand of 150%.
  
  
• TSMC Reports Third Quarter EPS of NT$1.81 (Thursday Oct. 28, 2010)
  TSMC today announced consolidated revenue of NT$112.25 billion, net income of NT$46.94 billion, and diluted earnings per share of NT$1.81 (US$0.28 per ADR unit) for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010.
  
  
• Dongbu HiTek Accelerates Drive into Automotive Electronics ICs Winning AEC-Q100 Certifications for Process Technologies and IP (Wednesday Oct. 27, 2010)
  Dongbu HiTek today confirmed that it has fully qualified its advanced 180nm Mixed-Signal (MS180) Process and EEPROM Intellectual Property (IP) to meet the rigorous quality/reliability criteria set forth in the automotive AEC-Q100 'Grade 0' standard.
  
  
• GLOBALFOUNDRIES Expands Design Services Ecosystem with Three New Partners (Wednesday Oct. 13, 2010)
  GLOBALFOUNDRIES today introduced three newly certified design services companies as part of its GLOBALSOLUTIONS partner ecosystem. Infotech Enterprises Limited, Verisilicon, and Wipro Limited have joined GLOBALSOLUTIONS.
  
  
• TowerJazz and Crocus Complete First Stage Integration of TAS MRAM into 130nm CMOS Platform (Monday Oct. 11, 2010)
  TowerJazz and Crocus Technology today announced the successful completion of the first stage of integration of Crocus' Thermally Assisted Switching (TAS)-based MRAM technology into TowerJazz's 0.13-micron CMOS process.
  
  
• TSMC September 2010 Sales Report (Friday Oct. 08, 2010)
  TSMC today announced its net sales for September 2010: On an unconsolidated basis, net sales were approximately NT$36.65 billion, an increase of 0.4 percent over August 2010 and an increase of 30.8 percent over September 2009.
  
  
• Ensphere Leverages TowerJazz's 0.18-micron SiGe BiCMOS Process to Achieve Fully Integrated One Chip Optical Transceiver IC (Thursday Oct. 07, 2010)
  TowerJazz today announced that Ensphere Solutions has chosen the foundry’s 0.18-micron SiGe BiCMOS process (SBC18) for its fully integrated one chip optical transceiver IC (ESI-1002) targeting 10G data communication and storage area network applications.
  
  
• TSMC Expands IP Alliance to Include Soft IP (Tuesday Oct. 05, 2010)
  TSMC today expanded its IP Alliance to incorporate a soft IP program that will improve soft IP readiness for advanced technology nodes and drive earlier time-to-market.
  
  
• CEA-Leti Makes a R&D 20nm Fully Depleted SOI Process available through CMP (Friday Oct. 01, 2010)
  CEA-Leti and CMP (Circuits Multi Projets ®) announced the launch of an Exploratory MPW (Multi Project Wafers) initiative based on FDSOI (Fully Depleted SOI) 20nm process, opening the access of its 300mm infrastructure to the design community.
  
  
• TSMC gets nod for 130-nm production in China (Friday Oct. 01, 2010)
  The Taiwan government has approved Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd.'s application to upgrade its 200-mm fab in Shanghai, China to 0.13-micron technology, according to a report from Reuters.
  
  
• IBM 'fab club' denies problems with high-k (Tuesday Sep. 28, 2010)
  Members of IBM Corp.'s technology alliance, namely GlobalFoundries Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., dismissed a report that the group is struggling with its high-k/metal-gate technology.