Silterra invests $100 million in expanding capacity
(Business News, 26 Oct 2007 )
Silterra Malaysia announced that it has invested US$100 million in its Phase 1 capacity expansion in the existing fab. The capacity expansion consists largely of 0.13u and also some 90nm capability. This will bring Silterra’s capacity to between 35,000 – 40,000 wafers per month depending on the product mix. This is in line with the company’s 3-phase expansion plan announced on July 18, 2007 and marks completion of Phase 1 of the plan. The current process technologies are capable of mixed analog/digital, High Voltage, RFCMOS and low power.
Phase II of the expansion plan involves the acquisition of another 8” fab for Silterra to have better economies of scale. Silterra has been actively looking for an 8” fab to add to its capacity. The Phase III plan is to build a 12” fab for 90nm and 65nm technologies.
In additional to mixed analog/digital generic processes, Silterra has been focusing on High Voltage, RFCMOS and Low Power processes. Silterra is one of the leaders in HV process offering 0.18u 32HV, 0.16u 32HV and it plans to roll out 32V High Voltage process for 0.13u in Q4. Silterra has also scored significant milestones in RFCMOS. With 0.18u in production, Silterra plans to roll out RF models for 0.16u and 0.13u in early Q1 and Q2 respectively.
“We have quite a number of customers who have started many designs of significant volume with us over the pass 9-12 months and we want to make sure that we deliver to their needs. In addition to the investment in capacity, we have invested resources to ensure our models, PDK and IPs are accurate and silicon proven before our customers use them. Our first time silicon success rate has increased tremendously since,” said Mr. Kah Yee Eg, CEO of Silterra. “We are very focused in providing our customers with world class manufacturing quality and assisting them in producing the highest quality products.” He added.
