K&S Moving All Production to Asia Willow Grove, Pa.-Kulicke & Soffa, the world's largest supplier of die attach and wire bonding machines and supplies, will transfer all U.S. production to Asia by year's end. K&S reduced its manufacturing headcount in Willow Grove from more than 400 in the late 1990s to "essentially zero as of the end of this year," according to a company spokesman. "Our goals are to move manufacturing closer to the majority of our customers in addition to reducing costs," he added. Supply Chain The company said it will establish a "supply chain" of vendors and sub-assemblers in China for equipment products. K&S will begin manufacturing in a facility outside Shanghai late next year. Additionally, machine integration for the company's microelectronics group will join ball bonder manufacturing at the company's Singapore plant later this year. Ball bonder production was transferred to Singapore in 1999. K&S said that it will move from a "product-focused" company to a structure with "certain disciplines combined across product lines." Engineering, marketing, manufacturing and customer operations will be part of the new business model. The company's Flip Chip Division in Phoenix, Ariz., and the Substrate Division in Milpitas, Calif., will continue to operate separately. The company also said that it will cut 200 jobs throughout K&S. The reduction is aimed at "redundancies" created by joining similar functions from different business units. [kns.com]
Belgium's CS2 Packaging Foundry Files Bankruptcy By Ron Iscoff, Editor Brussels-Custom Silicon Config-uration Services (CS2), one of Europe's few IC packaging foundries-and its most advanced-is bankrupt and in receivership, according to recent reports. In December, CS2 announced that an investment group, Business 21 S.A., was prepared to infuse $25 million to help the ailing assembly subcontractor. First Installment Not Received At the end of January, CS2 said the first installment of the investment had not been received, and the company filed for bankruptcy. The company was founded in March 1998 by Steve Lerner [slerner@gigasyscorp.com], a 22-year industry veteran, with a push from IMEC, a Belgian-based consortium. Lerner, who earlier held key management posts with Amkor and Swire, planned to provide high-end IC assembly for the European market. Lerner took CS2 from incorporation to IPO on Belgium's EASDAQ exchange in less than two years. The company's stock, which was 34x oversubscribed, opened at 14 euro, the equivalent of $13.05, on March 2, 2000. Last year, the CS2 board ousted Lerner, charging that he managed the company poorly. In a recent interview, Lerner told Chip Scale Review that among the other reasons, noted by the board for his dismissal, was his children's giant Flemish rabbit, "Garlic." Lerner was replaced by Yves De Poorter, a Belgian whose prior experience was in the textile industry.
"One of the absurd grounds cited for my dismissal," Lerner said, "was that I asked a local worker to assist in procuring this rabbit for my kids." The real reasons, Lerner added, were more substantial. Lerner said that the major shareholders wanted him out of the picture when he began complaining to the board about delinquencies in the lead VC's financial mandate. Lerner said he also made noise about perceived irregularities in CS2 stock trading, tied to a Belgian-based investment bank. Lerner returned to the U.S. last year. He is currently visiting venture capitalists, looking for money to begin a new semiconductor-related venture, GigaSys Corp., near Boston. Chip Scale Review has obtained a letter written to the board of directors in January 2001 and signed by more than a dozen current and former executives. The letter alleges that the Chapter 11 proceeding filed last year marked "the beginning of the end for our company, and is a direct result of the board's financial neglect..." That Chapter 11 reorganization, filed with the Commercial Court in Brussels, granted CS2 creditor protection, until it was lifted on June 20, 2001. "The actual mechanisms that drove CS2 to the final crash have began surfacing," Dr. Claudio Truzzi, CS2's former chief technology officer, told Chip Scale Review. Dr. Truzzi said analysts now blame the main investors, principally IT Partners, a Belgian venture capitalist. He says CS2 was undercapitalized from its inception and shackled with a negative balance sheet, despite the most successful IPO ever seen at EASDAQ. Latest Announcement In CS2's latest public announcement, dated January 30, De Poorter says CS2 is unable to execute the restructuring and creditor repayment plan approved by a Brussels court in June 2001. The result, according to sources overseas, means lights out for CS2-and uncollected bills for many creditors. Amkor Reports Record Loss; Acquires Citizen Watch Chandler, Ariz.-Amkor Technology Inc., the world's largest IC packaging foundry and industry bellweather, reported record fourth quarter 2001 losses of $317 million, or ($2.02) per share on revenues of $1.52 billion. Amkor's revenue for the year represented a 36% decline from 2000. In 2000, net income was reported at $242 million, or $1.60 per share.
Amkor's Q4 2001 loss was $103 million, or ($0.63) per share, compared to a profit of $71 million, or $0.45 per share for the comparable quarter in 2000. Citizen Watch Co. Acquisition Released almost simultaneously with its earnings report, the company said it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Citizen Watch Co. Ltd. Terms were not disclosed. Citizen Watch has been operating as a third-party subcontractor for a wide range of Japanese semiconductor companies. With the acquisition, Amkor said it will hire 83 employees from Citizen's assembly operations. According to Amkor, Citizen Watch owns a "strong portfolio" of intellectual property for ball grid array packaging. Citizen's largest customer is Mitsubishi Electric. Other customers include Flextronics, Hitachi Seisakusho, Kawasaki Microelectronics, NEC Fukui and Ricoh. Citizen is located in Kitakami-Iwate, Japan, near Amkor's Iwate assembly plant.
Letter of Intent for Bonders In late February, Amkor announced that it plans to buy 200 K&S Maxum ball bonders. The machines will be employed to help support Amkor's ramp to ultra-fine pitch wire bonding technology. The first shipments are scheduled for this April. Amkor said it will place the machines at its assembly plants in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines to manufacture BGA packages. John Boruch, Amkor's president, is quoted in a statement as saying, "Amkor is preparing for the industry upturn by developing leading-edge capability for the various package designs our customers will require." [amkor.com] Walter H. Matthews, a Silicon Valley Icon, Passes Walt Matthews never designed an IC. He never fabricated one. He had no patents and no technical training in the semiconductor industry. Yet, the influence of this soft-spoken Texan on the semiconductor industry, and particularly on the way the industry marketed and promoted itself owes Walt a huge debt.
Walt died on Valentine's Day from medical problems related to diabetes. He was 68. Walt, with his former partner Joe Clark, founded one of Silicon Valley's premier advertising and PR agencies, Matthews & Clark, Palo Alto, in 1975 (now known as Positio PR, Sunnyvale). His agency grew to include offices in Boston, London, Munich, Phoenix and San Diego. As it grew, Walt, a former reporter himself, knew exactly what the trade media wanted and was always eager to oblige. From 1976 and for two decades, Walt's agency represented SEMI. To many of us in the media, Walt was SEMI at its uncomplicated, friendly best. He would immediately cut through red tape to answer our questions or to get us a ticket to a sold-out SEMICON West banquet. We'll miss Walt and his often under-appreciated sense of humor. - R.I. Pericom Develops BQSOP Replacement San Jose-Pericom Semiconductor Corp., a supplier of high-speed and mixed signal ICs, partnered with OSE, its Taiwan-based packaging foundry, to produce a very-thin, dual-in-line 80-pin package. Known as the DFN (dual-in-line, flat no-lead) package, Pericom is offering the high-performance plastic package as a replacement for its 80-pin BQSOPs. The DFN part retains the same footprint as the BQSOP, making it plug-compatible on the board. [pericom.com] IMP Expands MEMS, Opto Capabilities Santa Barbara, Calif.-Innovative Micro Technology (IMT) recently expanded its fab, already one of the largest in the MEMS industry, to 30,000 square feet of active class 100 fabrication area, plus 4,000 square feet of assembly and packaging space. Wafer bonding (anodic, eutectic, Si fusion, glass frit, etc.) was added as part of the expansion capability. A new Karl Suss SB6 wafer bonding system augments existing design, prototyping and manufacturing of MEMS devices. [www.imtmems.com]
Alphasem AG, STATS Announce New Leadership Two major assembly and packaging companies, one in Europe, the other based in Asia, have announced key changes at the top. Alphasem AG, a leading maker of die attach and die sort equipment, has appointed Hans Rudolf Meister president. He replaces Gustav A. Wirz, Alphasem founder, who retired at the end of last year. Meister joined Alphasem in 1990 as executive VP of operations. Heinz Ritzmann, former executive VP-R&D moves into Meister's former slot. Meanwhile, Olivier Camal has been promoted to executive VP of R&D. Alphasem, based in Berg, Switzerland, is a Universal Instruments company. Asked how his elevation to running the company will differ from the founder's Meister replied, "There will not be a radical change in Alphasem's overall strategy. After all, I have been with the company for more than 10 years and Mr. Wirz will remain on the board.
"We will continue to provide leading-edge technical solutions...like our 300 mm wafer-loading concept. Therefore, we held on to our engineering capacity and continued our development efforts undiminished through this downturn." Meister adds, "The U.S. continues to be the motor of the semiconductor industry. It still creates the largest demand for the products that are produced primarily in the far east, and that's where the volume market for our die bonders is." The Asian change of command took place at ST Assembly Test Services Ltd. (STATS), Singapore, where Harry H. Davoody joined the company as president and CEO, as well as a director to the company's board. He replaces Tan Bock Seng, who will remain executive board chairman. Under Seng's helmsmanship, STATS grew from a startup to become a major independent semiconductor test and advanced packaging within five years. Today, STATS is one of the largest companies on the Singapore Exchange with a market cap of about US $1.4 billion. Most recently, Davoody was vice president/GM of the Digital Audio Video Products Group, a division of Texas Instruments. Earlier, he was vice president/GM of TI's Mixed-Signal DSP Solutions Division. Davoody holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington, a master's, also in electrical engineering, from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from the University of Dallas. Asked about his plans for STATS, Davoody told Chip Scale Review, "My mission is to build on STATS' strong foundation ....This will mean that we must be totally customer-centric with a passion for winning. "Going forward," added Davoody, "I believe you must be able to assemble, test and drop-ship to anywhere in the world for your customers. Unlike many players in the test and assembly business, we have invested significantly in our test business and have built a leadership position in mixed-signal test methodologies." |
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