CARSEM CARSEM is the second largest unit producer with 2.5 billion units per year-if one includes discrete and power-very mature and highly automated package sectors. ICs are predominantly leaded device packages-DIP, SO, QFP. BGA capability is being increased in the Malaysian plants. ChipPAC This company was born in late 1997 when Hyundai Electronics separated its IC assembly into a separate profit center. In March 1999, still following the Anam-Amkor model, ChipPAC was (90% ) sold to investor-backed management (Bain and Citicorp groups). The timing of that move was certainly influenced by the Korean financial crisis of 1998. But like its Amkor model, sharing control has made for a win-win partnership with jobs and technology in Korea, marketing and technology strength in the U.S. The relatively recent entry into the assembly business enables the company to concentrate on higher value array packages, including Tape BGA. IBM IBM Bromont is part of IBM Microelec-tronics with wafer fab (Burlington, Vt.), organic substrate (Endicott, N.Y.) and ceramic substrate (East Fishkill, N.Y.) divisions. Bromont, as a packaging foundry, is in the middle of the supply chain. Merchant sales account for over half. The main packaging thrust has been high-end, including ceramic substrate BGAs. Orient Semiconductor Engineering OSE combines board-level assembly (45%) with IC package assembly (55%). It seized the opportunity to buy a troubled IPAC, an IC assembler specializing in QFPs, in San Jose, about two years ago. This enabled OSE to add over $80 million to its production capacity for quick-turn production. OSE's mix has been weighted toward leaded devices. OSE is traded in Taiwan. Shinko This Japanese company produces a variety of ceramic and organic substrates, heat spreaders and discrete parts, besides offering IC package assembly. It trades publicly in Japan. Signetics Korea Ltd. Signetics and its U.S. and European branches-Signetics High Technology Inc., San Jose, and Signetics Ltd. Europe, Ferney-Voltaire, France, respectively-seemed imperiled in the Crisis of '98. But they pulled through and are thriving in 2000, as the table shows. The company's origin was the captive packaging facility of legendary Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker Signetics, later bought by N.V. Philips and renamed Philips Semiconductor. Philips sold the Korea-based assembly plants several years ago to Korean business interests (Figure 4). The mix includes large numbers of old design leaded packages, but it is vigorously shifting to array packages. The company is another proponent of TBGAs. It is also the oldest IC assembler in Asia still operating under its original name (since its founding in 1966).
Siliconware Precision Industries Ltd. Known widely as "SPIL," this company launched into organic rigid laminate and flex packages for its major customer wafer fab foundries, TSMC and UMC, emphasizing array packages in 1996. It reached the 100 million BGA mark in 1998. Wafer bumping is on their map as a licensee of Flip Chip Technologies. SPIL trades on the Taiwan stock exchange. Singapore Technologies Assembly and Test Service STATS was primarily an IC test company until 1998, when the first BGA laminate packages were produced. Chartered Semiconductor, Singapore's major wafer foundry, is a member of the same group, a partner, and a major source of business. An arms length relationship is maintained to attract competitors of Chartered and its customers. STATS' late entry into advanced packaging propels the company to the latest developments - TBGAs, wafer thinning and flip-chip. The company trades on the NASDAQ (since January 2000) as ST Assembly. Others The Amkor prospectus of 1998 spoke of 50 companies in the Independent Package Assembly sector. The Amkor 10K of 2000 spoke of 40. Ron Iscoff lists 31 (surviving) in CSR, July-August, 1999, but says there are double that number, including about 30 that did not respond to his survey.
Conclusion Two years ago, during the height of the Asian "flu," Asia's IC packaging foundries seemed, at times, to be the most active parts of an industry under seige. Now, with the recession only a bitter memory, most independent assemblers are working at or very near capacity.
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