Nikkei Electronics Asia -- October 2008
Reports
Applied Materials Sets Up Singapore Base

While companies fret about the slowdown of the global electronics industry, Applied Materials Inc of the US, a leader in nanomanufacturing technology solutions, believes the current situation presents a good opportunity to set up its Asia Operations Center (AOC) in Singapore. With this recent setup in Singapore, the company is bringing its equipment, software products and solutions much closer to its customers in Asia. These include products for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics, flat panel displays and energy efficient glass. 

Applied Materials plans to use the AOC - one of its two key hubs, with the other being its facility in Texas - for silicon product manufacturing and operations. The company intends to construct and test its systems in modules and then consolidate the modules at the two locations using the company's "merge-in-transit" manufacturing model for added flexibility. This flexibility will allow the company to configure systems when needed in the build-cycle and moves the pick-up locations closer to its customers' fabs.

The company also sees good business potential from within Singapore, where chipmakers are turning out leading-edge products such as logics, DRAM and NAND. The company believes that like many of its global semiconductor customers, chipmakers in Singapore will welcome its technologies and solutions, which can help facilitate the production of silicon products and services, particularly in the areas of logics, NAND and NOR Flash, and DRAM, etc.

"As manufacturers in Singapore, and their global partners, look to the next generations of devices, they are faced with increasing technological and productivity challenges such as the introduction of high-k/metal gates and other advanced materials in logic, or the rising costs of patterning in DRAM and Flash," said Tom St. Dennis, Applied Materials' senior VP and general manager, Silicon Systems Group. "These offer tremendous business opportunities for Applied Materials because its broad spectrum of technologies can maximize fab output and lower production costs." 

St. Dennis added: "By working at the customer module level, we are able to bring our resources to bear on some of their greatest R&D challenges, such as in patterning, high-k/metal gate, 3D devices, or in the introduction of copper interconnects into memory devices. In the silicon part of the business, we are looking to the AOC as an opportunity to drive manufacturing cycle time and material cost reductions, and as an enabler for our merge-in-transit manufacturing capabilities."

Environmentally Friendly

The AOC, which is expected to operate in full swing in the 2nd half of 2009, is positioned as Applied Materials' base to penetrate Asia's chip industry as well as the solar markets in India and China. The company sees solar as an emerging market as more and more countries adopt new forms of energy and green technologies. 

According to St. Dennis, Applied Materials also wants to use the AOC to demonstrate its commitment to the environment while showcasing the various technological advances the company has made in order to help save the environment.

"The AOC is designed to include a 350KW solar array - which would be the largest array ever deployed in Singapore. Also, the current plans call for low-e glass curtain walls, LED and fluorescent lighting, an energy-efficient air conditioning system and a sophisticated water treatment and rainwater capture system," said St. Dennis. "The AOC in Singapore is indeed a long-term operations plan with built-in cost reduction extendibility created to benefit the company both in the short-term and distant future."

The company plans to focus on ramping AOC's operations capabilities beginning with its silicon products, and R&D works will only be carried out in the long run.

by Adeline Ong

MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

24 Hours | 7 Days