By Wasana Nadeeshani
Singapore (Commonwealth)_The semiconductor industry is now in a downturn, but the projected strong demand for components in new markets, such as electric cars, signals that the sector will quickly recover, according to Pierre Barnabe, chief executive officer of French manufacturer Soitec.
Barnabe joined Soitec in May of this year and assumed the role of CEO in July. Prior to that, he was senior executive vice president, group security officer, and worldwide head of Big Data and cybersecurity at Atos, a French information technology corporation. Nonetheless, market downturns are to be expected, and during such slumps, certain firms are likely to suffer more than others, according to Barnabe. “However, those that are well-established, such as Soitec, in smartphones, autos, and smart gadgets (are likely to do better since) these sub-sectors are more active, which offers us hope in the long term.”
The addition, which is scheduled to be completed in 2024, will be dedicated to the manufacturing of 300mm silicon-on-insulator wafers, which are used to manufacture processors for smartphones, electric and driverless vehicles, and other smart devices. This would more than quadruple the company’s annual manufacturing capacity in Singapore to about two million wafers, complementing the company’s objectives to increase worldwide annual production capacity to around 4.5 million wafers by FY2026.
Soitec’s facility in Singapore would gain 45,000 square metres of clean room and office space as a result of the expansion. Soitec wants to expand its Singapore staff to more than 600 by 2026 with a larger facility, according to a media statement. Soitec’s decision to expand its activities in Singapore demonstrates the company’s “long-term commitment to strengthening its footprint here and also in the region,” said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling during the groundbreaking event. According to Soitec’s CEO, one distinguishing feature of the semiconductor sector is its capacity to rapidly recover from a crisis. He went on to say: “The crisis is over. Forecasts have steadily improved throughout the year, and there is fresh hope for 2010, with growth regions returning to acceptable levels. The SOI technology is key to this recovery. We’ve made the correct decisions to allow for a comeback.” Auberton-Hervé observed that Soitec’s R&D activities remained intact since slowing them down during and after the crisis was out of the question. An attempt was also made to reduce overall costs.
Auberton-Hervé saw favorable momentum in SOI markets when looking at the sector as a whole. “Despite the crisis,” he asserted, “all players have demonstrated that the SOI offer is legitimate. The SOI consortium already has more than 30 members, demonstrating the technology’s popularity.” The latest ARM announcement is critical because it illustrates the desire in an SOI platform for SoC applications, according to Soitec’s CEO.
This alludes to ARM’s October announcement of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) 45-nm test chip that indicates potential power savings of up to 40% over traditional bulk method for producing chips of the same shape.
The test chip was developed in collaboration with ARM and Soitec to show the power savings in a real silicon implementation. The test device, which is based on an ARM 1176 CPU, allows for direct comparisons between SOI and bulk microprocessor implementations. According to ARM, the findings demonstrate that SOI technology is a viable alternative to traditional bulk process technology for creating low-power CPUs for high-performance consumer devices and mobile applications. Another news that has sparked interest in SOI markets is AMD’s intention to release its first “Fusion” processors utilizing 32nm SOI process technology before the end of 2010. Similarly, Auberton-Hervé reported a resurgence in the server industry as a result of the release of Windows 7 and multicore structure expansions.
