Nov

7

New Wafer Reclaiming Process For Solar Panel Manufacturing

Filed Under Related Industry, Semiconductor Industry, Video Gallery | Leave a Comment

Last week, IBM announced a breakthrough in semiconductor wafer reclamation process that could remove all the chip circuitries on wafer surface using an abrasive pad and water (watch the video below). The new process resembles a CMP process typically used in a fab. I guess the secret sauce lies in the abrasive. IBM claimed that the reclaimed wafers are good enough to be reused for solar panel manufacturing and most importantly the process is comparatively much cheaper than existing methods (Ref). If this is true, the fabs could save significant amount of cost by recycling the scrapped wafers and selling them to solar manufacturing company. The method is not only environmentally friendly, but it also helps to ease the shortage of supply in the rapidly growing solar panel industry. For the cause of preserving the environment, IBM intends to provide details of the new process to the broader semiconductor manufacturing industry.

I believe Singapore will be the beneficiary of this new invention from IBM. Firstly, the number of wafer fabs in Singapore is going to increase quite substantially in the next two years as new fabs like Qimonda, IMFlash, SOITEC and TECH 12″ Fab conversion are ready. Proportionally, there will be increase in scrapped wafers supply locally. Second, Singapore is going to house the world largest solar manufacturing plant owned by REC which will need a large amount of raw silicon material for its solar manufacturing (Ref). Therefore, if the scrapped wafers from the fabs could be reclaimed for solar manufacturing, then it would be a mutually beneficial deal for the semiconductor and solar industries.

 

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Sep

5

Two major Semiconductor events in Asia next week

Filed Under Equipment, Metrology, Process Technology, Semiconductor Industry, Video Gallery | Leave a Comment

SEMICON Taiwan 2007

There are two upcoming semiconductor events in Asia next week. One is SEMICON Taiwan 2007, and the other one is Singapore Semiconductor Summit 2007.

SEMICON Taiwan is a premier event in the Asia’s semiconductor industry. This year event will run from September 12-14 at the Taipei World Trade Center. According to the organizers, the show floor has been sold out with over 730 exhibiting companies. The overwhelming response reflects the incredible state of Taiwan semiconductor industry. Taiwan has 10 300 mm fabs currently in production and another seven either under construction or equipping for operation. Nine 300 mm fabs are in the planning stage. To support this robust manufacturing activity, the Taiwan equipment market is forecasted to reach $7B by the end of 2007 and $8B in 2008 (Ref).

In conjunction to the SEMICON Taiwan, Entegris is organizing its own semiconductor conference at the Grand Hyatt which is next to the Taipei World Trade Center. A friend of mine working in Entegris is organizing this event. The Entegris conference will feature leading-edge solutions that enable optimization of current processes and provide future solutions for CMP, Photolithography and Wet Etch and Clean applications. I hope she could help me to write a blog on SEMICON Taiwan and Entegris’s conference after the events. :)

On the home ground, MIDAS, a new semiconductor industry association in Singapore, is organizing a one-day semiconductor summit at the Raffles Town Club. For details, click here. The keynote speakers of the event include:

  • Mr. Ulf Schneider, VP Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific
  • Mr. Chan Yong Choong, VP Corporate Development & Business Management STATSChipPAC
  • Mr. Damian Chan, Head Semiconductors Electronics Cluster, EDB
  • Dr. Markus Wachter, Managing Director German Institute of Science & Technology
  • Ms. Meenu Sarin, Director VLSI Consultancy
  • Prof. Yeo Kiat Seng, Head of Division for Circuits & Systems, NTU
  • Mr. BC Khou, CEO Trilobyte Technologies
  • Mr. Edwin Chow, Director Technology Innovation Division SPRING
  • Mr. Anthony Ng, CEO D’Crypt
  • Mr. John Tan, Lead Venture Partner Jafco Singapore

Enjoy some flash back of SEMICON Singapore 2007 below:

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