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September 12th, 2005
Brazil to Establish Wafer Fab and Design House
Infrastructure
Through Companhia Brasileira de semiconductores (CBS), Brazil’s
semiconductor manufacturing venture, Brazil is expected to have a semiconductor wafer fabrication facility by 2007. The new
facility is expected to be located in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais on a 990 acre facility along with several other
technology companies. The fab, to be in the Minas Gerais Technological Park. is planned for the production of high voltage,
mixed signal CMOS, BiCMOS and Bipolar chips.
Through Brazil’s Eldorado project, Brazil is also expected
to become home for semiconductor design houses through its own pool of local talent and foreign chip companies that are expected
to locate in the area. According to Dr. Wolfgang Sauer, CEO of CBS, "Brazil is already a major maker and exporter of advanced
high-technology products such as aircraft, consumer electronics, and cell phones and is making the necessary infrastructure
and industrial investment to step onto the world stage in semiconductor manufacturing and design. The technological park in
Minas Gerais, and CBS in particular, are clear indicators of Brazil's direction and commitment. For strategic reasons many
companies want to have semiconductor manufacturing located in multiple economic and geographic zones. A Brazilian semiconductor
industry offers a real alternative to the concentration of semiconductor manufacturing in Asia."
September 7th, 2005
Sipex to Close Fab, Layoff
– Selects China’s Silan to Foundry Chips
Sipex Corporation with the announcement of a planned strategic relationship with China based
Hangzhou Silan Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd (Silan-IC) has said that it will close its Milpitas, California wafer fabrication
plant. The company reports that it plans to eventually have its chips manufactured at Silan’s chip facility located
in Shanghai. As part of that arrangement, Silan will acquire equipment from Sipex’s facility.
Ralph Schmitt, CEO of Sipex expressed mixed feelings about the developments,
"It is with both excitement and sadness that I make this extremely important announcement regarding the future of our Company.
Our Milpitas fab has made significant operational improvements over the last few years. However, our product needs and the
process capability of this fab are no longer aligned. Therefore, it is not economically feasible to keep the fab operational.
The sacrifices made by the people we expect to lay off due to this strategic manufacturing transition are greatly appreciated
by me and by our stockholders. We will need their continued support and cooperation in order to properly meet our customers'
needs during the transition period."
Sipex plans to immediately start the transfer of the company’s
Bipolar and BiCMOS processes to Silan-IC. The transfer is expected to take at most 1 year. Sipex also indicated that it would
license some of its products to Silan-IC to sell in the China market and would cooperate in future product development efforts.
Mr. Schmitt continued about the reality of China, "This relationship is the start of the new reality of our business as China
becomes a significant manufacturer and procurer of analog products. We need a new progressive model to be successful in the
fastest growing market in the world. Brian Hilton, chairman at Sipex, implied that the entrance into China would have a positive
effect on the company’s sales, "We wanted to have a true strategic relationship and not just a foundry partner. We selected
Silan-IC due to the many synergies in our businesses and products. They are the fastest growing IDM in China with significant
resources to augment what already exists at Sipex."
Over at Silan, Mr. Fan Wei-Hong, General Manager of Silan Integrated
Circuits Co., Ltd., summed up the agreement with a win-win attitude, "Sipex will help Silan-IC continue to build
its position in China. We have great synergies in power and optical products. We help Sipex solve an immediate manufacturing
issue while enabling us with new process technologies and products. This is truly a win-win situation. We have already discussed
further collaborative efforts that will make this a true long-term partnership." Silan presently already has two wafer fabrication
facilities, which produce both Bipolar and BiCMOS chip products in a 10,000 square meter clean room.
September 1st, 2005
Hittite Microwave Corporation (NASDAQ: HITT) reported that it
has acquired substantially all of the assets of Q-Dot, Inc, a unit of SIMTEK Corporation. The acquisition price of the mixed
signal integrated circuit company was $2.2 million. The acquisition is expected to provide Hittite with technology related
to the design of direct digital synthesis, analog-to-digital converters, digital-to-analog converters, digital drivers and
receivers. These technologies are to be incorporated into Hittite’s line of chips, modules and subsystems.
September 1st, 2005
Ramtron International Corporation (NASDAQ:RMTR), a supplier of high-speed
write non-volatile memory chips, announced that it has acquired Goal Semiconductor, Inc., a fabless semiconductor provider
of mixed signal integrated circuits and design services. Ramtron acquired Goal in a transaction estimated at $7.6 million,
which included $2.0 million in cash and $5.6 million in Ramtron common stock.
The acquisition is expected to enable Ramtron to accelerate its
mixed signal product development plans and to further address design solutions for the power meter market. CEO of Ramtron,
Bill Staunton indicated that with the acquisition, the company now can provide almost the entire content for a power meter,
"For example, with our current Processor Companion line of analog and mixed-signal ICs, we can provide about 30% of the silicon
content required for an electronic power meter. By adding Goal products and analog design expertise, we will be able to provide
as much as 70% to 80% of the required silicon content under the Ramtron name."
Mr. Staunton also emphasized that the acquisition would accelerate
the development of high-margin products, "We expect that this acquisition, which is highly complementary to our current product
strategy, will give us a five-year jump on our roadmap for integrated and application-specific product launches. As a result,
we hope to accelerate the development and delivery of high-margin products targeted at the markets that we serve. We believe
that the performance and functionality potential for our integrated and application-specific standard product offerings will
expand significantly as a result of this acquisition.
The acquisition is expected to provide Ramtron a way into the mixed
signal application specific standard products (ASSP) market. Ramtron in the acquisition obtained Goal’s technology
for digital signal processing applications, as well as standard products which included high-voltage digital-to-analog
converters (DAC), a broad line of microcontrollers, analog-digital converters and IP cores, an integral part of Goal’s
mixed signal design service.
Ramtron with the acquisition now has 107 employees, which is up
from 88. Goal Semiconductor is located in Canada and Ramtron in Colorado.
August 24th, 2005
Silicon Laboratories Acquires Mixed Signal Design
House for $16 Million
Silicon Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ:SLAB) has acquired Silicon MAGIKE,
Inc., a mixed signal IC company focused on the development of high voltage designs. Nav Sooch, chairman and interim CEO of
Silicon Laboratories said the acquisition was consistent with the company’s diversification strategy, "This technology
acquisition brings us a very experienced mixed-signal design team and significant development progress on high-voltage products,
which are traditionally high margin, highly differentiated and address a large, fragmented market," said of Silicon Laboratories.
This acquisition is consistent with our customer and market diversification strategy and further expands our world-class design
team."
Silicon Laboratories acquired the company in an all-cash transaction
for about $16 million, however the cost could go higher if Silicon MAGIKE meets certain performance goals over an eighteen-month
period ending June 30, 2007.
August 23rd, 2005
Analog Devices Offers Instrumentation Amp for Next Generation Ultra Sensitive Portable
Medical Instruments
Analog Devices Inc. (NYSE: ADI), with the introduction of its AD8220 JFET-input instrumentation
amplifier, foretells a new generation of ultra sensitive medical equipment, giving doctors the capability to monitor patient
vital signs with greater levels of accuracy. The small size of the device, should also further enable the development of portable
outpatient instruments at a lower cost for remote monitoring of vital signs. According to Lew Counts, vice president, Advanced
Linear Products at Analog Devices. "For monitoring devices that measure very small electrical currents, the small package
of the AD8220 enables designers to increase system channel density, which means we can fit more of these critical signal conditioning
functions into a given space. At the same time, we guarantee to reject high frequency noise at levels competing solutions
can not. The significance is engineers designing patient monitoring equipment with ADI's AD8220 in-amp improve overall system
dynamic range and performance, without compromising on power or cost."
The AD8220 JFET-input instrumentation amplifier has been targeted at medical applications such
as transportable electrocardiograms (ECGs), electroencephalograms (EEGs) as well as a number of other portable medical applications.
The company indicates that the improved electrical specifications will permit the measurement of heart pulses, electrical
brain waves and other medical electrical signals at levels that have been previously undetectable.
Electrical specifications of the AD8220 include a typical input bias current of just 4 picoamps
(20 picoamps maximum) allowing for low level signal measurement, and an 80 dB common mode rejection ratio (CMRR) needed to
reject interference from external electrical noise sources in the human body. Other specifications include a 1 nanoamp input
bias current over temperature and a 2 micro Volt per Degree input offset voltage temperature drift.
The AD8220, now sampling in an 8-lead MSOP package, has been priced at $2.29 per unit in 1,000-piece
quantities.
August 23rd, 2005
AMI Semiconductor, Inc. a subsidiary of AMIS Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMIS)
has amended its credit agreement to increase its term loan by $110 million. The company plans to use the $110 million for
its acquisition of the semiconductor division of Flextronics International USA, Inc. The funds will however not be available
until after the close of the acquisition, expected sometime in the third quarter.
August 11th, 2005
Alliance Semiconductor Reports 49 Percent Gain in Analog and Mixed Signal Revenue
Alliance Semiconductor (NASDAQ:ALSC), despite an overall drop in revenue, continues to make headway into the analog and
mixed signal markets. For its latest quarter, its first quarter ended June 25, 2005, the company reported a 49 percent sequential
gain in analog and mixed signal sales. The company reported that for its first quarter, analog and mixed signal revenue represented
64 percent of total sales, compared to 59 percent of total sales for the prior quarter, and 39 percent of total sales for
the first quarter of its fiscal 2005 year. For the first quarter of fiscal 2006, Alliance had total sales of $5.911 million,
versus $7.136 million for the same quarter last year. Given the percentages, this works out to analog and mixed signal sales
of $3.783 million for the latest quarter, compared to $2.783 million for the year ago quarter, a gain of about 36 percent
– indicating that its last quarter analog and mixed signal sales were $2.539 million. Alliance reported that the growth
in analog and mixed signal revenue for its first quarter was attributed to high growth in the LCD display market.
Alliance also noted that in its first quarter it introduced 15 new analog and mixed signal products. Those products include
electromagnetic inference reduction, clocks, and system monitors (CPU supervisors), which accounted for ten of the fifteen
new products. The company also sampled zero delay buffers and fan out buffers and introduced a EMI compliant Pulse Width Modulator
(PWM) controller. The PWM controller is based on Alliance’s Spread Spectrum Modulation technology.
With the announcement, N.D. Reddy, Alliance’s CEO, noting large customers, expressed confidence in the company’s
Analog and Mixed Signal business, "We are confident in the long-term prospects of the Company and believe the Analog and Mixed
Signal business unit will be a strong growth driver moving forward, particularly in the high growth LCD market where we have
been designed into the products of the largest players such as Samsung and LG. Our System Solutions business is still in its
early stage of growth, however we continue to sample new connectivity and controller products to several key OEM customers.
As newly introduced products move through their life cycle from customer evaluation to full production, we expect revenue
growth from this business unit in the coming quarters. Overall, we remain focused on increasing market penetration with our
current product portfolio and introducing next-generation solutions."
Alliance Semiconductor, at one time, generated the majority of its product revenue from DRAM memory chips. The importance
of those chips to the company’s total revenue has significantly diminished since their high point several years ago.
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