1998-07-13 , ESC-9864
Business News From Philips Semiconductors

Philips Semiconductors continues to invest millions to meet demand for its advanced discrete technologies

Today, Philips Semiconductors opened its PowerFab 2 facility in Hazel Grove, England, which is one of the most advanced power discrete fabs in the world. It sets new standards for discrete manufacturing as it draws on techniques from the world of CMOS production, such as its sub micron (0.8µ) process under Class 10 clean room conditions (rather than the normal 2 to 4 micron under Class 100). This opening will, in due course, bring the total numbers employed at the site up from the present 625 to over 1000, as the business grows strongly over the next five years.

Construction of the fab started in May 1997 and the building was complete in February 1998. From first equipment in to first wafers out took only 67 days and excellent yields of 97% are already being achieved. It will produce nearly two million discrete power devices per day based on its maximum daily throughput of 1700 150mm (6inch) wafers.

PowerFab 2 is the latest addition to Philips Semiconductors' Power Semiconductors Competence Centre at Hazel Grove and provides more than five times the capacity of the old Power MOS wafer fab that it replaces in terms of wafer throughput. It provides even greater production capability as more devices can be made per wafer. This £65 million ($106 million) investment is the latest step in an ongoing investment programme by the company to maintain and grow its key position in the world-wide discretes market. The latest Dataquest figures for 1997 position the company as number 3 in discretes world-wide, number 1 in Europe, number 2 in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) and number 3 in USA.

This phenomenal growth rate is caused by the increasingly widespread use of power semiconductors - particularly in computing where they are used in printers, disk drives, power supplies, monitors, etc. and in the Automotive Industry for air bag control, ABS, lighting, seat adjustment, etc. - some cars can have as many as fifty power semiconductors. Other key areas are televisions, home appliances and electronic lighting. In fact, almost anywhere that ICs are used, power semiconductors provide the interface between the IC and the outside world - ICs providing the brains and discretes controlling the power.

The main production from PowerFab 2 will use Philips Semiconductors' TrenchMOS technology. Launched two years ago, it has proved tremendously successful. Since then, the company has been refining the TrenchMOS process to shrink the geometries and improve the manufacturability of the products. Devices made using the refined TrenchMOS technology offer designers a choice of lower heat dissipation for the same sized chip, or a smaller chip with the same dissipation - options that are particularly useful when designing mobile electronic equipment. TrenchMOS products are now being used in almost every part of the electronics industry including automotive, mobile communications, computers and EDP (Electronic Data Processing).

In the near future, Philips Semiconductors will also start producing TOPFET2 in PowerFab2, which is a new process for producing protected power devices for automotive applications and further extends the company's comprehensive range of advanced power handling discretes.

Philips has been involved with discrete semiconductors almost since they were first developed in 1947, with the production of the first discrete semiconductors starting in 1953. The Hazel Grove facility was started in 1967 and has been refurbished several times over the years. The latest investment in PowerFab 2 was preceded by a £30 million ($50 million) investment two years ago in its Bipolar facility, which also set new standards by using 5" wafers for bipolar.

Philips Semiconductors, a division of Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is the ninth largest semiconductor supplier in the world. Discrete semiconductors are central to the company's operations and it is the third largest discretes supplier in the world, with the target of becoming the world's largest. It has a very broad and deep product range grouped into three specific competences: Power, RF and General Application products which cover all application areas. Philips Semiconductors is supported by a worldwide network of systems laboratories and product application groups to develop complete, dedicated solutions to specific customer requirements.

Philips Semiconductors produced over 15 billion discretes in 1997 and has over 10,000 different products in production for RF, Power and General Application. In addition, it produces the world's smallest SMD packages for discretes (down to 1.5mm x 0.75mm).

See also background information BG9803: "Philips Semiconductors has been continuously refining and improving its TrenchMOS technology so that its latest range will have a resistance (R_ds(on)) that is 20% lower"