No place like home, says Silterra CEO

By Jonathan Hopfner, EE Times

(08/18/2006 9:39 AM EDT)

URL:http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=EXGPABX4YIIQMQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=192201937

Silterra is counting on its strategic location and an expanding network of partnerships to support its future growth, according to CEO Bruce Gray.

Gray said in an interview with EE Times on Friday (Aug. 18) that the pace of the company's investments in its facility at Kulim Hi-Tech Park, which totaled $270 million over the last three years, was likely to be sustained going forward and that a new facility may be in the cards.

Silterra has sufficient space for at least three more fabs to support a migration to 300-mm production, he noted.

"We're certainly in the process of putting our [90-nanometer] technology into development," he said. "We need to have to have a place to make it, and so it's really a question of when we would like to see [a new facility] come online."Gray said any decision on the opening of a new plant would be "driven primarily by customer demand," but that the company saw this taking place "sometime in the next couple of years."

The CEO had high praise for Silterra's base of operations, saying the park's top-notch infrastructure, proximity to major universities and lack of red tape meant the firm was in a "privileged position."

While admitting the industry's increasing focus on China was "a concern," Gray said the hidden costs of doing business in China meant Malaysia continued to be competitive, especially in the "intellectual property-intensive" business of wafer fabrication.

"Many of our customers are very concerned about controls on intellectual property in various places, in particular China," he said. "Malaysia is much more sophisticated and frankly has an outstanding reputation from an intellectual property perspective . . . and as such many customers would prefer to come here."

Gray also expects Silterra's close proximity to other high-tech firms within the Kulim park to help the company pursue its strategy of branching into new lines of business.

Silterra is seeking partnerships with design companies with the aim of "providing services to fabless companies who may not want to do all the design of a product themselves," Gray said.

"The advantage of that is it gives us a little more breadth in what we can offer customers," he added.

Silterra has already teamed up with Belgium-based IMEC on 90-nm process technology development. It also has alliances with local fabless firms like Jaafaa and KeyASIC in the mobile and consumer markets.

Gray said the company's path was "not dissimilar" to that taken by foundries like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Corp.

"It's a very good model to learn from and try and duplicate here," he said.


About Silterra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.:

Silterra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. is a leading semiconductor wafer foundry that provides advanced foundry standard CMOS logic, high-voltage and mixed-signal/RF technologies. The company’s wafer fab has a designed capacity of 40,000 eight-inch wafers per month. Silterra, which is committed to world-class service and environmental friendliness, received Notable Mention in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Hibiscus Award competition for Environmental Performance in 2003 and 2005. The company is ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001 certified. Silterra’s headquarters and factory are located in Kulim, Malaysia, and has offices in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), San Jose (California, USA) and Hsinchu (Taiwan). For additional information on Silterra or its services, please visit www.silterra.com.