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Industry Networking


Tackling difficult issues


SEMICON Europa is on again and alongside the exhibition are some of the most incisive conferences for the industry including the 14th instalment of the SEMI Fab Manager’s Forum. With recent concerns about the number of events now running for the industry EuroAsia Semiconductor asked some of the individuals involved their opinion of the event.


W 10


hile every job has its obstacles, fab managers have challenges


coming at them from all directions. Semiconductor fabs have some of the toughest operational problems in industry. At the same time, they are charged with maximizing fab profitability, which means endlessly trying to increase equipment utilization and reduce cycle time and cost. EuroAsia Semiconductor recently interviewed Thomas Leitermann, VP Operations (Dresden) at Infineon and Philippe Campion, Operation Manager Deputy, Rousset FAB, STMicroelectronics. Both industry professionals have participated in the SEMICON Europa Fab Managers Forum for several years, and we asked them to share some of their insights both about running a fab in Europe and what they get out of the Fab Managers Forum.


When asked about the complexities of fabs, Infineon’s Leitermann states, “European fabs


have even more challenges or problems than most fabs. That’s because in Europe, we have several legacy 200mm fabs and older equipment which is not the newest.” This year is his fifth time participating in the Fab Managers Forum. He believes that it’s an exceptional opportunity to network with colleagues and learn from them. We asked Leitermann about the competitive aspects of a conference like this, but Leitermann assured us that “every fab has the same problems— so it’s very important that we can come together and discuss issues.” “In Europe, the great semiconductor time was the mid-1990s to 2000. What we see now is that much manufacturing is going to Asia. On the other hand, we are going to renew Dresden by spending a lot of money and a lot of effort in automation. We have complete data management and automated systems with more than 30 percent of manufacturing now done by robots.” He believes that while some “plain vanilla” undifferentiated mass production will continue to go to Asia, and perhaps Abu Dhabi, that European fabs have a “very high level of automation, quality, and innovation, especially innovative chips that cannot be produced by a standard technology, like in the areas of microcontrollers.”


Extending 8” STMicroelectronics’ Campion says that “Extending the lifetime of 8” fabs is a critical issue in Europe because conversion to 12” fabs is extremely expensive. With many aging fabs in Europe, fabs are working to push the lifetime of the 8” manufacturing to compete with Asia.” Campion says that these fabs can be competitive


www.euroasiasemiconductor.com  Issue IV 2010


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