ASML gaat binnen twee jaar in Taiwan produceren tbv het opwaarderen van verouderde 200mm apparatuur.

ASML to manufacture tools in Taiwan

BLOOMBERG Saturday, Aug 23, 2008, Page 12

ASML Holding NV, Europe’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor equipment, expects to produce chip-making tools in Taiwan within two years as it moves closer to its customers.

The new production base will offer upgrades, refurbishment and trade-ins of existing semiconductor-making equipment, Tony Chao (趙中榛), managing director of ASML’s center of excellence, the company’s Taiwan training, technical and sales support unit, said in an interview yesterday in Taipei.

ASML, based in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, supplies lithography tools to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) that use light waves to help etch the design of a chip onto a wafer of silicon.

The company currently has manufacturing sites only in the Netherlands and the US, its Web site said.

“It won’t be the most leading-edge equipment,” Chao said.

Instead, ASML will use the new production base to help customers in Taiwan and China upgrade equipment used to make chips on 8-inch silicon wafers to more advanced processes.

ASML derived 68 percent of its first-quarter sales from Asia, while 19 percent of its staff are based in the region, a company presentation showed.

The Taiwan operation has 189 staff, which will rise to around 220 by the middle of next year, Chao said.

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