Cypress Cuts R&D Costs with Open-Door Technology Center
By Suzanne Deffree -- EDN, July 6, 2004
Cypress Semiconductor Corp. today looked to solve the classic semi industry question: how does a company increase its R&D but decrease its expenses? The company's solution: an open-door policy for its R&D facility.
The company today announced the formal opening of its Silicon Valley Technology Center (SVTC), a facility that aims to go from "lab-to-fab" by allowing customers to develop and characterize silicon-based technologies.
Cypress, like most companies on track with the industry's recovery, has seen its R&D expense inch up. The company recorded more than $60 million in Q1 R&D expense, about $2 million higher than the year-ago quarter. That complimented revenue of $254 million in the March quarter, compared to sales of $180 million in Q1 2003.
The San Jose-based connectivity player has been spreading out its R&D costs for about four years, allowing certain customers to join in its facility. Now, says Bert Bruggeman, managing director of the 22-year-old plant, the doors are open to all Cypress customers.
"We started doing this opportunistically and used it ad hoc to offset some of our R&D expenses," he said. "Today, given the trend of rising capital expenses and the emergence trend of people creating new value on top of the silicon space, there's is an opportunity for us to do more of what we need, which is offsetting our R&D expenses. Therefore, we needed to go more open and more public to create more awareness and reach a bigger customer base."
SVTC customers will have access to Cypress' 65nm R&D fab in Silicon Valley and share an established fab infrastructure with other companies in a secure IP environment. The plant provides fab activities on state-of-the-art equipment in a high-quality environment executed by highly skilled R&D technicians and operators, Cypress boasted. The company added that SVTC offers best practices in fab process engineering, statistical process control, failure analysis, and design for manufacturing methodologies as part of its development toolbox.
Customers will use SVTC's process and materials expertise to develop novel silicon technology for ICs, microelectromechanical systems, and applications incorporating new nanotechnology and biotechnology processes, Cypress said.
No expansion in floor place is planned as of now, Cypress said, but the option has not been ruled out.
