Soitec: Now is opportune time for China to benefit from SOI

The semiconductor industry in China is at an opportune time to benefit from the convergence of the technological readiness of foundries and the growing industry support for chip designers in terms of implementing silicon-on-insulator technology.

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- Electronic News, 3/20/2008

Growing industry-wide momentum in silicon-on-insulator (SOI)-based design and manufacturing is setting up China’s chip industry with ideal conditions to add SOI technology to its roadmap, SOI wafer company Soitec believes.

The company reminded during a press conference at the Semicon China conference this week that SOI is used in a growing number of advanced electronic devices for a variety of applications, from automobiles to portable consumer products.

SOI-based chips are meant to be cost-efficient to manufacture, and are designed to be power-efficient and performance-enhancing, which the company believes China’s foundries and fabless semiconductor companies are in a good place to leverage given the convergence of the country’s 's technological readiness and increased industry-wide support for SOI design and manufacturing.

Andre-Jacques Auberton-Herve, president and CEO of the Soitec Group said in a statement, “This is a fortuitous time for China’s semiconductor industry, which has tremendous potential to take advantage of SOI's unique features. But in order for China to align with industry leaders, foundries and fabless players need to begin laying the groundwork now.”

Also, Soitec is a founding member of the SOI Industry Consortium,  which is working with 21 industry players to support the acceleration of SOI across a range of markets and reducing barriers of adoption.

“We expect that chip designers and manufacturers in China will be early beneficiaries of this endeavor, and we will move forward together," Auberton-Herve added.

As part of its commitment to meeting both existing and expected demand for SOI throughout Asia, Soitec said it is currently qualifying customers at its new 300-mm fab, known as Pasir Ris 1, built in Singapore to support the rapidly growing Asian market.