August 9, 2006
DuPont has announced the opening of a new laboratory at the Hsinchu Science Park, which will allow the US-based chemicals giant to develop further ties with Taiwan's semiconductor industry.
The Semiconductor Materials Technical Center (SMTC) was officially inaugurated in a ceremony at the Hsinchu Science Park in late July. In attendance at the ceremony were a number of Dupont representatives, including David Miller, Vice President and General Manager at Dupont Electronic Technologies and John Odom, President of DuPont EKC Technology, a subsidiary that supplies chemicals used for manufacturing wafers in the semiconductor industry.
Costing
NTD 300 million, the DuPont SMTC is being devoted to materials research for advanced semiconductor processes.
The Center will shorten materials qualification process by at least a month while improving materials development cycles, said John Odom. He added that the Center's location at the Hsinchu Science Park will help DuPont attract more local customers, as the company seeks to develop chemical products for semiconductor cleaning processes.
DuPont chose Taiwan over Japan and China as the site for the lab, thanks in part to active support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which originally initiated the project in 2004, according to David Miller.
The lab is DuPont's third in Taiwan – the company currently operates an
R&D lab in Taoyuan devoted to PCB and microcircuit materials, as well as an
R&D center in Linkou for flat panel display technologies and green technology for solar panels and fuel cells.
According to forecasts by the Semiconductor Industry Association of the US, the global semiconductor industry will see continued growth from 2006 until 2009, with the fastest growth occurring in the Asia-Pacific region. SIA also projects that market share in the region in 2009 will reach 49%.
(Economic Daily News, Taipei Times)
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