Amkor opens new wafer bump facility in Singapore

Amkor Technology early this week began operations of its new 300mm wafer bump factory in Singapore. The new facility will have an initial capacity of 8,000 wafers per month, rising to 30,000 wafers per month.

Combined with Amkor's existing probe and test plant in Singapore, the bumping operation will among other things offer Chartered Semiconductor a suite of bump, probe and test services for advanced flip chip applications.

The factory will employ the same processes as the company's Taiwan bumping business and will also use Common Platform-based silicon at the 90- and 65nm nodes. Amkor began qualifying Common Platform technology for IBM, Chartered and Samsung in September.

Oleg Khaykin, Amkor's executive vice president and CEO, said the new facility would focus on flip-chip packaging for advanced silicon. He added that near-term production will be "largely supported by long-term supply agreements for both bump and probe services."

- Jonathan Hopfner
EE Times