Chengdu is one of the areas in China with the most concentrated semiconductor companies. Despite the massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province of China, most semiconductor factories in Chengdu, Sichuan and Chongqing are reportedly mildly affected by the earthquake. For example, Taiwan ProMOS’s 8-inch fab in Chongqing is normal, not even the electricity supply, as claimed by its chairman ML Chen (Ref); SMIC’s 8-inch fab in Chengdu was also barely affected and the production has resumed on the evening of May 12. SMIC even claimed that there would not be any disruption in their monthly supply of 7,000 8-inch wafers(Ref); Intel has a test-and-assembly plant in Chengdu. While the plant has shutdown since the quake happened,

Intel is still conducting a seismic analysis of the earthquake’s impact, so far the damage seems to be minimal and the employees are expected to return on Friday (Ref). Intel reported that the impact on the global IC supply would not be affected since any damaged chips could be replaced relatively quickly from other sources. According to reports, Intel had contacted ASE, Amkor and Siliconware for assistance in replacing the parts (Ref); Unisem, a Malaysian assembly and test company with a factory in Chengdu, also reported there was likewise no major physical damage to the factory (Ref). It seems that most semiconductor plants are solidly built against the earthquake, but definitely not the schools.

This week, Richard Chang was named the 2007 Fab Person of the Year by Semiconductor International. Richard Chang is a colorful and controversial figure who is highly regarded as “Father of China Semiconductor” or “Traitor of Taiwan Semiconductor”. He is the founder and CEO of China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC). Under his helm in the last 7 years, SMIC has already built 5 Fabs and developed into the world’s top four foundries. The first fab, Fab 1, was established in Apr 2000 and started full production in Jan 2002. In the same year, Fab 2 and Fab3B began full production. In Jan 2004, SMIC acquired Motorola Fab in Tianjin and named the fab as Fab 7. SMIC went IPO in New York and Hong Kong in Mar 2004. SMIC first 300mm fab, Fab 4 was started in 2004 and gone into volume production the following year. SMIC’s 2nd 300mm fab, Fab 8, began production in 2007. Over the last few years, SMIC has significantly enhanced its in house process technology from 0.18um to 65nm technology. This year, it even struck a major deal with the Shenzhen municipal government to build a 200 and 300 mm fabs in Shenzhen. In addition, the 300mm fab will use 45-nm technology licensed from IBM (Ref).

Richard Chang himself was born in Nanjing in 1948. He received a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University and a master’s degree in Engineering Science from the State University of New York. He started his career in Texas Instruments and worked there for 20 years. Over his tenure in TI, he had managed 10 TI Fabs in US, Japan, Singapore, Italy and Taiwan. Richard Chang retired from TI in 1997. He then became president of Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, (WSMC) from 1998-1999. However, WSMC was acquired by rival TSMC in 1999 when Richard was on his business trip. After this humiliating event, Richard Chang went to Shanghai to establish SMIC in 2000.

If you are interested in SMIC and Richard Chang, I highly recommend the following videos