Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (NASDAQ:CHRT)
Industry: Technology
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., incorporated on November 16, 1987, is a semiconductor foundry that provides wafer fabrication services and technologies to semiconductor suppliers and systems companies. The Company focuses on providing foundry services to customers that serve high-growth technologically advanced applications in the communication, computer and consumer sectors. As of December 31, 2005, the Company owned, or had interest in five fabrication facilities. The Company has service operations in nine locations and in eight countries in North America, Europe and Asia. The Company's customers, during the year ended December 31, 2005, included Broadcom, IBM, Agilent Technologies, MStar Semiconductor and MediaTek. Pre-Fabrication Services Producing a semiconductor device involves designing the layout of its components and designating the interconnections between each component. The Company does not design semiconductor devices for its customers. If requested, Chartered assists its customers in the design process by providing them with access to its partners' electronic design automation (EDA) tools, design libraries and intellectual property and design services, which have been qualified for the Company's manufacturing processes. The Company's field engineers assist its customers during the development process to ensure that their designs can be manufactured in volume. The design for each layer of a semiconductor wafer is imprinted on a photographic negative, called a mask. The mask is the blueprint for each specific layer of the semiconductor wafer. The Company does not manufacture masks for its customers but provide a service through third-party mask shops. Wafer Fabrication The Company manufactures semiconductors using complementary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) and Bipolar Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (BiCMOS) processes. CMOS requires lower power than other technologies and allows dense placement of components onto a single semiconductor device. The low-power consumption and high-density characteristics of the CMOS process allow the continued development of high-performance semiconductor devices that are smaller and faster. BiCMOS process technology combines bipolar's attribute of high-speed with the high-density and low-power consumption of CMOS. The Company uses CMOS or a combination of CMOS and BiCMOS for the fabrication of logic, mixed-signal and memory semiconductor wafers. It manufactures a variety of semiconductor wafers for a range of end market applications, including communication, computing and consumer electronics. Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd., manufactures logic semiconductor wafers primarily for the computing, consumer and communications markets. It also makes mixed-signal semiconductor wafers using both CMOS and BiCMOS processes. In addition, the Company manufactures stand-alone memory devices, including erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), static random access memory (SRAM) and flash memory and embedded memory, including embedded static random access memory (eSRAM), eEEPROM and eFLASH (embedded memory that can be erased in a flash) memories. The Company provides all aspects of the wafer fabrication process except for wafer probe, which, if requested by the customer, is outsourced to a qualified third party. All steps in the wafer manufacturing process are controlled by its computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) system. The CIM system allows Chartered to monitor equipment performance, wafer processing steps and the wafers themselves throughout the fabrication process. Other Services Although the Company is an independent foundry specializing in wafer fabrication, it offers its customers the option to purchase from the Company finished semiconductor products that have been assembled and tested (turnkey services). When requested by the customer, the Company outsources assembly and testing of the fabricated semiconductor devices. Alternatively, its customers may directly
As Of: 10/07 00:00 ET
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