SEMI Singapore Announces Appointments to RAB

SEMI has announced the appointment of Rodney Morgan, Co-Executive Officer of IM Flash Technologies, to serve as Chairman of the SEMI Singapore Regional Advisory Board (RAB). Also, David Wilhoit, President and CEO of Siltronic Samsung Wafer Pte Ltd, and Gan Wah Teng, Vice President of Infineon Technologies (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd will serve as Vice Chairmen.

The SEMI Singapore RAB represents companies from manufacturers, equipment and materials suppliers and academia, connecting the complete semiconductor supply chain in Singapore. The 19 voting members are from Applied Materials, Arrow Technologies, ASE, ASM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Hermes-Epitek, Hitachi High-Technologies, IME, IM Flash Technologies, Infineon, KLA-Tencor, Kulicke & Soffa, Novellus System, NTU, NXP, Siltronic Samsung, SPT, SSMC and UTAC.

“I am excited about being a part of the SEMI Singapore RAB and am honored to have been selected as the Chairman from such a prestigious group of industry leaders,” said Morgan. He noted that Singapore provides a great deal of opportunity for the Semiconductor industry, and he looks forward to being a part of the group that sets the stage for the future.

Vice Chairman Wilhoit remarked that he anticipates heading SEMI Singapore RAB to “enhance the visibility and help the Semiconductor industry excel within Singapore.”

The new Chair, Morgan, has been with Micron Technology since 1984 and has held numerous leadership roles in manufacturing operations, including Fab Manager, Key Equipment Group Director and Site Director. The new Vice Chair, Wilholt, has been with Siltronic Samsung Wafer for more than 20 years, mainly based in Singapore and Japan. Gan, the other new Vice Chair, is an expert in electrical engineering and has previous experience with transnational giants such as AMD and Siemens.

During its most recent meeting, the SEMI Singapore RAB also lined up its priorities for 2011, which mainly focus on raising the visibility of semiconductor industry in Singapore through workforce development and awareness management.

Terry Tsao, President of SEMI Southeast Asia, acknowledged Singapore in particular, that as one of the important international hubs in Asia of finances and manufacturing, it has well demonstrated its importance in the global Semiconductor industry, and SEMI is happy to work with the semiconductor venders in Singapore and the government to accomplish their visions of boosting the image of the Singapore semiconductor industry.

Figures in the electronics and Semiconductors industry have reportedly been positive in the second half of 2010. Output of the electronic cluster increased 28 percent in September 2010 from a year earlier. Within the cluster, the Semiconductor segment registered a strong gain of 67.9 percent, on the back of strong demand for consumer electronics devices such as smart phones and media tablets. According to EDB, Singapore has been a pivotal growth factor to the global Semiconductor industry, having contributed 11.2 percent of global Semiconductor output in 2009. Singapore earned a strong double-digit growth of over 20 percent in 300 mm fab capacity and over 100 percent and close to 40 percent growth in fab equipment spending in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Last week, SEMI had published its December 2010 Book-to-Bill Report, observing North America-based manufacturers of Semiconductor equipment posted $1.53 billion in orders in December 2010 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.90. The report showed the orders for new Semiconductor manufacturing equipment placed by worldwide customers to North American manufacturers remained constant while billings edged upward. “The continued pace of billings reflects the strong order rate that persisted at record levels through most of the last year,” said Tsao.

SEMI