ABSTRACT
CHips focuses on all three phases of IC: fabrication, assembly, and testing. Fabrication involves depositing transistors and circuitry on silicon wafersassembly (which also is called packaging in the industry) is the process of cutting silicon wafers into individual ICs and placing them in protective housings that provide the electrical interconnections between the ICs and system boards-and testing to ensure the proper functioning of CHips operating in rigorous daily use. In addition to research facilities in Europe and the United States, CHips currently has factories in six countries-South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and the Philippines-and employs more than twenty-four thousand people working in more than 5 million ft2 of floor space in the key microelectronic manufacturing centers of Asia. It has sales and service centers throughout the world and is a partner for more than two hundred of the world’s leading semiconductor companies. It anticipates revenues of more than US$50 billion in 2008.
