End of summer 1995, the Konradin publishing group started with the first issue of the EPP Europe. The predecessor and daughter magazine, the German EPP issue, already had existed for 20 years, but was distributed and read mainly in German-speaking countries. There was however a noticeable move or transition indicating a broader, more European way of thinking, namely in the microelectronics area, where the world has become a global village.
With the offspring EPP Europe, a technical and trade magazine edited in English was introduced which focused on the area of electronics production, especially board assembly and the crossing point to the semiconductor world, the advanced-packaging field. And – not to be forgotten – all these had to cover all relevant methodologies which are needed for verification of process, product quality and reliability, the indispensable trends on the test and inspection floor, and what is needed in-between. At that time we faced strong competition. As we can say now, the sensibly provided concept of the English language-based EPP Europe is and was the right launch at the right time.
The concept of this book is based on a highly topical section of news and highlights from industry, research, trade shows and technology trends and developments, followed by three feature sections with profound technical articles circling around the real concerns in this industry. And as a must-have for a real European technical magazine, the technical articles from industry and research are accompanied by short summaries in Europe’s main microelectronics languages thus far: German, French and Italian. The purpose of this is clearly to ease the burden of getting to the essence of an article for non-native English readers, or those in our industry lacking suitable knowledge of this language for a fluent use. In the first place, it is easier to read the summary, and then decide: is this the subject I would spend another 10 to 20 minutes for? Is this what I should understand and inform myself about? It is definitely our dedicated aim to give you access to the information in this book as easily as we can, and also screen the news and developments so that they fit your requirements.
Promised!
We extend our heart-felt thanks to our partners worldwide in industry and research, and all the people at the trade shows we visit, for their highly appreciated support. Thank you too for all the response we have received – and we are looking forward to the next ten years of partnership with all of you in peace, success, fairness and authenticity.
In the following, we present you a short sketch of main geopolitical and industrial developments from 1995 up to the year 2005, the latter is still of course in progress.
Gerhard B. Wolski
The Editor
Year 1995
- Austria, Finland an Sweden become members of the European Union
- The civil war in former Yugoslavia ends with a peace treaty signed in Dayton/US, in an arduous way negotiated with the war attendees by Richard Holbrook
- Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is shot by an Israeli right-wing extremist, but before he agreed with Yassir Arafat on a withdrawal of the forces from Western Jordan Area
- Between Belgium, Germany, France, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain the border crossing points are removed (EU’s Schengen States regulation)
- A bombing in Oklahoma City destroys an official building, 168 are dead
- Jacques Chirac takes over presidency in France from retired Francois Mitterrand and stops the Schengen regulations after a series of serious bombing attacks
- In Poland, former Solidarnocs leader and prime minister Lech Walensa has to make way for Alexander Kwasniewski, a former member of communist party
- US president Bill Clinton energetically supports an initiative for peace in Northern Ireland
Year 1996
- The civil war between the protestants and catholics in Northern Ireland flares up again
- In the Near East, violence goes on, especially after Benjamin Netanyahu becomes prime minister
- In Spain, right-wing José Aznar becomes prime minister
- A large gang of kidnappers, murderers and molesters of children is uncovered by Belgian police
- Elections in Russia and the US confirm Boris Jeltzin and Bill Clinton, respectively, in office again
- The radical islamic Taliban militia gets hold of the capital Kabul in Afghanistan
Year 1997
- Tony Blair and New Labour win a tremendously huge majority of votes in the British elections
- End of the Cold War era after about 50 years – the prime ministers of the Nato states and Boris Jeltzin sign a letter of understanding in relations between Nato and Russia
- The conservative French prime minister Jacques Chirac is, after an self-induced election, confronted with a massive increase of votes from the left and must jointly run the country with socialist Lionel Jospin as head of the political administration (cohabitation)
- As the first of an untouchable caste ever, Koceril Raman becomes president in India
- After 100 years, the treaty concerning the use of the Hong Kong area between Great Britain and China comes to an end, the former colony becomes again part of China
- Hefty problems bubble up on the Tokyo stock exchange, shares values drop down by a minus of 30%, and the Yamaichi bank breaks down
- The IMF grants South Korea an immediate financial support of US$ 55bn in order to reestablish the country’s creditability
Year 1998
- The 35-hour work week becomes official standard in France
- In US schools there are brutal shooting massacres by students with many dead – an intensive discussion goes on, but the traditionally strong gun lobby manage to reduce gun-law restrictions
- India and Pakistan test their nuclear bombs – all G8-states cancel their credits
- After massive economical problems in Asian countries and Russia, the global stock exchange market goes extremely down
- Dictator Shuharto is forced to quit after a police bloodbath in a demonstration which has its roots in social, political turmoil and globally effective environmental devastation
- The US consulates in Tanzania and Kenya are destroyed by massive bombing attacks, 200 are dead, more than 5,000 are injured; US government takes revenge
- US president Bill Clinton stumbles over the sex affair with Monica Lewinsky, an impeachment was started but blocked by the Senate
Year 1999
- In the European Union, eleven member states agree on the introduction of the common currency system euro as the third stage of economical cooperation, and establish a European Central Bank
- The UN agreement on the ban of land mines takes effect
- Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary become Nato members
- After a genocide action against the people of Kosovo, Nato bombs targets in the rest of Yugoslavia
- US bombs Iraq because on non-compliance to rules concerning the use of airspace over the country
- About 300,000 native Americans accuse the government of corrupted misruling of the fiduciary administrated Indian territories and claim a compensation of $10bn
- The strongest earthquake ever in European history leads to about 40,000 dead, many buildings collapse simply because of carelessly followed regulations in Turkey
- All 20 commissioners of the EU bureaucracy lead by Jacques Santer resign entirely after having been accused of mismanagement and corruption
- For the first time ever, an Arab Israeli is crowned Miss Israel. Ehud Barak becomes the new prime minister and starts the peace treaty conference anew with Palestine leaders
- After 450 years, the former Portuguese colony Macao is now again part of China
- Russian president Boris Jeltzin resigns and Vladimir Putin takes over control in the Kremlin
Year 2000
- First time after the putsch (financed by CIA) against Salvador Allende, Chile has a social democrat president, Ricardo Lagos
- Ultra-right-wing Jörg Haider becomes member of the new Austrian government, the EU and Israel react with sanctions that will later be annulled
- Tarja Halonen becomes first-ever female president in Finland
- Germany’s president Johannes Rau addresses the Knesset in Jerusalem in German, never having been spoken before on this site, the Parliament of Israel
- After 50 years of tightly controlling the island, the Taiwan Kuomintang party loses its majority to the party of Democratic Progression
- The Duma in Russia ratifies the Start2 – agreement with the US for disarmament of nuclear weapons
- For the first time after 1945, the North and South Koreans presidents declare reunification as their long-term goal in a summit
- The euro, not yet official money but used for global accounting, is dramatically losing value against other currencies from US$ 1.2 to 0.8
- Dictator Milosevic in Serbia is thrown out of office after a series of repressions of peoples, civil war und fraud of election, by a huge demonstration in Belgrade (1 million)
- In the US presidential election, one county in Florida holds the balance of power between Al Gore and George W. Bush – votes are recounted, but the Supreme Court topples these and Mr. Bush is declared winner
Year 2001
- This is the year where the third millennium really begins (according to the decimal system), but out of spectacular actions it was already celebrated 12 months before
- Arial Sharon becomes prime minister in Israel; aggression between Palestinians and Israelis rises again
- Peoples Republic of China makes the decision to invest in the German-designed Transrapid which will be erected in Shanghai as the Maglev line between the city and the airport
- The astronauts on bord of the international space station (ISS) Destiny have now new areas for living, research and control. The American commander is followed by a Russian who was brought to the space station by the Discovery shuttle
- FBI agent Robert Hanssen was working for some 15 years for Russian intelligence service having access to top-secret materials
- Microsoft begins delivery of Windows XP, the successor of W2K
- Nine-eleven – fundamental islamic terrorists attack World Trade Center in New York, Pentagon in Washington, about 3000 are dead
- The worldwide semiconductor market sees a deep drop of 33% from about 220bn to $152bn; the internet and telecom hype is over, hard-lined decision now made everywhere in the manufacturing arena – deepest decline ever watched in electronics
- In addition, the equipment market for electronics manufacturing has to suffer: sharp drops of 40 to 50% in sales are normal for many companies, some close their doors
- Electromechanical parts leave the crisis more or less untouched; Europe is still second (26%) behind US market volume (36%)
- STMicrolectronics moves to second rang in the top-ten list of the world’s largest semiconductor manufactures
Year 2002
- The PCB industry encounters ever more the dark side of Asian price-wise competition; one fab after the other is closing its doors in Europe or reducing staff dramatically. It’s a hard consolidation time
- It becomes increasingly apparent that the growing use of electronics in cars creates many different issues such as reliability concerns or spare part logistics of nine-day wonder semiconductors as well as serious software failures
- Market researcher expect a world market of about 750 million mobile phones – and 530m have ultimately come true
- Exceptional growth of users of broadband internet access and wireless LAN technologies in numbers by about 40%, also Bluetooth use gaining momentum
- Within 10 days, DRAM prices plunge by about 50%, suppliers deep in trouble again, also faked memory modules lead to insecurity among users
- After ten years of serious economical troubles Japan is back as a very strong player in all kinds of industry, BIP annual growth rate nearly 5%
- Nanotechnology is the new buzzword; especially because of the application of carbon nanotubes the industry expects technological miracles (the downside: these materials in this particle size are extremely harmful or even toxic)
- The run to flat panel displays goes on – demand rises by 70%
- After the first manufacturing projects for 130 and 90nm-gate structures on wafers are in operation, the chipmakers launch the next programs for 65 and 45nm structures
- Hitachi and Mitsubishi have merged their semiconductor businesses, the result is called Renesas and is second in the global top-ten list of manufactures after primus Intel
Year 2003
- In many European countries, the euro becomes official currency for daily use
- Digital life style is the thrill at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the transition of all electronics appliances such as HiFi, TV, PC, etc. into one unified environment at home is the aim
- Recovery is in the air for the industries involved in microelectronics production, even the semiconductor suppliers are optimistic now, after a meager growth of 1.3% last year
- First Chinese plans for semiconductor manufacturing are revealed, say that more fabs than anywhere in the rest of the world will be installed within the next two years
- Japanese analysts expect the long awaited breakthrough for production on 300mm wafers, but no hype takes place – rather a small flow to the larger silicon disks
- Scientist from the academic world expect volume production of bio-hybrid chips very soon, but it’s still a case for the lab and research
- Movement of electronics manufacturing resources to or buying from offshore suppliers or low-labor cost regions becomes dramatic, job numbers in Western Europe shrink steadily
- War in Iraq begins – mission accomplished?
- 50 years ago, at IBM the first tape drive was introduced, providing a capacity of 1.4 Mbyte on a 730m long tape track
- In Asia, the SARS disease has even impact on main technology events that are cancelled or delayed
- Eight renowned suppliers jointly form an Engineering Center for Power Electronics in Europe to support the continent’s leading role of this industry in technology
- Digital Audio Broadcast sponsored by the European Broadcasting Union should bring digital radio to the listeners practically as a drop-in for analog FM, short wave, etc., – however, this transition takes more time than initially expected
- Korean memory supplier Hynix delivers its products priced too cheaply: US and European customs bodies place a penalty of 35 to 45% on the imported memories
- The highly praised mobile UMTS phone system seems gravely blocked – is 3G in Europe just a pie in the sky and all investments almost useless?
- Good times for flat-panel suppliers – price as well as delivery time are rising, demand gets higher and higher
- Manufacturers in search of microelectronics specialists – a rare species in Europe – recruitment agencies are expecting high demand
Year 2004
- Semiconductor pundits see the advent of global chip growth in the range of about 15% – and this has really come true, right from the beginning of the year the order books are exceptionally filled
- The European Patent Agency has annulled a DRAM patent from Rambus – there is a struggle on license fees with other memory suppliers
- Infineon in deep trouble – CEO Ulrich Schumacher left overnight, the company suffers from ongoing operational loses and probably wrong decisions
- Price levels go higher everywhere in Europe’s industry, now even passive components are on the rise, expenses for raw materials are the drivers
- Despite the expected massive fab growth in China, the next 300mm lines are located in USA and Japan
- After a long time of normal supply, some scarce or extremely demanded components now on allocation – long-term delivery to up to 35 weeks is announced
- After the global players moved their manufacturing resources to Eastern Europe and Asia, small and middle-sized enterprises now also follow suite
- The DRAM market grows exorbitantly, but primarily its Asian companies that make good money with these devices
- It’s number-one semiconductor supplier Intel that announces as a first the use of 450mm wafers – for volume production from 2012 on
- Next round in nanotechnology discussion: Pasquale Pistorio, CEO of STMicrolectronics takes over the chair at the European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council; however, the debate on the risks for organisms also goes on
- Flat-panel market takes a 180-degree curb and prices are falling remarkably
- Study says within the next ten years about 40% of all current semiconductor suppliers will vanish from the market because of strong consolidation
- The RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) directive of the EU, valid from July 01/2006, urges the supply chain as well as users of components to ask for more precise data from manufacturers, most current product change notifications don’t fulfill the requirements
- Microsystems technology (MST) currently a $59bn-chunk is expected to be a global market with a volume of about $68bn next year
Year 2005
- About one year before the RoHS directive takes into effect, a lot of middles-sized electronics manufacturers still hope that this cup may pass from them and don’t care about this important transition – however, it’s a EU directive and as such law in every EU member country
- Beginning of the year reveals a scenario of confused semiconductor pundits: prognoses range for a market volume varying from +15 to down to –6% from $214bn of 2004. At year’s end, we will probably encounter a zero-plus-minus game
- The troubles of Europe’s PCB manufacturers is an endless story – demand and market volume are growing globally, but it’s the Asian competition that takes advantage
- Europe’s semiconductor industry cuts back – smaller and older fabs will be closed and now even the staffs downsized
- Especially for emerging countries, common mobile phones are still too expensive – there are initiatives for the manufacture of a complete product like this in the $20 range
- Chip makers report a fab utilization of about 93% and due to this are reaching full practical capacities, but chip allocation will not be expected currently
- Prices for energy and raw materials are on a steep rise, manufacturers of components as well as of equipment now painfully touch the limits of profitability every day
Share:
