Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光導體), the world’s largest chip packager and tester, on Saturday held a plaque-unveiling ceremony to launch a joint venture with Japan’s TDK Corp in Kaohsiung.
With initial capital of NT$1.5 billion (US$51.2 million), ASE Embedded Electronics Inc (日月暘電子) is to start operations in Kaohsiung’s Nantze Export Processing Zone (楠梓加工出口區), focusing on the manufacturing of integrated-circuit (IC) embedded substrates using TDK’s semiconductor embedded substrate (SESUB) technology, ASE said.
The SESUB technology enables semiconductor chips to be shrunk to 50 micrometers and embedded in a four-layer plastic substrate.
ASE Embedded — in which ASE owns 51 percent and TDK 49 percent, and which employs 150 people — is to use the technology to integrate dozens of chips into smaller and thinner spaces, eyeing an increase of semiconductor content in portable and wearable devices, ASE said.
The company first announced its joint venture with TDK in May 2015 and completed a registration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs later that year.
The two companies signed an agreement on technology transfer in 2016 and completed installing production facilities at the plant last year.
The ceremony was attended by ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉), ASE Embedded president Chung Chih-hsiao (鍾智孝), Export Processing Zone Administration director-general Huang Wen-guu (黃文谷), Kaohsiung Economic Development Bureau Director Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) and officials from the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association’s Kaohsiung Office, ASE said.
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