ANNUAL REPORT 2004 - ELMOS Semiconductor AG

MANAGEMENT BOARD ELMOS – THE COMPANY THE ELMOS SHARE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
40
Machine capacity currently at
about 450 wafer starts a day
Sales according to products
Top 10 39%
Others 61%
Dortmund production
line expandable
PRODUCTION AND CAPACITY
Since 1999 ELMOS has exclusively manufactured on the 150mm wafer line (corres-
ponds with 6 inches) in Dortmund. This line was expanded in 2004 according to
schedule in order to be prepared for the next technological generations and the
increasing demands on production capacity. Production rooms and facilities are
equipped with the latest technology to allow processes with structure sizes up to
0.35 micrometers. Thereby they provide a solid platform for the ELMOS production
of the next ten years. Machine capacity came to roughly 450 wafer starts a day by
the end of the year 2004, of which about 380 wafer starts a day were used – a utiliza-
tion of roughly 85 percent in comparison with about 70 percent in 2003. More than
120,000 wafers were manufactured altogether in 2004.
In 2004 about 150 different products with considerable sales volumes were produced
parallel to each other, 21 of which were newly introduced to the production phase.
Therefore a large number of new product starts characterized the year 2004.
In the assembly segment more than 63 million components were assembled for
ELMOS alone, complemented with about five million components for third-party
customers. ELMOS Advanced Packaging covered about 57 percent of the assembly
services for ELMOS in the whole year 2004.
The bestselling ELMOS product in 2004 was an airbag ignition IC, coming to 6.1
percent of total sales. The ten bestselling products mounted up to 39.3 percent of
sales. All of these were ASICs. In some cases a customer-specific product is delivered
to several customers. This statement, appearing contradictory at first, results from
certain co-developments of products, especially with BMW. These products are then
used in different BMW models via several suppliers. ASSPs are also sold to several
customers.
Future capacity
Providing the production capacity that the future development requires is of the
utmost importance to ELMOS as a producing company. Since investments in produc-
tion make up the largest part of the entire investment budget, careful and long-term
planning is necessary. The capacity of the existing production line in Dortmund can
still be expanded by the recruitment of additional staff and further investments in
machines and expansion of space. By the measures initiated in 2004 additional areas
can be devoted to production in the medium term, hence expanding capacity to a
maximum 600 wafer starts a day. This surpasses earlier estimates of a maximum
500 wafer starts daily. Thus sufficient production capacity for the growth planned
for the next two to three years can be provided.