Annual report 2000 - Europractice

Small volume projects
As the IC service aims to offer delivery
of ASICs in small volumes,
EUROPRACTICE has spent considerable
efforts in order to develop
and optimize the small volume
service. Indeed due to the fact
that the microelectronics industry
was heavily booked in 2000, more
customers turned to EUROPRAC-
TICE in order to get access to capacity
in the foundries.
117 projects in 2000
Due to the high booking rate at the
foundries, customers with small
and medium volume production
requirements faced enormous
problems to get access to production
capacity. As a result several
customers contacted EUROPRAC-
TICE. The foundries were very
pleased to offer small and medium
production to those customers
through the EUROPRACTICE service
as it reduced their direct sales
and support overhead.
So, EUROPRACTICE was very
pleased to see its small volume
projects increasing by 20% to 117
projects. But more important, the
number of delivered components
increased from about 3 million in
1999 to 11 million components in
2000.
These projects range from pure
wafer delivery up to fully tested
and qualified components. The
majority of projects have component
delivery ranging from a few
hundreds to more than 100,000.
Indeed delivery of 100,000 units
20,001…50,000
9%
10,001 ... 20,000
6%
Switzerland
7%
Sweden
6%
Spain
2%
Norway
3%
Netherlands
1%
50,001 … 100,000
2%
Turkey
1%
Mexico
2%
5,001 ... 10,000
8%
Italy
5%
Ireland
1%
100,000
17%
of a very small ASIC still is a small
volume for the foundries in number
of wafers (ex. 100,000 pcs of 2
mm 2 circuits needs only 16 6-inch
wafers).
Customers that ordered small volume
projects in 2000 came from
19 countries, mainly in Europe but
also from China, Mexico, USA and
Uruguay.
Request for quotation
Customers can fill in a simple 2page
form with the main specifications.
1,501 ... 5,000
15%
Germany
13%
France
4%
500
29%
501 ... 1,500
14%
Small volume projects versus the number of components
Uruguay
United Kingdom
1%
9%
USA
5%
Austria
2%
Belgium
16%
China
1%
Czech
republic
1%
Denmark
21%
Small volume projects versus country
With this information EURO-
PRACTICE can answer in a few
days and give a first rough price estimation
so that customers can
make a first evaluation. When the
full details of the ASIC are known
(area, testing, etc.) a final more accurate
price quotation can be
given.
The request form can be accessed
through our WEB site (www.europractice.imec.be).
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