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16 Iyar 5761 - May 9, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Tower Semiconductor Reports Progress
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Tower Semiconductor announced another milestone in the construction of its billion dollar Fab 2 semiconductor plant with the awarding to two U.S. semiconductor industry suppliers -- Axecelis Technologies Inc. and PRI Automation -- of contracts worth more than $70 million over the next few years.

Tower, currently a small company with barely $50 million a year in sales and a market value of around $100 million, is building a new factory worth $1.5 billion in Migdal Hoemek in the north of Israel.

PRI, based in Massachusetts, will supply Tower with an automated material handling system, factory management software products, and systems integration and support services, in an agreement expected to be worth approximately $22 million over four years. Axecelis Technologies Inc., also based in Massachusetts, will supply Tower with ion implanters at a cost of $50 million over the next two years.

In February, Tower signed another agreement with Japan's Nikon Corp. to supply equipment to Tower's new plant which will reach or exceed $150 million over four years.

The Fab 2 plant got underway with technology support from Toshiba Corp and financial support from the Israeli government, bank loans, SanDisk Corp., Alliance Semiconductor, Quicklogic Corp, Micronix International, and Tower's parent company, the Israel Corp. Once the plant is running at full capacity, it is expected to produce 33,000 200-mm wafers per month, of 0.18 microns and smaller. The plant is expected to directly employ 1,000 workers.

Completion of the plant should produce a virtual explosion of sales and market value for the company.

 

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