STMicroelectronics

History

The company was born from fusion in 1987 of Italian company SGS ( Società Generale Semiconduttori ), then directed by Pasquale Pistorio, and from the French company Thomson Semiconducteurs , subsidiary of Thomson.

Initially named SGS-Thomson , it was then famous STMicroelectronics in 1998 following the withdrawal of Thomson of the capital.

In 1989, SGS-Thomson repurchases the British company Inmos, created in 1978 manufacturing the microprocessors Transputer dedicated to the manufacture of networks of processors massively parallel. In 1991, SGS-Thomson and Philips Semiconductors sign a technological partnership agreement which makes it possible Philips to profit in 1993 from the news Clean room from the unit from R & D from SGS-Thomson with Crolles on a project baptized Grenoble 92 .

In 1994, SGS-Thomson repurchases some activities of semiconductors of the Canadian company Nortel Networks and machines it of Rancho Bernardo. In 2000 STMicroelectronics repurchases the activities of semiconductors of the factory of Ottawa, always of Nortel Networks.

In 2002, Motorola Semiconductors and TSMC join the technological partnership St-Philips. It is the creation of Crolles-2 Alliance with the construction of a new manufacturing unit 300mm, in a clean room of 10.000 m ².

At the end of 2007, NXP (ex Philips Semiconductors) and Freescale (ex Motorola Semiconductors) leave Alliance.

May 22nd, 2007, ST and Intel create a named common company Numonyx (in reference to the English word " mnemic " for mnemonics) which gathers their activities of memories flash.

Localization

The parent company STMicroelectronics N.V. is of Dutch right (recorded with Amsterdam), the administrative office is gathered mainly on the site of Geneva in Suisse, but the operational direction of the group always Italian, is established on the principal site of the group with Agrate beside Milan. The American seat is located him at Carrollton, close to Dallas, Texas), that of the Asia-Pacific area to Singapore and that of Japan with Tokyo. The seat of the area " Chine" , lately created and which also included Hong-Kong and Taiwan is located at Shanghai.

Participation and turnover

During fusion of SGS and Thomson Semiconductors, balance was maintained between the French and Italian shareholders. December 8th, 1994, the company enters out of purse, simultaneously with dimensions on the markets of Paris, Milan and New York. Its capital is held by the company STMicroelectronics N.V. .

Into 2005 its capital is divided as follows:

72,4% public, is distributed between New York Stock Exchange Stock Exchange, of Euronext, Paris and Borsa Italiana Milano.
27,6% distributed between Italian capital (16,7%) and French (10,9%):

Areva : 10,9%
Broke Depositi E Prestiti: 10,1 %
Finmeccanica : 6,6 %

The market and competition

With its creation in 1987, SGS-Thomson pointed then in the 14th place of the world classification of the semiconductors with a little more than $850 million USD. Over the year 2005, ST is classified with the 5th place , behind Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments and Toshiba, but is located in front of Infineon, Renesas, NEC, NXP and Freescale.

See also: the classification of the first 20 manufacturers of semiconductors with the passing of years

ST is also classified like 1st manufacturer of semiconductors at the European level right in front of Infineon and far in front of NXP (ex Philips Semiconductors).

The company has a broad wallet of products. It is leader on many markets, in particular:

circuits for video coders/decoders MPEG-2/MPEG-4.
circuits for cellphones.
circuits for applications without wire.
circuits for the data-processing peripherals (for the hard drives or Printing S for example).
circuits for the Automobile .
the Microcontrôleur S
nonvolatile memories like the eeprom, memories flash (NOR-flash and nand-flash).
the circuits Analogical S and of power.

Approximately two-thirds of the turnover come from products known as " différenciés" , i.e. a combination of dedicated, specific and programmable products designed for a specific application. This result translates the extremely early recognition of the importance of the technology of the Systèmes on chip (commonly called System One Chip or Plowshare).

It on the other hand remained voluntarily with the variation of the market of the memories DRAM and the Microprocesseur S general public for PC. Setting with share an incursion limited in 1994 with the marketing of compatible microprocessors Intel x86 in collaboration with Cyrix and the production into 1995 of the microprocessors Cyrix M1, competitors of the Pentium S of Intel.

The company counts more than 1500 customers, of which most important are:

automobile equipment: Bosch, DaimlerChrysler, Ford /Visteon, Siemens
cell phone makers: Nokia, Motorola
manufacturers of printers: Hewlett-Packard
manufacturers of infrastructures telecom: Alcatel, Nortel
manufacturers of hard drives: Seagate Technology, Western Digital
electronics manufacturers of components of leisures (TV, hifi, video, video game consoles): Philips, Sony, Thomson, Nintendo, Microsoft
manufacturers of industrial plants: Siemens
distributers of electronics components like Arrow.

Organization of the company

The company is structured around four poles:

Produced Groups
sales forces, organized in five areas (Europe, the USA, the emergent Asia-Pacific, Japan, China and countries). The company thus has 78 sales offices in 36 countries.
manufacturing units of the chips or fab and units of assembly (for the setting out of case of the chips)
the Research & Development central (R & D).

R & D and groups Produced

There exist seven groups Produits, each group itself being composed of several divisions which manage in an autonomous way the design, the manufacture and the marketing of their products (while being based on the local sales forces).

HED: Home Entertainement and Displays: it gathers all divisions managing the products multimedia. One finds there in particular divisions set-signal-box (circuits video decoders MPEG4).
FMG: Flash Memory Group: it gathers all divisions managing the memories of the type NAND-FLASH, NOR-FLASH. May 22nd, 2007, ST announced the creation of a common company with Intel, which will gather the activities of NOR memories Flash of the two companies.
APG: Automotive Product Group: gather all the products related to automobile industry. Divisions " there are found; because body" (circuits present in the cockpit of the cars like the instrument panel or navigation) division " power train" (circuits ensuring the control of the engine), and division " safety" (circuits managing the functions of safety like the Airbag).
APM: Analog Power & MEMS: gather the power circuits, the circuits analogical and the circuits of the type MEMS.
CPG: Computer Peripheral Group: gather the circuits related to the IT sector (computers and peripherals). ST is in particular leader on the checking circuits of Hard drives or printers.
MMC Mobile, Multi-media & Communication: Gather the divisions centered around the mobile phone and of its applications
ms: Microcontroleurs, Memories and Smart Cards: The Microcontrolleurs divisions, Memories EEPROM and products made safe for Smart Card

The R & D power station deal with the settling of the new manufactoring processes of the semiconductors and innovating methodologies of design (micro-electronic design). Each division has also its own R & D for the design, the industrialization as of its products and the development of the applications, while being based on the research upstream of the R & D power station.

The group thus has 16 advanced units of R & D and 39 centers of design and applications.

Production equipment

ST is a company of semiconductors which manufactures itself its chips (contrary to the companies known as Fabless). It thus has many manufacturing units (fabs) which constitute important factories requiring of the considerable investments (the equipment necessary is of very high technology and is installed in Clean rooms). These fabs is characterized by:

the diameter of the silicon plates or wafers which they are able to treat: 6 inches or 200 and 300 Misters
the Intricacy of engraving: generally 0,25 µm (200 Nm), 0,18 µm (180 Nm), 0,13 µm (130 Nm), 90 Nm and 65 Nm which correspond to the width of grid of a transistor.

Each generation of fab sees the diameter of its wafers increasing and cuts it transistors to be reduced. In 2006, the group has five units 200 mm and a unit 300 mm in activity. The essence of the production is carried out on technologies with a lower intricacy of engraving or equalizes with 0,18 µm.

ST has also many factories of assembly. The chips are cut out there and gone up in plastic cases or ceramics then its pins are connected to the pins of the case and the components obtained are tested electrically before being delivered to the customer. They are called factories of " back-end" , and are much less expensive.

Establishments and history of the sites

By order of importance, here the principal sites where ST is established and their history:

Grenoble and Crolles, Isere, France

approximately: 6000 employés.
With Milan, cradle of the R & D and company, it is about the principal establishment in France. It joins together in fact two distinct sites:

Grenoble Polygon, close to the station. (2331 employees).

It is one of the cradles of the French branch (ex-Thomson). After having accommodated some historical production lines (closed today), this site accommodates now many divisions (marketing, design, industrialization) and constitutes an important center of R & D (Design, software, research on the manufactoring processes).

Crolles, in the suburbs of Grenoble, in direction of Chambéry.

The site counts a fab today 200 mm and a fab 300 Misters His creation, wanted by the chairman Pasquale Pistorio, whereas the market was in full crisis, results from a partnership (Grenoble 92) signed in 1990 between SGS-Thomson and the Hundred (R & D of France Telecom) for the realization and the common exploitation of a center from R & D on submicronic technologies silicon. In 1991, Philips sign an agreement with SGS-Thomson to develop new technologies of manufacture together and took part thus in a minority way in the project. The first fab 200 mm of the group (Crolles 200) is then inaugurated on September 9th, 1993 by Gerard Longuet, Minister of Industry and Alain Carignon mayor of Grenoble. In April 2002, ST, Philips and Motorola sign a 5 years partnership agreement for creation with Crolles of a new research center R & D common for the development of the nanometric manufacture new generations (technological nodes of 90 Nm with 32 Nm) on Wafer S 300 Misters the Taiwanese company TSMC, first world founder and also a partner of the tripartite agreement in order to ensure Taiwan a compatibility of technologies and to thus supplement the production capacity of the three companies. It is about the Crolles2 Alliance which will allow the settling of the submicronic technological nodes (90 Nm, 65 Nm and 45 Nm). February 27th, 2003, the unit 300 mm is inaugurated by Jacques Chirac, president of the French Republic. At the beginning of the month of August 2006, Philips undertook to separate from its branch " semiconducteurs" , which is famous NXP (for Next experiment) and which will be part from now on of Crolles2 Alliance. But in January 2007, NXP announces its intention to leave alliance. Followed little by Freescale which also withdraws Crolles2 Alliance.

Milan and its suburbs, Italy

approximately: 4500 employés.
It is about the principal establishment of the company, cradle of the company, departure of all the R & D of the group, true operational decisional center. It joins together in fact two distinct sites:

Agrate , in direction of Venice (approximately 4000 employees).

With Grenoble, it is also one of the cradles of the group (ex SGS). The site concentrates several production lines (of which a unit 200 mm) and constitute a great nerve center by accommodating many divisions and many teams of R & D.

Castelleto , in direction of Genoa (300 to 400 employees).

This historic site gathers some production lines of specific processes. It accommodates also some divisions and teams of R & D.

Catane (Sicily, Italy)

approximately: 4800 employés.
This site was born in 1961 with the establishment from company ATES. The starting of the activity of manufacture of semiconductors (at the time Germanium) is done within the framework of licensing agreements with the american company RCA. It is a site athypic because of the proximity of the Etna volcano. The quality of vibratile anti constructions is a world reference. Today, the site counts two important manufacturing planies of the company:

a unit 200 mm, inaugurated in April 1997 by Romano Prodi, president of the Italian council. It is about the 3rd fab 200 mm of the group after Crolles 200 and Phoenix.
the buildings for a unit 300 mm are available. This unit was to be dedicated to the manufacture of Flash memories.

The site also accommodates teams of R & D and several other divisions.

Rousset, close to Aix-en-Provence, France

approximately: 3000 employés.
The site was created in 1979 by the Eurotechnique company with the construction of a fab 4 inches. It was about a partnership between Saint Gobain and the american company National Semiconductor. It was repurchased by Thomson-CSF in 1982 following the French nationalizations of 1981-1982 and with the abandonment of electronics by Saint-Gobain. It is at that time that firm the Thomson factory located in the center of Aix-en-Provence (initially created in the years 1960 and named SESCO). The personnel of Aix is then transferred to Rousset.

It is into 1988 that the site of Rousset, at the time Thomson semiconductors, gave birth by swarming, at the company Gemplus, the leader of the smart card. Its founder (Marc Lassus) was then director of the site of Rousset. Gemplus then could start by a contract with France Telecom for the market of the telephone charts: Thomson Semiconducteurs Rousset manufactured the chips and Gemplus inserted them.

The original fab was converted successively into 5 then 6 inches. Conversion into unit 6" was finished in 1996. It is currently in the course of closing.

Since 1995, ST announces its intention to build its third fab 200 mm, after Crolles and Phoenix, in Rousset (project Rousset 2000). It is inaugurated on May 15th, 2000 by Mr. Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister.

The site accommodates several divisions whose divisions smart card, microphone-controllers, eeprom or flash series as well as teams of R & D. the site of Rousset was always distinguished like a major site from production with initially its fab 6" and then the fab 200 Misters.

Ang Mo Kio, Singapore

approximately: 2000 employés.
It is into 1970 that SGS creates the first factory of assembly in Singapore on the zone of Toa Payoh. Then in 1981, SGS decides to install a fab in Singapore. After the training of the technicians in Italy and construction, the fab of Ang Mo Kio starts to produce its first plates in 1984.

It is today one of the unit 200 mm most important of the group in volume of production.

Greater Noida, close to Dehli and Bangalore, India

approximately: 1500+100 employés.
It is into 1992 that the site of Noida is born with an activity of software design. Then on February 14th, 1995 is inaugurated there the center of Design (design of chip). At the time, with 120 employees, it was about the greatest center of Design out of Europe. In 2005, the site counts close to: 1500 employees and was transferred a few kilometers further in Greater Noida. It accommodates primarily teams of Design.
The site of Bangalore is more recent and gathers a hundred employees.

Phoenix, Arizona, E. - U.

With the beginning of the year 1980, SGS created its first unit in the USA with the creation of a company of sale in Phoenix. But it will be much later, under the era of SGS-Thomson which the site takes another dimension with the construction of a fab 200 mm, completed in 1995. It is about the 2nd fab 200 mm of the company after Crolles 200. It is initially dedicated to the production of compatible microprocessors Cyrix x86. It is today important a fab 200 mm in the industrial tools of the group.

The July 11th 2007, within the framework of the economic movements of the company, this site of manufacture will be closed in the 3 years to come, all like the sites of Carrollton (Texas) and Ain Sebaâ (Morocco), to defer the production on the Asian sites (in particular Singapore), where the costs are less expensive. ST explains the closing of the site of Phoenix by technologies used, which are former generations, and thus do not count any more in the program of R & D of the company.

Turns, France

~: 1500 employés.
The site includes/understands a manufacturing unit and R & D.

Carrollton, close to Dallas, Texas, E. - U.

This site was created in 1969 by the american company Mostek (founded by former executives of Texas Instruments). Mostek was then repurchased by United Technologies, then by Thomson Semiconducteurs in 1985. With initially a fab 4" , the site saw the construction of a 6" in 1988. The site also saw the transfer of the American activities of the company Inmos Ltd. (U.K) of Colorado Springs, following its repurchase in 1989. The site then turned to the Test of Wafer S.

July 11th, 2007, ST decides to close the site, deferring the production on its other international sites.

Other sites

Casablanca, Morocco

It gathers two sites of assembly (Bouskoura and of Ain Sebaâ) and employs approximately 4000 employees. The site was created in the years 1960 by Thomson. The site of Ain Sebaâ will be closed within 3 years, on decision of the company on July 11th, 2007.

Shenzhen, province of Guangdong, China, close to HongKong

October 27th, 1994, ST and Shenzhen Electronics Group signed an partnership agreement for the construction and the exploitation of a common factory of assembly (ST being majority with 60%). The factory located on the zone of Futian Free-Trade is operational in 1996. A new factory of assembly is envisaged in Longgang for 2008. The center of R & D, design, sale and marketing is in Hi-tech industrial park.

Malta

In 1981, SGS built there a first factory of assembly. It is today the most important company of the country.

Muar, Malaysia: approximately: 1000 employees

The site was created in 1974 by Thomson. It accommodates today an important factory of assembly.

Swiss Geneva, : Sit of the direction (a few hundreds of employees).
Bristol-board, the United Kingdom. The site was born with creation from the British company Inmos in 1978 at the origin from the famous microprocessors Transputer. Inmos was repurchased by SGS-Thomson in 1989. Today, this site accommodates primarily teams of design.
Saint-Genis, Ain, France, close to Geneva (a few hundreds of people). Sit logistic.
Paris, Montrouge: marketing teams and support.
San Jose (California, Silicon Valley, E. - U.). Center design.
Reduction, Morocco. It accommodates a center of design and employs 160 people.
Prague, Czech Republic. ~100 to 200 people: teams of design, application and support.
Tunis. ~300 employees: teams of support, application and design, the subsidiary companies present are HPC, FTM and MCD.
Sophia Antipolis, close to Nice, France: Center R & D in the field of the infrastructure of the networks wireless telegraphy of 3G and 4G, which counts about thirty employees, and was created in 2002.
Naples, Italy. Center design.* Edinburgh, the United Kingdom: it accommodates a center of design.
Shanghai, China
Beijing, China. Salt Office.
Ottawa, Canada: in 2000 SGS-Thomson repurchases the semiconductor activity of Nortel which has a center of R & D associated with a manufacturing unit in Ottawa. The factory will be closed in 2002, but the center of R & D and the sales office continue to operate.
Grasbrunn, Germany. Center design and of application. Office of ventes.
Istanbul, Turkey. Sales office, Centers design and of application.
La Jolla, California, E. - U.. Sales office.
Lexington, MY, E. - U.. Sales office.
Marlow, Buckinghamshire, the United Kingdom
Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Reading, Berkshire, the United Kingdom
Schaumburg, Illinois, E. - U.
Wilsonville, E. - U.
Zaventem, Belgium

Recently disappeared sites

Rennes, France. It sheltered a unit 6" closed in 2004.
Rancho Bernardo, close to San Diego, California, the USA.

This manufacturing unit, initially created by Northern Telecom (become Nortel today) was repurchased by SGS-Thomson in 1994. It is about a fab 4". Since 1996, it is converted into 6".

STMicroelectronics announced Tuesday, July 10, 2007 of " measurements; of amélioration" of its structure passing by closing of its manufacturing plant of Carrollton (Texas), its site of manufacture of Phoenix (Arizona) and its site of assembly of Ain Sebaa (Morocco).

Future establishments

ST and Hynix created a common company St-Hynix (ST holds 33%) for the construction of an production unit dedicated to the memories nand-flash. This one should be operational end 2006.
ST is in negotiation with the Chinese company of foundry “Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co. Ltd.” (located at Shanghai), exit itself of a partnership with Japanese NEC in order to build a fab 300 mm in China.

Sources and bibliography

www.st.com
Book SGS-Thomson: : 25000 men for a success , 1997, History of companies, Institute Editor. ISBN 2-907904-06-X
specialized Press reviews (eetimes)
Minatec

See too

Microphone-controllers: ST6

External bonds

Official site

Random links: