Mini-Circuits to Set Up RF Chip Design Center
New York-based Mini-Circuits Inc plans to set up a radio frequency (RF) and microwave component design center in Penang, Malaysia, a first of its kind in the country.
The design center will be part of a US$130 million investment over five years that the company is pumping into its newest plant in the Bayan Lepas Free Trade Zone.
Mini-Circuits president Harvey Kaylie said the new design center will enhance its global competitiveness, particularly in the burgeoning cellular and communications market.
He added that when completed in May, the Penang plant would be Mini-Circuits' ninth in the world, and strengthen its position as one the world's largest manufacturers of RF, intermediate frequency (IF) and microwave components.
Mini-Circuits currently has four plants in the US and one each in India, Indonesia, Israel and Korea.
The local plant will be headed by Kelvin Kiew, who said at the ground-breaking ceremony that the Penang facility will also double-up as its worldwide materials warehouse to supply its plants globally.
"The products, namely mixers, amplifiers, switches, transformers and attenuators, will be exported all over the world directly from here after full testing," he said.
The initial phase of the plant will cover 5,570m2 and later be expanded to 23,225m2 for manufacturing, R&D, material management and order fulfillment. The plant will generate up to 2,000 new jobs for the islanders.
Kiew added that Malaysia stands to benefit from the significant amount of technology transfer, especially in RF and IC design, high frequency RF testing and package design and development. "We also hope to source up to 50% of our materials locally within three years of operation," he said.
Mini-Circuits offers total support from initial design to full-scale production for signal-processing components up to 20GHz and has 18 product lines and more than 1,000 off-the-shelf catalog items.
Its products are found in a wide range of commercial applications including aeronautics, automotive, telecommunications and consumer electronics industries and among its customers are Agilent Technologies Inc, Motorola Inc, Nokia Corp and Ericsson AB.
Penang chief minister Koh Tsu Koon, welcoming the new initiative, said Penang is fast-emerging as a leading RF and microwave component supplier in the region.
In June, Agilent Technologies, the spin-off Hewlett-Packard Co unit, announced plans to invest a similar US$130 million between 2000 and 2003, to its existing Penang operations to support the transfer of its Test & Measurement Instrument Operations, including the manufacture of microwave discrete and module sub-assemblies.
Dubbed Silicon Island, Penang hosts some of the largest multinational semiconductor and electronic component manufacturers in the world and has benefitted from rising global chip growth, estimated by the Semiconductor Industry Association to hit 31% or up to US$195 billion this year.
The worldwide semiconductor industry is predicted to grow at an annual compound average growth rate of 20% through to 2003, largely driven by the Internet, communications and wireless consumer products.
by Julian Matthews, Penang
(September 2000 Issue, Nikkei Electronics Asia)
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