SHANGHAI -- The IC-packaging and testing business continues to heat up in China, as Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands is the latest company to set up a backend chip-assembly plant in that nation.
The Dutch chip supplier said it would invest nearly $1 billion in the new China plant over a five-year period.
Philips Semiconductors will set up an IC-packaging and final testing plant in the Suzhou Industrial Park, near Shanghai. The company estimated that it will create 3,500 jobs at the new facility. It plans to break ground on the plant in the near future, with production slated to start in the next year or two.
Philips is the latest chip maker to jump into China's expanding IC-packaging market. In the early- to mid-90s, Advanced Micro Devices, Alphatec, ChipPac, Intel, Motorola, and Samsung established IC-packaging plants in China.
In recent months, several other IC-packaging houses have entered China, including Amkor, Asat, GEM, and IBM Microelectronics.
