Texas Instruments opens $1.5-billion facility at Clark

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines — Texas Instruments (TI) has announced that its new assembly and test facility is now fully operational here and is “ramping production with the latest packaging technologies.”  

“The facility will enable the company to assemble and deliver its analog and embedded processing chips more rapidly to customers,” the state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) said. Earlier, the CDC said TI is expected to invest some $1.5 billion in its facility here.    In a statement, TI noted that the facility opened only 17 months after groundbreaking.  

It said the facility “builds upon TI’s 30-year presence in the region with continued innovation, advanced packaging solutions, such as wafer chip scale and quad flat no lead packaging, and the expanded capacity required to meet customer needs now and in the future.”

“With three decades of experience operating in the Philippines, TI is proud to expand its existing infrastructure and leverage a large pool of talent to continue to solve problems for our customers,” said Bing Viera, managing director of TI’s operations in the Philippines.

Viera said “the added capabilities and capacity of our new assembly and test site demonstrates our commitment to delivering the high-quality products our customers need, when they need them.”

The facility occupies some 77,000 square meters and now emloys 3,000 workers. Viera said, however, that it will “ultimately double TI’s capacity in the region.”

“Production is coming on line in phases for the assembly and test of many analog and embedded processing products across TI’s diverse product portfolio, depending upon customer needs,” he added.

Viera explained that “assembly and test is where silicon wafers are sliced into individual chips and then packaged and tested for their electrical functions and reliability before being shipped to customers.”  

“At TI Clark, TI is ramping wafer scale packaging (WCSP), which eliminates conventional packaging steps such as die bonding, wire bonding and die level flip chip attach processes. Such an approach enables faster time to market for TI customers,” he said. –Ding Cervantes, Philippine Star