TowerJazz Announces Agreement with IC Design Education
Center (IDEC) in Korea
Enables
Korean universities access to a broad range of technologies through
multi-project wafer shuttles from foundry’s Israeli-based facility
Agreement
underscores Company’s specialty technology leadership position and powerful
customer momentum in Korea
MIGDAL HAEMEK, Israel, and DAEJEON,
Korea, March 2, 2010 – TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader,
today announced a agreement with Korea’s IC Design Education Center (IDEC) to
accelerate the country’s specialty IC design expertise. Under the
terms of the agreement, IDEC will provide Korean universities with access to a
broad range of specialty process technologies from TowerJazz’s MH fab through
discounted multi-project wafer (MPW) shuttles. The agreement underscores
TowerJazz’s highly appreciated industry innovation, technology leadership, and
growing customer momentum in Korea which includes engagements with C&S
Technology, Cesign, Dongwoon, SemiHow, and others.
A
cooperation ceremony was held in Korea on February 18, 2010 by IDEC and
TowerJazz CEO, Russell Ellwanger with several professors from various leading
universities. IDEC, established in 1995 with support from the
Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Energy and major semiconductor companies,
promotes projects for the purpose of national competitiveness by educating
highly qualified design experts through support in Korean
universities.
“Chip
production in an academic environment can be challenging, but the MPW program
offered by IDEC gives students the opportunity for actual design experience
which is essential to their progress and future careers. By gaining access
to the Company’s world leading specialty technologies and interactions with
their renowned technical staff, we can enable the students to accumulate
abundant design experience and we can nurture highly qualified IC designers,”
said Dr. Chong-Min Kyung, IDEC Executive Director. “We are very pleased to work
with TowerJazz to further advance Korea’s academic R&D
achievements.”
Russell
Ellwanger, TowerJazz CEO, explained the following, “Korea is a thriving
region for technical and manufacturing innovation and will remain a center for
future technological advancements. We feel that our collaboration with IDEC will
be advantageous for the students by providing them practical and challenging
experiences at an early stage in their career training and we will, as well, be
extending the cooperation to include internships in our design center in
Netanya, Israel to the top Ph.D. students of the several leading universities.
We have been encouraged by the wide acceptance of our technical excellence and
differentiation as measured by the continued and rising number of customer
engagements in Korea, in which we are targeting several hundreds of millions of
revenue over the coming years. This program is our way of early partnering
with the next generation of Korean technical leadership. This, in turn, will
have long term benefits to the students/universities, Korean industry, TowerJazz
and overall Korean/Israeli relations.”
About
IDEC
IDEC has
educated design experts in the non-memory IC field since it was established in
1995. IDEC has driven projects including providing foundry MPW services,
distributing CAD tools for free or at a low cost, and holding lectures by the
Korean government and Samsung Electronics, Hynix Semiconductor, Magnachip
Semiconductor and Dongbu HiTek. These efforts led to the construction of an
infrastructure to educate IC designers which is the basis to proceed to the
IC industry as highly skilled experts.
About
TowerJazz
Tower
Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: TSEM, TASE: TSEM),
the global specialty foundry
leader and its fully owned U.S. subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor,
operate collectively under the brand name TowerJazz,
manufacturing integrated circuits with geometries ranging from
1.0 to 0.13-micron. TowerJazz provides industry leading
design enablement tools to allow complex designs to be achieved quickly and
more accurately and offers a broad range of customizable process
technologies including SiGe, BiCMOS, Mixed-Signal and RFCMOS, CMOS Image Sensor,
Power Management (BCD), and Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) as well as MEMS
capabilities. To provide world-class customer service, TowerJazz maintains
two manufacturing facilities in Israel and one in the U.S. with additional
capacity available in China through manufacturing partnerships. For more
information, please visit www.towerjazz.com.
Safe
Harbor Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This
press release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks
and uncertainties. Actual results may vary from those projected or implied
by such forward-looking statements. A complete discussion of risks and
uncertainties that may affect the accuracy of forward-looking statements
included in this press release or which may otherwise affect Tower and/or Jazz’s
business is included under the heading "Risk Factors" in Tower’s most recent
filings on Forms 20-F, F-3, F-4 and 6-K, as were filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and the Israel Securities Authority and Jazz’s
most recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, as were filed with the SEC,
respectively. Tower and Jazz do not intend to update, and expressly disclaim any
obligation to update, the information contained in this release.
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Company
Contact:
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Media
Contact:
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Melinda
Jarrell
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Lauri
Julian
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949/435-8181
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949/715-3049
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melinda.jarrell@towerjazz.com
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lauri.julian@towerjazz.com
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Investor
Relations Contact:
Levi
Noit
+972 4
604 7066
noit.levi@towerjazz.com