Turkey and Malaysia cooperate on chip production

Science, Industry and Technology Minister Fikri Işık announced that the Ministry has initiated attempts to produce local chips. After the start of the construction of Turkey's first gallium nitrate-based chip production factory with the partnership of ASELSAN and Bilkent University, the Ministry is taking steps to open up the first silicon-based chip production factory with a mass production capacity.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) in Malaysia, Işık noted that while chip designs have been made in Turkey and chips have been produced in labs of Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), there was no facility to perform mass production of chips. Işık is in Malaysia to cooperate for chip production and has already visited Silterra and MIMOS. He said that they are very determined, carrying out intense research and therefore, they have visited the facilities in Malaysia to have a better understanding about the right scale for the factory. Işık said that during the preparation stage, they will decide on the best technology for the silicon-based chip factory. The Chairman of Marmara Research Center of TÜBİTAK, Bahadır Tunaboylu said that there are three materials used for chip production in the world and silicon is the most widely used one out of them. While gallium nitrate is used for LED lambs and sensor chips, silicon is used for chips in computers, mobile phones, memories, etc. He underlined that there is an integrated circuit, packaging and electronics industry in Malaysia and the Malaysian company Silterra is one of the top global players. "Silicon is the most common, developed and economic technology in the world for chip production and about 90 percent of the chips, processors, memories and devices are produced by silicon-based technologies. Turkey wants to take steps for local production," Tunaboylu said. Chip Factory Silterra was founded in 1995 and has now become the 15th biggest producer of silicon integrated circuits. In 2012-2013 its exports were around $2billion. The factory exports 99 percent of its production to the U.S., Europe, China, Taiwan and Korea. It started producing silicon sheets in 2001, and now is producing 30,000 silicon sheets each month.