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CLARK
FREE PORT—President Arroyo will be the guest of honor
and speaker during the groundbreaking ceremonies for
Texas Instruments’ (TI) $1-billion assembly and test
facility at the Clark Free Port on Thursday.
The
Chief Executive is widely credited as being responsible
for encouraging the US-based semiconductor firm to
invest and construct its newest facility in Clark that
spreads around an eight-hectare area and is expected to
employ more than 3,000 workers when fully operational.
Clark
Development Corp. president Levy P. Laus said TI is the
biggest single investment in the economic history of
Clark with initial production expected to start by the second
quarter of 2008.
TI
designs and manufactures analog and digital signal
processing and chip technologies that help customers
develop products, from affordable mobile phones to
classroom projectors that support remote learning to
prosthetic devices.
The
Clark TI facility will incorporate many of the
environmental and energy design features used by the
firm in its newest semiconductor facilities in the
United States.
TI will
also prioritize reducing water, energy and waste from
the start of building design and construction and will
be the first ground-up facility to be Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design-registered (LEED) in the
Philippines.
The LEED
Green Building Rating System is a voluntary US standard
for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings
that assigns a score based upon a variety of factors,
including construction materials used, water and energy
efficiency, waste recycling and indoor environmental
quality.
TI first
entered the
Philippines
in 1979 in Baguio City, which is one of TI’s most
sophisticated assembly and test sites.
It
conducts the final assembly and testing of
semiconductors for customers in the computer, aerospace,
telecommunications and automotive industries in the US,
Asia and Europe.
TI
Philippines’ assembly and test operations are the final
step in semiconductor manufacturing before chips are
shipped to customers.
Starting
with bare silicon chips called “die,” assembly and test
sites perform precise packaging operations that serve as
the interface between the integrated circuit and the
system it supports.
Final
tests are run on highly sophisticated equipment to
ensure the packaged product operates across a full range
of specifications and is ready for shipment.
Texas
Instruments Inc. provides innovative DSP and analog
technologies to meet customers’ real-world signal
processing requirements.
TI is
based in Dallas, Texas and has manufacturing, design or
sales operations in more than 25 countries. |
