Over 95% Yield Rate of GaAs Wafer by AWSC

Chou Jung Fa/ Tainan: Commercial Times Jan 26,2005

Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Company (AWSC) is the first GaAs HBT foundry in Taiwan, and has supplied more than 17 Million cellular Power Amplifier (PA) chips to Skyworks the largest supplier of cellular PA Module in the world. AWSC has achieved the world-class process technology and product quality with average yield of more than 95%. AWSC has current capacity of 700 WSPW and can be expanded to 1,200 WSPW. The company has achieved the positive cash in NT $10 Million last year, reaching the first important milestone for success. It was due to the large sales growth and extensive cost down efforts. .

The success of GaAs Industries relies on both strong process capability and stable customers basis. AWSC has both of such basics. Their PA products have superior performances in high frequency compared to Si or SiGe. In the WLAN application of 11.g (2.4 GHz) and 11.a (5.6 GHz) GaAs HBT PA is dominated the market shares.

AWSC claims that Intel has promoted successfully the wireless chipset of Centreno in year of 2003. Therefore WLAN card of 802.11g becomes the standard feature in Notebook PC today. Moreover, Intel plans to start the sales of wireless chipset of 802.16 (WiMAX) this year, so the large sales growth of WLAN related products is expected. AWSC would be able to provide the GaAs foundry for the high demand of wireless chipset.

AWSC has broken the record high in sales of NT $25 Million last month December.It was mainly contributed by the WLAN Design House business. AWSC has accomplished the multiply growth in sales in last three years and will reach the production level of 14,000 total wafers in 2005.

AWSC Delivered Over Two Million Chips For 802.11b WLAN Products

Yui-Lian Lia/Taipei, June 20, 2003 Commercial Time News

Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Company (AWSC) has started Power Amplifier (PA) chips production for the WLAN application this year. AWSC has passed Skyworks qualification and ramped up cellular PA chips production since last March. Now it has expanded its GaAs HBT technology from cellular PA to WLAN PA this year. It totals the delivery of over two millions 802.11b chips and combined sales revenue of TWD 54 millions for the first five months. In addition AWSC has been qualified the 802.11a and 802.11g designs that are in the final product qual stage by their customers.

Last year AWSC GaAs HBT foundry were mainly focused on the cellular phone PA for the world biggest PA module maker Skyworks. This year AWSC has penetrated into the wireless LAN RF applications and delivered over two million 802.11b chips for Taiwan domestic WLAN design houses in last five months."

According to AWSC Finance Manager Mr. Liu, GaAs wafers are suitable for high frequency application such as WLAN 802.11a RF chip that operates in the 5 GHz frequency band. AWSC is currently qualified both 802.11a and 802.11g products. It expects to start the production for these two higher-level products in the second half of 2003. AWSC indeed becomes a world class HBT foundry cross both cellular phone and WLAN customer basis.

AWSC was established in 1998. Major shareholders include world-class communication module company Conexant (17%) and Epi company Kopin (8%). The AWSC largest customer and partner Skyworks was spun out from Conexant and merged with Alpha last June. Currently AWSC has one 4-inch GaAs Fab with a total capacity of 800 wafers start per week.

At present GaAs market is still dominated by the world biggest OEM companies. It lacks of cooperated experiences directly with cellular phone manufactures. Therefore it is difficult to gain the technology and specification of products from them. The cell phone sales are estimated around 10% growth with the quantities of 430 million phones this year. By calculating the total requirement of 4-5 GaAs chips for each dual-band cell phone it may just need one 4-inch Fab with a production capacity of 4,000-6,000 wafers start per week. However Taiwan's foundry capacity has over the requirement that claims a 28,000 wafers starts per week. The steady and strong relationship between AWSC and Skyworks is very important for the future growth of AWSC.

AWSC has started the volume production since last year and generated annual revenue of TWD 41 millions in 2002. The first five months revenue of this year has already reached TWD 54 millions that is way over the last year total revenue. Although the second quarter market in China has been affected by the SARS situation and the cellular phone inventory is relative high. AWSC still has better chance to be financial sound after further expanding its WLAN markets this year.

Skyworks Qualifies Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Co. -AWSC- for Gallium Arsenide Foundry Services

Company Establishes a Second Source for Obtaining Wafers Designed for Wireless Communications Devices

WOBURN, Mass., Sep 30, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) --Skyworks Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq:SWKS), the industry's leading wireless semiconductor company focused on radio frequency (RF) and complete semiconductor system solutions for mobile communications applications, today announced that the company has qualified Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Co. (AWSC) as a second source to provide Skyworks with Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) foundry processing services.

Located in the Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park in South Taiwan, AWSC is one of the world's first foundry companies dedicated to the manufacturing of high-quality GaAs devices.

"After meticulous testing, we're pleased to announce that AWSC has met our rigorous process, quality and reliability requirements and is now qualified for production," said Kevin Barber, senior vice president of operations for Skyworks. "The qualification of AWSC for HBT foundry services improves Skyworks' ability to meet customer volume and second source demands."

"Skyworks' quality procedures and specifications are among the highest in the industry," said Tom Chi, president of AWSC. "We are extremely proud of having achieved this milestone, and look forward to strengthening our relationship as Skyworks' business continues to grow."

GaAs HBT is the technology of choice for a variety of wireless communications devices, including power amplifiers for digital cellular handset and third-generation (3G) wireless voice and data products.

About Skyworks

Skyworks Solutions is the industry's leading wireless semiconductor company focused on radio RF and complete semiconductor system solutions for mobile communications applications. The company began operations in June 2002, following the completion of the merger between Alpha Industries Inc. and Conexant Systems Inc.'s wireless communications business. Skyworks is focused on providing front-end modules, RF subsystems and cellular systems to wireless handset and infrastructure customers worldwide.

Skyworks has headquarters in Woburn with executive offices in Newport Beach, Calif. The company has design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing, sales and service facilities throughout North America, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific. For more information visit www.skyworksinc.com.

About AWSC

Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Co. (AWSC), located at Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park in Taiwan, an ISO 9002 and ISO 14001 certified company, is one of the world's GaAs foundry companies dedicated to high quality HBT manufacturing for wireless and fiber-optic communication applications. AWSC offers low cost and high reliable InGaP GaAs HBT processes. For more information, visit the company at www.awsc.com.tw.

Taiwan Industry and Commerce Daily News 12/5/2001 Report: Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Company (AWSC) InGaP/GaAs HBT Process Reached Production Stage in Q1 of Y2002.

[Mien-Wei Zen reported at Tainan, Dec. 5, 2001] - Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Company (AWSC) has announced on 12/4/2001 that they have successfully developed their own InGaP/GaAs HBT process technology. It is the first InGaP technology ever developed at Taiwan that has been used in the cellular phone application. AWSC expects to start the production in the first quarter of year 2002. It will accelerate the time to market for the third generation (3G) related products.

In the aspect of 6-inch GaAs foundry facility investment plan which AWSC has planned last year the schedule will be temporarily postponed. It was mainly due to the considerations of technology maturity of both 6-inch backside process and Epi materials.

AWSC is the first GaAs HBT foundry established at Taiwan in December of 1998. They have spent around NT $160,000,000 to develop this InGaP/GaAs technology and made a public announcement on 12/4/2001 for their product introduction. Through a small quantities production they have achieved more than 97 % of product yield that leads AWSC to become a world class foundry.

AWSC plans to bring this technology into the production phase in conjunction with the primary product of AlGaAs/GaAs HBT technology in the first quarter of Y2002. Both technologies are available to IDM companies and fabless design houses. The InGaP process is used for the power amplifier in the 3G cellular phone to enhance the lifetime and reduce the power dissipation of new model phones in the future. Furthermore it will help the market timing of third generation telecommunication ahead the schedule.

Conexant Secures Guaranteed Foundry Capacity For Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) Semiconductor Devices Agreement with Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Company (AWSC) in Taiwan further enhances Conexant's position as the world's largest supplier of GaAs HBT devices for wireless communications and optical networking products

[NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 13, 2000] - Conexant Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CNXT) announced today that it has signed a multi-year agreement with Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Company (AWSC) that guarantees the company capacity for an additional 30,000 GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) wafer starts annually.Production will commence in the fourth calendar quarter of this year, giving Conexant access to at least 30 percent more capacity for a total of more than 125,000 wafer starts annually, including both internal and external resources. This compares with 15,000 annual wafer starts just one year ago.

Located in the Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park in South Taiwan, AWSC is one of the world's first foundry companies dedicated to the manufacturing of high-quality GaAs devices.

"In addition to increasing our own internal GaAs manufacturing capacity five-fold during the past year, Conexant has been searching for a foundry partner with expertise in this highly specialized process technology," said Terry Ellis, senior vice president of operations for Conexant."This agreement gives us access to guaranteed additional capacity to address accelerating demand for GaAs HBT devices, in support of our two fastest growing divisions: wireless communications and network access."

GaAs HBT is the technology of choice for a variety of wireless communications devices, including power amplifiers for digital cellular handset and third-generation (3G) wireless voice and data products, and fiber-optic transceivers for Internet infrastructure equipment.