ASE and TDK Announce Plans for a Joint Venture Agreement to Manufacture Embedded Substrates

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. (TAIEX: 2311, NYSE: ASX) and TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) announced today that both companies will enter into an agreement to establish a joint venture company to manufacture IC embedded substrates using TDK’s SESUB® (Semiconductor Embedded SUBstrate) technology. ASE and TDK plan to own 51 percent and 49 percent, respectively, of the newly created entity. The indicative name of the joint venture company will be ASE Embedded Electronics Incorporated, and its manufacturing facility is planned to be located in the Nantze Export Processing Zone, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

Through its strengths in manufacturing excellent inductive devices and magnetic heads for hard disk drives, TDK developed its proprietary SESUB technology by harnessing TDK’s signature technologies in ultrafine processing and materials. The SESUB technology enables semiconductor chips to be thinned down to as low as 50 μm and embedded in a four-layer plastic substrate. TDK’s SESUB technology provides numerous advantages, such as enabling miniaturization by reducing the mounting area on substrates and a thinner profile by achieving a 300 μm thickness. Other advantages include excellent thermal dissipation characteristics, which offer greater design flexibility and inter-chip connection that enhances EMI performance.

As a leader in System in Package (SiP) technology, ASE continues to expand its product and service portfolio through collaboration with key suppliers and partners. ASE SiP solutions using SESUB technology will offer a robust embedded solution in enabling a wide number of applications such as PMIC, sensors and RF tuners etc. The planned joint venture business model aims to leverage on TDK’s success in delivering SESUB technology to the market with ASE’s capabilities in advanced packaging, test and module level solutions for semiconductor miniaturization.

“With the anticipated need for further miniaturization and weight reduction of smartphones and wearable devices in the future, demand for semiconductors embedded in substrates, such as SESUBs, is expected to increase globally,” says Mr Takehiro Kamigama, CEO and President of TDK Corporation. “TDK has already been producing SESUBs at its Kofu Plant, but to meet the anticipated increase in demand, it will establish the joint company in Taiwan to add to its production capacity with ASE, which possesses technologies including assembly of IC packages and other items, and boasts a world-class performance record in product testing. The joint venture establishment will create a structure for full-scale mass production,” added Mr Takehiro Kamigama.

“ASE serves a diverse group of customers including several major players supplying to the portable and wearable consumer market and is a leader in SIP integration using its advanced packaging solutions and test expertise. TDK, on the other hand, has a proven proprietary embedded substrate technology addressing the market needs of integrating more chips and functions, higher performance, lower power consumption and better heat dissipation onto a smaller form factor,” says Dr Tien Wu, COO, ASE Group. “We see this powerful alliance as an added value to the ASE SIP ecosystem and together, catapulting TDK’s SESUB technology into the forefront as an industry standard,’’ added Dr Tien Wu.

The proposed establishment of and capital injection into the joint venture company will be subject to various regulatory approvals or consents (including but not limited to the approvals of the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission and Export Processing Zone Administration).

About TDK Corporation

TDK Corporation is a leading electronics company based in Tokyo, Japan. It was established in 1935 to commercialize ferrite, a key material in electronic and magnetic products. TDK's portfolio includes electronic components, modules and systems* marketed under the product brands TDK and EPCOS, power supplies, magnetic application products as well as energy devices, flash memory application devices, and others. TDK focuses on demanding markets in the areas of information and communication technology and consumer, automotive and industrial electronics. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America. In fiscal 2015, TDK posted total sales of USD 9.0 billion and employed about 88,000 people worldwide. In Taiwan, TDK has been strengthening its research and development activities through close cooperation with Taiwan's industries and research institutes.

For more information about the TDK Group, visit www.global.tdk.com

* The product portfolio includes ceramic, aluminum electrolytic and film capacitors, ferrites, inductors, high-frequency components such as surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter products and modules, piezo and protection components, and sensors.

About the ASE Group

The ASE Group is the world's largest provider of independent semiconductor manufacturing services in assembly, test, materials and design manufacturing. As a global leader geared towards meeting the industry’s ever growing needs for faster, smaller and higher performance chips, the Group develops and offers a wide portfolio of technology and solutions including IC test program design, front-end engineering test, wafer probe, wafer bump, substrate design and supply, wafer level package, flip chip, system-in-package, final test and electronic manufacturing services through Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. and its subsidiaries, members of the ASE Group. The Group generated sales revenues of US$8.5 billion in 2014 and employs over 68,000 people worldwide. For more information about the ASE Group, visit www.aseglobal.com.

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