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Greatek says fab suspension unlikely

Julian Ho, Taipei; Willis Ke, DIGITIMES Asia 0

Over a dozen employees at logic IC packager Greatek Electronics have been infected with COVID-19, but the company has no plans to suspend its fab operations, according to company CEO Boris Hsieh.

Hsieh stressed that Greatek has performed well in pandemic control, with the actual infection cases much fewer than expected, and therefore will not enforce temporary production halt for disinfections.

Hsieh said packaging-use clean rooms can be disinfected only with alcohol rather than done massively using chemical disinfectants, or the facilities will become unworkable for at least one year.

Greatek is now a main MCU packaging partner for major vendors at home and abroad, and even a brief production suspension might significantly affect its shipments to clients, and so it will not easily suspend work, according to Hsieh.

Greatek has informed domestic MCU vendors that its plants will maintain normal operations as virus confections among its migrant workers are under good control, industry sources said.

The vendors usually adopt QFN and QFP wire-bonding technology for their MCU chips, and they may continue to raise quotes in the second half of the year to reflect ever-tightening capacity supply at foundry and backend houses, with delivery lead times repeatedly extended.