A wafer is thin piece of semiconductor crystal used to make integrated circuits.

The plant will be sufficient to cover domestic demand for integrated circuits (ICs), according to a report from the Vietnam National University’s IC Design Research and Education Centre (ICDREC).

Le My Phuc, vice president of factory automation at Global CyberSoft Inc Vietnam, said wafer fabrication has huge potential due to strong demand in global electronic and IC manufacturing and Vietnam’s own needs considering it has a population of more than 90 million.

The country had more than 111.5 million mobile-phone and 14.3 million landline subscribers at the end of 2010, while the revenues of the electronics and hardware industries rose from over US$2.5 billion in 2005 to $5.5 billion in 2010, he said quoting the Vietnam ICT Whitebook.

Potential applications for wafers in Vietnam include electronic ID/license cards, radio frequency identification, subscriber identity module, phone chips and many others, he added.

Ngo Duc Hoang, director of ICDREC, said to implement the Government’s policies on developing the IC industry, HCM City set up a management board for its program to develop IC products and human resources.

"Development of the IC Industry of HCM City" program aims at developing human resources, incubating IC businesses, designing and manufacturing prototypes, promoting the semi-conductor and IC industries and building a fabrication and a design center.

By 2017, the program targets to achieve a high-value integrated IC industry worth $100-150 million, contribute to technical innovations in defense and security, and attract more than five multinationals semi-conductor corporations to Vietnam.

It also aims to provide education and training to some 2,000 engineers and technicians, and incubate 30 semi-conductor and electronics businesses by 2017.

The three-day Solid-State Systems Symposium, organized by the National University, HCM City, and Saigon Hi-tech Park, closes today.