Sci-Tech Philippines unveils the newly Inaugurated ADMANTEL- A high-tech Semiconductor and Electronics Testing lab

President Benigno S. Aquino III, assisted by Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo, unveils the marker during the inauguration of the Advance Device and Materials Testing Laboratory (ADMATEL) at the Industrial Technology Development Institute, Department of Science and Technology compound in Bicutan, Taguig City on Friday (May 31). ADMATEL is the most advanced failure analysis and materials characterization testing facility in the country. This will enhance global competitiveness of the semiconductor and electronics industries. (Malacañang Photo Bureau)

The Department of Science and Technology has inaugurated a testing laboratory called Admatel that offers four highly specialized equipment for fail testing semiconductor and electronics prototypes before they become possible products.

Acquired by DOST for ₱280 million, the Admatel is open to all local players in the semiconductor and electronics business who used to collectively spend annually from $10 million to $20 million to have their products undergo failure analysis abroad.

The costs of Admatel's 19 types of services start at ₱2,000 to ₱32,000. The government hopes the Admatel can sufficiently provide local players and even foreign companies with high-technology testing laboratory that can do the following:

• Focus Ion Beam-Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FEB-FESEM)
• Scanning Electronic Miscroscope with Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX)
• Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (TOFSIMS)
• Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES).

It used to be that local companies have to avail of similar laboratory and equipment in countries like the United States, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.

Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (TOFSIMS)

Admatel is housed at one of the buildings of the Industrial Technology Development Institute (DOST-ITDI).

DOST broke the ground for the facility on Sept. 3, 2012, opened it on January 8, 2013, and formally introduced it in an event in Quezon City sometime in February. It was then finally inaugurated and unveiled by President Benigno Aquino III on May 31, 2013.

Aquino said: "Without doubt, this facility will pull our semiconductors industry up the value chain, and move them closer to their target of becoming a 50-billion dollar industry by 2016," the President said.

The DOST wants to give local companies an opportunity to cut their costs in sending their samples abroad to Singapore and Hong Kong, among other places, to test their products. While the industry earned some $30 billion in 2011, only about 10 percent of the revenue remained in the country because the majority went to the companies' headquarters abroad.

DOST Undersecretary Mario Go Montejo said "ADMATEL will make the Philippine semiconductor sector more adaptive to global challenges, expanding its value chain from mere assembly to include design and testing components in manufacturing."

"This will definitely make the Philippines more competitive among a sea of international players," he added.

Admatel will operate for 24 hours. DOST is providing lecture rooms, conference rooms, and dormitories for Admatel clients.

with report from Manila Bulletin