LONDON – Analog, mixed-signal and power IC maker Telefunken Semiconductors International said it plans to expand its 200-mm wafer fab in Roseville, Calif., making it one of the largest foundry service companies in the U.S.
The first phase of expansion plan provides for a 100 percent increase in wafer processing capability to more than 220,000 wafers per year or 5.5 million mask layers per year. Telefunken did not indicate how much this doubling of manufacturing capacity would cost or how much more Telefunken is ready to spend on other phases of expansion. The first phase of expansion is expected to be completed by 3Q13. A second phase of expansion to take manufacturing to three times the present capacity is expected to complete by 4Q14.
The Roseville plant was orginally constructed by NEC before being passed to Renesas Electronics Corp. as part of Japan's restructuring of its chip manufacuting sector. Renesas sold the wafer fab to Telefunken in 2011 for approximately $50 million.
"The increased capacity is the result our recent acquisition of the state-of-the-art semiconductor equipment from factories in Japan," said Roger Lee, CEO of Telefunken Semiconductors, in a statement. "The added tools will help us to satisfy the strong demand we are forecasting from our customers. This will move Telefunken Semiconductors into one of the top spots for specialty foundries in the Western world. Growing our capacity with advanced silicon processing tools and offering a comprehensive suite of strategic foundry services at a competitive cost is an important part of our overall corporate mission," Lee added.
Aerial view of Telefunken's wafer fab at Roseville, Calif.
Although originally a German company Telefunken is now headquartered in Roseville, Calif., and manufactures on 200-mm diameter wafers there an on 6-inch wafers in a wafer fab in Heilbron, Germany.
General purpose voltage references, quad op-amps, and quad comparators are almost as cheap as dirt. Is it possible that a microcontroller plus software could compete economically?
The techniques that are used to great advantage to integrate much digital functionality work far less well when attempting to integrate analog technology. Exciting new research opens the door to new ways of integrating analog building blocks for optimum performance.
As technology evolves, the definition of "programmable" analog/mixed-signal ICs has evolved as well; most users find the change to be a very good thing, despite any limitations it may impose.
Design engineers design and build things as part of product development. Sometimes, it's better to buy a subsystem already fabricated -- but which subsystem and when?
To save this item to your list of favorite Planet Analog content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
