Texas Instruments (TI) has announced the opening of its manufacturing facility in Richardson, Texas. The chipmaker said it expects to begin moving equipment into the facility in October.

Known as RFAB ("R" for Richardson), TI said the fab will be the world's only production facility to use 300mm (12-inch) silicon wafers to manufacture analog chips. The facility will give TI a strategic advantage in high-volume production because thousands of analog chips can be etched onto each of these wafers, more than double the number on the more commonly used and smaller 200mm wafers, it said.

Rich Templeton, TI's chairman, president and CEO, said the first chips will be shipped from this facility by the end of 2010. When the first phase of equipment is ramped and producing at full capacity, the facility will be capable of shipping more than US$1 billion worth of analog chips per year.

Hiring will begin immediately for 250 jobs in RFAB, according to TI.

TI indicated that the opening of RFAB is the most recent in a series of its manufacturing expansions. Earlier this year, TI opened Clark, an assembly and test facility in the Philippines. TI also has been installing new test equipment at several other locations, and is in the process of installing newly acquired 200mm manufacturing equipment for analog chip production at sites around the world including Dallas.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved