Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Texas Instruments Inc has again announced plans to up its analog capacity. The company Thursday announced its first wafer fab in China, located in the Chengdu High-tech Zone, to be used for analog production.
The fab, a fully equipped 200-mm manufacturing facility, was purchased from Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Company for an undisclosed price. The facility is fully functioning today, as it was previously operated by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), one of TI's foundry partners.
According to TI, SMIC used the factory to supply TI wafers for Lexmark. TI said it will continue to support this customer from the China site. TI said it further plans to provide foundry services to SMIC for a period of time while it ramps the factory on NexFET power MOSFET technology to support its analog business. TI expects to have NexFET qualified in Chengdu by Q1 2011.
TI said the location includes an operating 120,000-square-foot fab that can support more than $1 billion in annual revenue and a 134,000-square-foot fab reserved for future production needs. The 200-mm wafer fab will produce 25,000 to 30,000 wafers per month, TI estimated.
The Cension plant employed about 900 people, of which TI has hired approximately 700. Of the 700, about 100 employees were SMIC employees.
"TI has been committed to serving the China market for 25 years," said Gregg Lowe, TI senior vice president for analog, in a statement. "This fab in Chengdu will strengthen our ability to support customers' growing requirements and deliver analog products when and where customers need them."
Since 2001, TI's manufacturing strategy has combined internal and third-party foundry manufacturing. As part of that strategy, TI has transitioned its digital process technology development to its foundry partners, allowing it to reduce capital expenditures while freeing up resources to focus more on analog.
Indeed, this analog expansion in China follows on the heels of significant manufacturing expansions by TI in the United States and Japan.
By: DocMemory
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