Time: 2022.11.03
Power and mixed-signal chip supplier OnSemi Inc. (Phoenix, Arizona) is reportedly selling two other 200mm fabs as part of its restructuring.
Foundry broker ATREG Inc. (Seattle, WA) announced that ON Semiconductor's sale of its Pocatello, Idaho, 200mm wafer fab to Los Angeles Semiconductor has closed. Meanwhile, Nikkei Asia reported that a Japanese private equity fund will acquire On Semi's 200mm fab in Niigata, Japan.
The Japanese fund is backed by the Japan Development Bank and trading company Itochu Corporation, the Nikkei said, adding that the plant will start in December as a foundry for contract manufacturing of power semiconductors for electric vehicles and appliances.
The plant will maintain its current workforce of about 600 people, but its name and the amount it will pay to OnSemi were not disclosed.
LA Semiconductor is a subsidiary of Linear ASICs Inc. (Tallmadge, Ohio), which itself has 25 years of experience in providing ASIC design services and expertise in analog and mixed-signal semiconductors.
Founded in 2022, LA Semiconductor bills itself as the newest U.S. owned and operated pure-play analog, mixed-signal and power chip foundry, with production capacities down to 180nm.
Located on a 33-acre campus with over 50,000 square feet of cleanroom space and over 550,000 square feet of building space, the Pocatello facility currently produces analog CMOS, BCD, advanced discrete and custom technologies from 0.35 micron to 1.5 micron.
"This divestment is a continuation of OnSemi's fab-liter manufacturing strategy, which aims to achieve sustainable production by increasing our product capacity in key markets such as automotive and industrial," said Wei-Chung Wang, executive vice president of global manufacturing and operations at ON Semiconductor. Continued financial performance," OnSemi said in a statement.
ON Semiconductor has previously sold two factories
Earlier, ON Semiconductor had actually sold two factories.
At the beginning of this year, ON Semiconductor’s wafer fab in Oudenaarde, Belgium was sold to BelGaN Group, a new entrepreneur, transforming the original 6-inch fab into a 6-inch and 8-inch gallium nitride (GaN) foundry , targeting the automotive, mobility, industrial and energy markets.
According to eeNews, BelGaN, headquartered in Mechelen, Belgium, is a joint venture between two Hong Kong-listed companies, Rockley Management (HK) and Wuxi Group, and was established by current CEO Alan Zhou on September 30, 2021. Rockley Group is a venture capital and consulting agency with headquarters in Oxford, UK and Shanghai, China. It is also an early investor in Rockeley Photonics.
It is reported that ON Semiconductor's Oudernaarde fab was open for sale as early as 2 years ago, and this BelGaN was set up to acquire the aforementioned fab. Previously, the latter has successively recruited high-end managers of ON Semiconductor's Oudenaarde plant, and emphasized that it will retain all 400 personnel in the current plant in the future; in addition, the company has also listed 15 full-time positions on its website, and will expand the recruitment of engineers and operators.
Although the above-mentioned parties did not disclose the details of the transaction, ON Semiconductor pointed out in its fourth quarter 2021 financial report that it has completed a business and related intellectual property transaction on October 1, 2021, with a total amount of 13.6 million US dollars, It further stated that the Oudenaarde fab asset transaction has been completed on February 8, 2022.
According to BelGaN's statement, its goal is to produce 6-inch and 8-inch wafers and become Europe's leading GaN automotive semiconductor foundry; it will also establish an ecosystem of GaN-based chips and power electronics in Europe and other regions , mainly used in markets including electric vehicles, mobile electronics, industrial, data centers and renewable energy.
According to the introduction, Alan Zhou received his master's and doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and worked at AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Microelectronics and Agere Systems in his early career, and later served at Qualcomm. Vice President, responsible for domestic product design and sales.
Subsequently, ON Semiconductor, an internationally renowned supplier of power management ICs and sensors, announced that it had signed an agreement with Diode to sell its factory in South Portland, Maine, USA. Diode's 8-inch wafer line will be used to produce analog chip products for automotive and industrial applications after acquiring the South Portland plant. Diodes is a manufacturer of discrete, logic and analog semiconductor products primarily serving the consumer electronics, computer, communications, industrial and automotive markets. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.
ON Semiconductor said the move is to execute the Fablite manufacturing strategy with the ultimate goal of increasing the company's gross profit margin. Hassane El-Khoury, President and CEO of ON Semiconductor, said: "This proposed divestiture demonstrates that we are achieving an optimized manufacturing network while providing our customers with long-term supply assurance. These transactions provide continued employment and development opportunities, while also allowing ON Semiconductor to transition production from these plants to our other manufacturing plants in an orderly manner.”
