May 22, 2002–Newport Beach, CA & Washington, DC–Conexant Systems, Inc. and The Carlyle Group have named their new ISO-9000 certified wafer fab, Jazz Semiconductor. The new facility will have 100,000 square feet of ISO Class 3 cleanroom space.

Company officials say, " The name ‘Jazz’ symbolizes creativity, vitality, and reflects the company’s strategic positioning in key semiconductor manufacturing technologies that are helping to drive some of the industry’s most exciting new categories of communications products and equipment."

The Newport Beach–based pure-play foundry will manufacture semiconductor wafers using specialty process technologies such as silicon germanium bipolar CMOS (SiGe BiCMOS), according to published reports. The new facility will have the capacity to support 20,000 eight-inch wafer starts per month.

Under the terms of the agreement, Carlyle will be the majority owner, and Conexant will be a minority holder as well as a customer of the new company.