September 7, 2005 – The Brazilian government has announced plans to establish a 990 acre science park to house a new domestic semiconductor industry. The first proposed fab in the Minas Gerais Technological Park will belong to Companhia Brasileria de semiconductores (CBS), backed by various Brazilian development banks and private investors worldwide. The analog/mixed-signal facility producing high-voltage CMOS, bipolar, BiCMOS, and other processes is slated to be completed in early 2007. The government also is sponsoring an “Eldorado” project to build up a semiconductor design industry serving both domestic and global customers.

“Many companies want to have semiconductor manufacturing located in multiple economic and geographic zones,” stated Wolfgang Sauer, cofounder and CEO of CBS. “A Brazilian semiconductor industry offers a real alternative to the concentration of semiconductor manufacturing in Asia.”