March 16, 2006 – Soitec, a French manufacturer of silicon-on-insulator wafers, said it is building a new 300mm fab to boost output by nearly 40% to 1.0 million wafers/month, according to media reports.

Construction at an as-yet-undetermined location is slated to begin before the end of its next fiscal year (ending in March 2007), with completion in 12-18 months and production beginning in 2008. Half of the 350 million euro (US $419.2 million) investment would be raised by third-party equity financing, with the rest from existing cash flow.

Soitec is currently adding two more lines to its Bernin II 300mm site in Grenoble, toward a total of eight production lines running by fiscal 2007.

The company posted sales of 185.5 million euro through the first three quarters of fiscal 2006, an 89% jump from the same period a year ago.