November 17, 2006 – As reported weeks ago, NXP Semiconductors (the former Philips chipmaking business) and partner TSMC have raised their ownership stakes in Systems on Silicon Manufacturing Co. Pte. Ltd. (SSMC), their joint venture chipmaking facility in Singapore.

SSMC is a CMOS foundry with 0.25-0.14-micron capabilities, offering derivatives and embedded flash memory process. Its capacity was an estimated 40,000 200mm wafers/month in 2005. NXP uses the JV to augment its own 200mm CMOS capability, and to support JV work with TSMC.

Under the deal, NXP bought abut two-thirds of the ~17.5% ownership held by the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDBI) for $113 million, raising its stake in SSMC to 61.2 from 50.5%. TSMC bought out the rest of EDBI’s ownership, reportedly for about $75 million, to increase its stake to 38.8%.

“In just over five years SSMC has become the most sought after provider of CMOS foundry services, offering flexible and cost-effective semiconductor fabrication solution,” stated Frans van Houten, president and CEO of NXP Semiconductors, adding that SSMC “is financially very sound.”