March 29, 2007 – X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries is taking over ZMD AG’s ZFoundry wafer production facilities (ZMD Analog Mixed Signal Services GmbH & Co.) effective immediately, and has signed a wafer delivery contract to be ZMD’s principal foundry supplier, the companies announced.

The Zfoundry unit in Dresden, Germany, consisting of a 150mm wafer fab capable of 0.35-0.8-micron processes and certified for automotive processes, posted 2006 sales of 44.5 million euros (US $59.4 million). The deal will expand X-Fab’s total manufacturing capacity by 15% to approximately 70,000 wafers/month (200mm equivalent).

Thomas Hartung, VP of sales and marketing at X-FAB, told WaferNEWS in an email exchange that the ZFoundry facility “comes with an easy upgrade option to 200mm,” is oriented around the same business model as X-Fab, and can add customers and applications as businesses in the analog/mixed-signal world. He said that the current plan is to keep and develop existing Zfoundry customers, and possibly transfer some X-Fab customers there to relieve utilization pressures at X-Fab’s 150mm lines. “As the line is easily upgradeable to 8-inch, X-FAB at any time can decide on whether to move with that plan or not, independent of the market situation,” he noted.

The ZMD deal also builds on X-Fab’s experience helping other customers transition to a fabless model, noted Hartung, echoing similar statements from Hans-J