Unnamed US IDM to help fill Tower’s Fab 2

September 20, 2007 – Israeli foundry Tower Semiconductor says it has signed a “multimillion-dollar/month” deal with an unidentified first-tier US IDM to manufacture devices using 0.13-micron processes in the foundry’s Fab 2 200mm facility, which it is currently upgrading.

The customer’s technology will be transferred over the next several quarters, followed by an initial production ramp of 5-8k WPM, according to the foundry, in a statement, but CEO Russell Ellwanger projects this new business will turn into a ” very large volume family of products.”

Weeks ago Tower closed $100 million in loans to help fund its expansion of Fab 2 200mm site, currently running at >90% utilization of its 24,000 wafers/month capacity. The firm is in final negotiations for the remaining complete toolset (coming from other IDMs’ 200mm sites, e.g. Intel and AMD), and tooling should start in October and continue in early 2008.

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