February 3, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — X-FAB Silicon Foundries and MEMS Foundry Itzehoe GmbH (MFI) will join forces to address the market for high-volume micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and will combine their existing MEMS foundry capabilities and resources. MFI’s contract MEMS manufacturing experience will broaden X-FAB’s foundry capacity in 8" wafers, while MFI will access X-FAB’s analog/mixed-signal Si foundry technology.
X-FAB acquired a 25.5% shareholding of MFI, subject to antitrust approval, with the option to become the majority shareholder at a later date.
"With this joint cooperation we will close the gap between microelectronics and pure MEMS foundry services and establish an outstanding technology bundle," said Dr. Peter Merz, CEO of MFI. The cooperation opens up new business opportunities for both companies and complements their existing technical capabilities and manufacturing capacities. X-FAB, a foundry for More-Than-Moore technologies, broadens and expands its MEMS foundry service through the proven technical capabilities of MFI, and also accelerates its rapid expansion in high-volume MEMS manufacturing. MFI, a contract manufacturer for MEMS and spin-off from Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT), gains access to X-FAB’s advanced analog and mixed-signal silicon foundry and MEMS device manufacturing services.
In addition to the recently announced expansion of X-FAB’s 8" MEMS Center, the agreement extends X-FAB’s MEMS capabilities across a wide range of 8" MEMS technologies for MEMS development and manufacturing that complement X-FAB’s foundry services. In 2010, the company accrued more than 12 million USD of MEMS revenue, and has manufactured approximately 1 billion MEMS devices to date. "With strong demand and our combined resources, we aim to increase our annual MEMS revenue to more than $50 million in the next five years, said Hans-Jürgen Straub, CEO of X-FAB.
MFI, established in 2009, is active within Fraunhofer’s wafer fabrication facility in Itzehoe. It has a wealth of experience in process industrialization for MEMS products and offers key manufacturing technologies on 8" wafers for micro-machined devices including inertial sensors, micro-mirrors and RF MEMS, wafer-level packaging techniques for wafer-to-wafer and chip-to-wafer bonding and a variety of through-silicon via (TSV) technologies.
X-FAB is an analog/mixed-signal foundry group manufacturing silicon wafers for analog-digital integrated circuits (mixed-signal ICs). X-FAB maintains wafer production facilities in Erfurt and Dresden (Germany); Lubbock, Texas (US); and Kuching, Sarawak (Malaysia); and employs approximately 2,400 people worldwide. Wafers are manufactured based on advanced modular CMOS and BiCMOS processes with technologies ranging from 1.0 to 0.18 micrometers, for applications primarily in the automotive, communications, consumer and industrial sectors. For more information, please visit www.xfab.com.
The MEMS Foundry Itzehoe GmbH (MFI) offers customer oriented MEMS manufacturing services using an advanced 8 inch wafer line. MFI was established in 2009 as a spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT) and is located within the same wafer fabrication facility in Itzehoe/Germany. The Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT) develops and produces microelectronic and microsystem components. Learn more about MFI at www.memsfoundry.com
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