June 4, 2012 — X-FAB Silicon Foundries completed its dedicated noble metal facility for micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) and post-complementary oxide metal semiconductor (CMOS) processing in Erfurt, Germany. The company also marked a milestone, shipping its 1 billionth MEMS device.

The dedicated MEMS manufacturing facility will add gold deposition and patterning capabilities to X-FAB’s existing MEMS capabilities at Erfurt. The facility has capacity for approximately 100,000 wafers/year, processing MEMS for high-growth consumer, mobile, and computer end markets.

The noble metal processes facility began construction in late 2011, and was completed on schedule. The full equipment set is installed and being qualified for production.

X-FAB has manufactured and shipped 1 billion MEMS devices, since production began in 1995. Used in consumer, automotive and medical applications, MEMS made at X-FAB include gyroscopes, pressure sensors, accelerometers, microfluidic devices, thermopiles, and CMOS-integrated MEMS sensors and wafer-level packaged (WLP) devices. Improvements to its MEMS capacity include adding 8” wafer capability and the new noble metals processing unit, as well as ready-to-use design IP blocks, said Iain Rutherford, business line manager for X-FAB’s MEMS foundry service.

X-FAB will discuss these new MEMS achievements at Sensors Expo, Booth 826, on June 6-7 in Rosemont, IL.

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, TX; and Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia with approximately 2,400 employees worldwide. For more information, visit www.xfab.com.

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