September 19, 2012 — LFoundry, a semiconductor foundry specialist based in Landshut, Germany, and Rousset, France, says it will invest a total of €25 million in R&D and innovative projects over the next three years. The push is due to " the materialization of several large-scale projects," according to the company.
The company cites several recent technology results, include:
— Availability of LF110 PDK (process design kit) for semiconductors production using its 110nm Al process with an optional 90nm Flash and image sensor technology. The PDK was released in May, and early-stage multi-project wafers are now running in the line. The PDK took two years of development and over €4M in R&D, the company says.
— Implementation of findings from the IMPROVE (Implementing Manufacturing science solutions to increase equiPment pROductiVity and fab performance) project, which was a finalist in the Best Project Awards under the European Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development FP5, FP6, and FP7.
LFoundry swung to a profit (EBITDA) of €1.5M in 2Q12 (for a 6% profit margin) on roughly €24M in sales. At the end of 2011 it had several customer and partner agreements in security, defense, and space, and projected 40% revenue growth and gross margins "above 10%" over the next three years.
LFoundry claims about 20,000 wafers/month manufacturing capacity (200mm wafers) for analog/mixed-signal and specialized silicon foundry services. It bought Atmel’s ASIC wafer fab in Rousset in Sept. 2010, two years after taking over Renesas Europe’s operations.