X-FAB Silicon Foundries and Swindon-based Plus Semi have agreed on the sale of X-FAB’s wafer fabrication plant in Plymouth to Plus Semi.
X-FAB had decided that the former Plessey wafer fab at Roborough near Plymouth was not a strategically important facility, representing as it did less than 5% of the German foundry's total capacity.
So the company had decided to close the facility if a buyer was not found.
The new owner, Plus Semi has plans to expand its analogue business and the Roborough fab and licence agreement with X-FAB will allow it to achieve this aim.
In May, Plus Semi acquired the former Plessey fab at Swindon along with IP from MHS Electronics UK, which was in administration.
“This has been the culmination of an enormous effort from all concerned to bring these two former Plessey businesses, Plymouth and Swindon, together again. We have retained our key engineering competence within a design and technology centre in Swindon with approximately 20 employees,” said Michael LeGoff, Plus Semi managing director.
LeGoff and the Plus Semi management team were the driving force behind the Zarlink analog foundry which derived from Plessey Semiconductors based in Swindon.
"Together with the 150 people we will employ at the Plymouth facility we have an exciting opportunity to find significant growth in semiconductor design and manufacture in the lucrative analog/mixed-signal semiconductor markets," said LeGoff.
Plus Semi has developed a strategy for the design and production of a number of high performance analog products including op amps, prescalers & dividers.
“We are glad to have reached a solution that continues operation and maintains jobs at the site in Plymouth, outside the X-FAB organisation. The sale is an important milestone for optimizing the X-FAB Group’s capacities,” said Hans-Jürgen Straub, CEO of X-FAB Group.
The agreement to transfer ownership of X-FAB UK to Plus Semi has been signed by both parties, closing is expected by the end of 2009.