Plessey Semiconductor, the recently launched Plymouth-based chip manufacturer is already planning to expand its business and is looking to take on more staff.
Plessey is expected to start recruiting designers, wafer fab engineers and other staff as it expands its chip design activities alongside its semiconductor foundry business operation at its Roborough fab in Devon.
“Potentially we could be looking for between 20 and 30 recruits at Roborough,” Paul James, Plessey’s commercial director told EW.
The company will centre all its design and production at the Roborough facility following the closure of its facility in Swindon later this year.
The company is transferring design teams and two production lines to Roborough.
This will mean the facility will have a work force of around 175. James said this number will increase on the coming months as the company expands its chip design activities.
According to James, the company has identified a market for its high performance analogue technology.
“We have been receiving very positive responses from the market about our plans to support both our existing foundry customers and to engage new customers with exciting new product releases,” said James.
“The first of these product families is on schedule for release later in 2010,” said James.
See: Welcome Back Plessey Semiconductors
The Roborough facility is currently operated as a foundry service producing eight-inch wafers on 0.35-micron CMOS process technologies.
The facility, which will employ 175 staff, has a capacity of 30,000 8-inch wafers a year.
The new company is now transferring three bipolar lines on both silicon and silicon-on-insulator substrates into the Roborough facility.
The new company includes a number of employees who started their careers in Plessey working in various sites around the UK.