On June 24th, Italian French Semiconductor (ST) and the world's leading analog chip foundry, Tower Semiconductor, announced an agreement, welcoming TowerSemi to join their Agrate R3 12 inch wafer factory in Agrate Brianza, Italy.
ST and TowerSemi will work together to accelerate the capacity increase of wafer factories, improve capacity utilization, and reduce wafer costs. Both parties will share the clean room of R3, and TowerSemi will install its own equipment within one-third of the total factory space. The wafer factory is expected to complete equipment installation later this year and begin production in the second half of 2022.
According to official information from ST, ST and TowerSemi will share a clean room and certain infrastructure. The two companies will invest in their respective process equipment and work together to accelerate the increase in wafer factory production capacity.
Operations will continue to be managed by ST, and selected TowerSemi personnel will be seconded to ST for specific roles to support wafer factory certification and production growth, as well as other engineering and process roles.
It is reported that in the early stages of cooperation between the two parties, the planned products mainly include 130nm, 90nm, and 65nm processes for smart power supplies, analog mixed signals, and RF processes. The products in these technologies will mainly be used in automotive, industrial, and personal electronic applications.
Jean Marc Chery, President and CEO of Italian Semiconductor, stated: The key indicator of the industrial and economic performance of a wafer factory is its utilization rate. With TowerSemi, we have a good simulation, power supply, and mixed signal batch manufacturing partner, which will enable us to quickly verify and increase the production capacity of the Age R3 12 inch wafer factory. This can achieve optimal utilization of the wafer factory almost from the early stages of production. Compared to the original production capacity estimate for 2018 when we launched this project Under the comprehensive expansion of the wafer factory, the production capacity may even increase. He also said, "The products manufactured by Agrate R3 will support the automotive, industrial, and personal electronics markets. In the medium to long term, they will help alleviate the tension of chip shortages in widespread applications
Russell Ellwanger, CEO of TowerSemi, commented: We are pleased to announce the establishment of a partnership with Italy France Semiconductor. ST is renowned for its leading technology, excellent operations, and corporate integrity. We look forward to our joint success. We have strong execution capabilities in advanced 65 nm RF analog chips, power platforms, displays, and other technologies, and will work together in Agrate to more than double the production capacity of TowerSemi's 12 inch foundry to better meet our needs The growing demand from customers
To implement the project, TowerSemi will establish a wholly-owned Italian subsidiary. As the project progresses, TowerSemi will provide detailed information on its important capital expenditure investment plan and investment amount.