$700m boost for Nexperia fabs in Hamburg and Manchester
Nexperia is to spend $700m over the next 12 to 15 months on its European wafer fabs, assembly factories in Asia and global R&D sites. This is equivalent to half its annual sales, where the company has a focus on individual transistors and small logic device..
The investment will boost manufacturing capacity at all its sites while supporting research and development into areas such as gallium nitride (GaN) FETs and power management ICs. It will also underpin recruitment activities, with Nexperia looking to attract new chip designers and engineers.
“This is an exciting time in the global semiconductor market, which has mounted a resurgence since the challenges of the first half of last year,” says Achim Kempe, Nexperia’s Chief Operating Officer. “Nexperia reported robust product sales of $1.4bn in 2020, with demand accelerating rapidly in Q3 and Q4. That momentum has been maintained so far this year, and we expect it to continue over the long term. The $700 million investment will ensure that we continue to provide the technology and manufacturing capacity needed to deliver products in volumes that support increasing demand.”
The fab in Hamburg currently produces 35,000 8-inch-equivalent wafers per month, which is 70bn billion semiconductor devices a year. This will increase by 20 percent from mid-2022. Nexperia’s dedicated TrenchMOS power device plant in Manchester will boost capacity by 10 per cent by mid-2022 from the current 24,000 8-inch-equivalent wafers per month. The fab is just about to ship its first TrenchMOS device from a new 8in wafer line
There will also be a significant expansion of research and development activities, with new laboratories and other facilities across all sites. This includes Nexperia’s headquarters in Nijmegen, where the Analog & Logic business group is located. Recruitment activities will be stepped up, as Nexperia looks to fill over 200 global vacancies primarily across various technical roles.
“Even before the pandemic started, Nexperia had a strong global growth strategy in place,” said Toni Versluijs, general manager of Nexperia’s MOSFETs and GaN FETs business. “These efforts are now paying off. An example is the imminent release of our first power MOSFETs from the new 8-inch production line in Manchester. As the recovery continues, we are committed to ongoing investment in products, processes and people across our factories and R&D facilities. This sustained activity reflects our belief in the long-term prospects for the power semiconductor sector.”
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