China’s Silex announces fab to make MEMS on 300mm wafers

News | May 2, 2024

By Peter Clarke

Sweden MEMS wafer fab

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Chinese-owned Silex Microsystems AB (Järfälla, Sweden), the world’s largest pure-play foundry for MEMS components, has announced it plans to build a 300mm wafer fab.

The fab will be located close to Silex’ existing 200mm wafer fab at its headquarters in Järfälla, Sweden. The fab will be set up to enable the wafer-level integration of CMOS and MEMS die, the company said in a statement.

Edvard Kälvesten, CEO and founder of Silex, said: “The introduction of this new wafer size will vastly increase production capacity as we work to realize the innovations of the world’s leading MEMS innovators. At Silex, we pride ourselves on remaining at the cutting-edge of technological advancement, and the introduction of the 12-inch wafer processing capabilities will allow us to lead the field and remain the number-one pure-play MEMS foundry globally.”

The company did not provide information about the construction of the wafer fab, its planned manufacturing capacity, or a start date for the production of components.

While wafer fabs for production of advanced logic can cost billions of US dollars wafer fabs for MEMS use relaxed geometries and much lower cost equipment. Such a fab could be created for several tens of millions of US dollars. For example, Menlo Microsystems Inc. (Irvine, Calif.), previously a customer of Silex, has said it will spend US$50 million over several years building up a wafer fab for MEMS RF and power switches in Ithaca, New York. Production is due to begin in 2024 (see Menlo Micro sites MEMS fab in New York state).

Silex Microsystems was acquired by Chinese interests in 2015 and is now a subsidiary of Sai Microelectronics Inc. which is listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange.