News Article
Scottish Wafer fab expansion to make more MEMS for worldwide integration
Semefab has operated its semiconductor Wafer Fab 1 in Scotland, UK for over twenty one years fabricating CMOS, ASIC and Discrete process technologies.
Semefab has operated its semiconductor Wafer Fab 1 in Scotland, UK for over twenty one years fabricating CMOS, ASIC and Discrete process technologies. The company expanded in 2000 adding Wafer Fab 2 for the fabrication of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and now supports a global customer base. In November 2006 Semefab, was awarded funds to create a wafer fab node for Micro and Nanotechnology (MNT). A £6.6m publicly funded capital expenditure investment, matched by a further £6.6m contribution directly from Semefab, created a strategy to regain the UK's position in MEMS technology. Executing the first phase of the investment, Semefab has expanded fab 2 by 29% and is presently installing new MEMS fabrication equipment with a scheduled fully operational date of February 2008. The "open-access" service supports UK, Mainland Europe, North America and Israeli companies and academia. In August 2007, Semefab acquired the building adjacent to its Fab 1 & Fab 2 operations. This acquisition enables the next expansion phase allowing Semefab to create an 871m2 cleanroom floorspace (3000m2 total) for MEMS front end processing. Wafer Fab 3 is scheduled to be operational by January 2009. This significant acquisition allows expansion on the same site as Fab 1 & Fab 2 and also provides additional office space for Semefab's growing team of personnel. Combining a MEMS development and production operation with an existing CMOS / ASIC operation enables process integration and a diverse range of opportunity. With a healthy pipeline of projects, SemeMEMS is active in membrane sensors, inertia sensors, renewable energy, microfluidics, medtech and energy harvesting amongst others.