Strong demand prompts Cypress Semi to beef up Minnesota fab
By EBN staff
Electronic Buyers' News
(02/25/00, 03:01:33 PM EDT)
Cypress Semiconductor Corp. is beefing up its manufacturing capacity to the tune of $210 million to meet growing demand from its networking and telecommunications customers, the company said today.
The San Jose chip maker said it will expand its Bloomington, Minn., subsidiary, Cypress Semiconductor Minnesota Inc. (CMI), and transition to 0.21- and 0.16-micron process geometries at a plant there, known as Fab IV. Cypress also will increase its head count at the site by150 employees to a total of 600.
The combined moves are expected to more than double capacity at the facility, which accounts for about 42% of the company's total unit volume.
Cypress said it is aiming to grow by more than 50% this year and expects to break the $1 billion revenue mark. The company posted revenue of $705.5 million in its latest fiscal year, a 27.1% increase over the prior year.
"This is the logical next step in a capacity expansion plan launched by Cypress in early 1999, well ahead of the current demand crush," said Peter Mitchell, operations director for Fab IV in Bloomington. "Our early response to a rapid change in industry conditions, combined with record levels of new product sales, have enabled Cypress to eclipse robust industry growth by a substantial amount."
Renewed growth is a welcome sight for the Bloomington facility, which bore the brunt of an $85 million restructuring Cypress undertook in March 1998. Hobbled at the time by trailing-edge process technology, the company closed Fab III in Minnesota, ceased all SRAM manufacturing at its plant in Round Rock, Texas, and moved all memory production to the Fab IV facility.
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