Fairchild to spend $143 million in U.S. fab expansion
Silicon Strategies
02/19/2004, 1:00 PM ET
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--In a move to meet demand for its discrete power lines, Fairchild Semiconductor International today (February 19, 2004) announced a $143 million expansion plan for its 8-inch fab in Mountaintop, Penn.
The expansion includes refurbishing a 15,000-square-foot clean room and installing tools, in an effort to increase Fairchild's production capacity, particularly for its discrete power line. Upon completion, the plant will be capable of producing 1,200 wafers per day.
Some of Fairchild's discrete power products manufactured at Mountaintop include IGBT products and MOSFETs.
Fairchild will also create 320 new jobs over four years. The announcement was made today with the State of Pennsylvania, offering an Opportunity Grant financial package including an initial grant of $1 million over two fiscal years.
The move follows strong growth for its discrete power chip lines, said Kirk Pond, Fairchild's president, CEO and chairman. "Our bookings are running at their highest level in more than three years, and we want to ensure Fairchild has the capacity to meet this increased demand for power solutions," Pond said in a statement.
"Total power component sales now represent 72 percent of our revenue. By increasing our operational efficiency through modernizing our factories, increasing our capacity at Mountaintop, and ramping our new Suzhou, China assembly and test facility, we are well poised to meet increased end market demand," Pond concluded. |
