X-FAB Completes Noble Metal MEMS Facility with in-House Gold Processing; Ships Billionth MEMS Device
June 04 2012 - 6:30AM
Business Wire
X-FAB Silicon Foundries today announced two major MEMS
milestones: completion of its dedicated noble metal facility for
MEMS and post-CMOS processing – and shipment of its billionth MEMS
device. X-FAB will discuss these new MEMS achievements at the
upcoming Sensors Expo on June 6 and 7, 2012, in Booth #826, at the
Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill.
The new facility, built specifically for the processing of MEMS,
extends X-FAB’s existing MEMS capabilities in Erfurt, Germany, and
initially adds gold deposition and patterning capability. It can
handle approximately 100,000 wafers a year and will process MEMS
devices for the rapidly expanding consumer, mobile and computer
markets. Work began on the noble metal facility at the end of 2011
and was completed this month on schedule. The full equipment set is
installed and being qualified for production.
Iain Rutherford, Business Line Manager for X-FAB’s MEMS foundry
service, commented, “With today’s announcement of the new noble
metal facility, we further demonstrate our commitment to MEMS
manufacturing and, along with our earlier addition of 8-inch MEMS
capability, we add even more value to the wafer manufacturing
process. Since 1995, we have manufactured and shipped a billion
MEMS devices, including gyroscopes, accelerometers, pressure
sensors, thermopiles and microfluidic devices, as well as CMOS
integrated MEMS sensors and wafer-level packaged devices for
consumer, automotive and medical applications. The addition of the
new MEMS facility reflects our passion to fully support our
customers with MEMS, sensors and analog/mixed-signal technology
foundry services.”
About X-FAB
X-FAB is the leading analog/mixed-signal foundry group
manufacturing silicon wafers for analog-digital integrated circuits
(mixed-signal ICs). X-FAB maintains wafer production facilities in
Erfurt and Dresden (Germany); Lubbock, Texas (U.S.); and Kuching,
Sarawak (Malaysia); and employs approximately 2,400 people
worldwide. Wafers are manufactured based on advanced modular CMOS
and BiCMOS processes with technologies ranging from 1.0 to 0.13
micrometers, for applications primarily in the automotive,
communications, consumer and industrial sectors. For more
information, please visit www.xfab.com.