Anson Mae Sold Two More Fabs
OnSemi Inc. (Phoenix, Ariz.), a supplier of power and mixed-signal chips, is reportedly selling two more 200-mm fabs as part of its restructuring.
Fab broker ATREG Inc. (Seattle, Wash.) announced the closing of the sale of Anson's 200mm fab in Pocatello, Idaho, to Los Angeles Semiconductor. Meanwhile, Nikkei Asia reported that a Japanese private equity fund will buy On Semi's 200mm wafer fab in Niigata, Japan.
The Japanese fund is backed by the Development Bank of Japan and trading firm Itochu Corp, Nikkei said, adding that the plant will start in December as a contract factory for the contract manufacturing of power semiconductors for electric vehicles and appliances.
The plant will maintain its current headcount of about 600 people, but its name and the amount it will pay OnSemi were not disclosed.
LA Semiconductor is a subsidiary of Linear ASICs Inc. (Tallmadge, Ohio), which itself has 25 years of experience in providing ASIC design services and expertise in analog and mixed-signal semiconductors.
Founded in 2022, LA Semiconductor describes itself as the newest owned and operated foundry in the U.S. for pure analog, mixed-signal, and power chips with production capacity as low as 180nm.
Located on a 33-acre campus with over 50,000 square feet of cleanroom space and over 550,000 square feet of building space, the Pocatello facility currently produces 0.35 to 1.5 microns of analog CMOS, BCD, advanced discrete and custom technologies.
"This divestment is a continuation of OnSemi's fab-liter manufacturing strategy to achieve sustainable financial performance by increasing our product capacity in key markets such as automotive and industrial," said Wei-Chung Wang, Executive Vice President, Global Manufacturing and Operations, Anson & Mays. OnSemi said in a statement.
Anson Mae has already sold two factories
Anson Mae had actually sold two plants earlier.
Earlier this year, Onsemi sold its Oudenaarde, Belgium, wafer factory to startup BelGaN Group to convert the original 6-inch wafer factory into a 6-inch and 8-inch gallium nitride (GaN) foundry for the automotive, mobile, industrial and energy markets.
According to eeNews, BelGaN, based in Mechelen, Belgium, is a joint venture between two Hong Kong-listed companies Rockley Management(HK) and Wuxi Group and was established on September 30, 2021 by the current CEO Alan Zhou. Rockley Group is a venture capital and consulting institution with headquarters in Oxford, UK and Shanghai, China respectively. Rockley Group is also an early investor of Rockeley Photonics.
BelGaN is set up to buy a fab called Oudernaarde, which was put up for sale two years ago. Previously, the latter has successively recruited top management personnel of the Oudenaarde plant, and stressed that the future will retain the current 400 employees at the plant; The company also lists 15 full-time positions on its website and will expand its recruitment of engineers and operators.
Although details of the transaction were not disclosed by the parties, on its fourth quarter 2021 earnings report, Anson Semiconductor noted that it completed a business and related intellectual property transaction for a total of $13.6 million on October 1, 2021, and further noted that it completed the Oudenaarde Fab asset transaction on February 8, 2022.
BelGaN aims to produce 6-inch and 8-inch wafers and become Europe's leading supplier of GaN automotive semiconductors, according to the company's statement. An ecosystem of GAN-based chips and power electronics will also be established in Europe and elsewhere, primarily for markets including electric vehicles, mobile electronics, industrial, data centers, and renewable energy.
According to his profile, Alan Zhou received his master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Earlier in his career, he worked at AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Microelectronics and Agere Systems. Later, he served as Vice president at Qualcomm, where he was responsible for domestic product design and sales.
On the other hand, Anson Semiconductor, a leading international supplier of power management ics and sensors, announced an agreement with Diode Corporation to sell its South Portland, Maine, facility. With the acquisition of our South Portland facility, our 8-inch wafer line will be used to manufacture analog chip products for automotive and industrial applications. Diodes is a manufacturer of discrete, logic, and analog semiconductor products serving the consumer electronics, computer, communications, industrial, and automotive markets. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.
Anson Mae said the move is to execute its Fablite manufacturing strategy with the ultimate goal of increasing the company's gross margin. Hassane El-Khoury, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ansen Mae, said: "This proposed divestiture demonstrates how we are achieving an optimized manufacturing network while providing long-term supply assurance to our customers. "These transactions provide continued employment and growth opportunities for employees at the affected plants and allow for an orderly transition of production from these plants to our other manufacturing facilities."
