X-FAB Acquires Majority Share in MFI / MFI Renamed as X-FAB MEMS Foundry Itzehoe

ERFURT, GERMANY--(Marketwire - November 01, 2012) -  X-FAB Silicon Foundries today announced it has increased its share in the German-based MEMS Foundry Itzehoe GmbH (MFI) from 25.5 percent to 51 percent -- becoming the majority shareholder -- and also renamed MFI as X-FAB MEMS Foundry Itzehoe. 

These moves reflect X-FAB's focus on MEMS manufacturing services and technologies. The Itzehoe site complements the MEMS capabilities and resources of the recently announced X-FAB MEMS Foundry in Erfurt, adding technologies for micro sensors, actuators, micro-optical structures and hermetic wafer-level packaging processes.

X-FAB MEMS Foundry Itzehoe will continue its long-term cooperation with the Fraunhofer ISIT MEMS Group to accelerate the exploitation and commercialization of existing and emerging technologies, applications and intellectual property for automotive and other markets.

According to Thomas Hartung, vice president of marketing at X-FAB Group, "Our customers will benefit from both an even wider spectrum of available MEMS technologies and from direct access to X-FAB's manufacturing facilities for CMOS-compatible MEMS processes. X-FAB MEMS Foundry Itzehoe will play an important role in the implementation of our MEMS strategy, and brings us closer to our goal of becoming one of the top three pure-play MEMS foundry providers."

"The rich combination of the versatile MEMS-specific technology portfolio at the Itzehoe-based MEMS foundry and the development expertise of Fraunhofer ISIT greatly expands the capabilities of X-FAB's technology offering," said Dr. Peter Merz, managing director of X-FAB MEMS Foundry Itzehoe. "We are delighted to provide the full bandwidth of MEMS technologies including vacuum and optical wafer-level packaging or TSV backed by X-FAB's existing and well-proven foundry services. This integration brings X-FAB customers bundled and accelerated product development and manufacturing cycles for micro-machined devices such as inertial sensors, micro-mirrors and piezoelectric transducers."

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, Dresden and Itzehoe (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, as well as MEMS 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.

Acronyms

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BiCMOS    Bipolar junction transistor and CMOS transistor integration       
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CMOS      Complementary metal oxide semiconductor                           
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MEMS      Microelectromechanical systems                                    
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TSV       Through silicon via                                               
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X-FAB Press Contacts

Thomas Hartung
VP Marketing
X-FAB Silicon Foundries
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www.xfab.com

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Dagmar Berendes
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Sarah Miller
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