X-Fab

The X-FAB Silicon Foundries is a group of semiconductor foundries. The group specializes in the fabrication of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for fabless semiconductor companies, as well as MEMS and solutions for high voltage applications.^[1] The holding company named "X-FAB Silicon Foundries SE" is based in Tessenderlo, Belgium while its headquarters is located in Erfurt, Germany.^[2]

As a result of the German reunification in the 1990s, came to the dismantling of the old electronics conglomerate in East Germany named Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt . The conglomerate was privatized in 1992 and divided into X-FAB Gesellschaft zur Fertigung von Wafern mbH (simply known as X-Fab) and the Thesys Gesellschaft für Mikroelektronik mbH (simply known as Thesys). X-Fab would be majority owned by the company Melexis  [fr] while Thesys would be majority owned by the German state of Thuringia.^{[3] [4]}

In 1999, X-Fab acquired a foundry from Texas Instruments in Lubbock, Texas, USA.^[2] In the same year, X-Fab (at this time owned by Belgian holding company named Elex N.V)^[3] acquired Thesys and disposed of its non-foundry business.^[2]

In 2002, X-Fab acquired Zarlink wafer plant in Plymouth, United Kingdom.^[2]

In 2006, X-Fab merged with 1st Silicon, a semiconductor fabrication plant located in Sarawak, Malaysia. The Sarawak government acquired 35% of X-Fab shares in the merger.^[5]

In 2007, X-Fab acquired the foundry business from ZMD, thus enabling ZMD to focus on its core business of design and developing analog mixed signal devices.^[6]

In December 2009, X-Fab sold its United Kingdom wafer plant to Plus Semi, the old Plessey Semiconductors plant in Swindon, England.^[7]

In February 2011, the company added Rudi De Winter as co-CEO. He later assumed the role of CEO in 2014.^[8]

In 2012, the X-Fab group acquired MEMS foundry Itzehoe GmbH where the latter was a spin-off from Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology (ISIT). Nevertheless, X-Fab continues its cooperation with ISIT in the chip business.^{[9] [10]} X-Fab also expanded its MEMS manufacturing capabilities. The foundry in Itzehoe became fully owned by X-Fab in 2015.^[2]

In 2015, PowerAmerica (a research institute under Manufacturing USA network) collaborated with X-Fab production facility in Lubbock, Texas to produce 150-mm Silicon carbide wafers for power electronics applications.^[11]

In 2016, the X-FAB group acquired the assets of Altis Semiconductor, making the fab in France their sixth manufacturing site.^[12]

In July 2020, X-FAB temporarily halted IT systems and production lines to prevent damage following a Maze ransomware attack.^[13]

The main shareholders of X-Fab Silicon Foundries are Xtrion NV (61.4%) and Sarawak Technology Holdings Sdn Bhd (35.2%).^{[14] [4]} In 2017, X-Fab made an initial public offering (IPO) in France, where 36.2% of the shares were available for purchase. Meanwhile, Xtrion reduced its shareholdings to 48.3% and Sarawak Technology Holdings reduced its shares to 14.4%.^[4] Xtrion NV also holds majority shares in Melexis, where the latter is a major customer for X-Fab. Meanwhile, Sarawak Technology Holdings Sdn Bhd is a wholly owned subsidiary of the government of Sarawak.^[14] Both Xtrion and Sarawak Technology Holdings have the power to appoint two directors each onto the board of directors of X-Fab.^[14] X-Fab revenue reached US$ 512.9 million in 2016.^[4]

As of 2017, X-Fab has six wafer plants around the world, with production capacity of 9,4000 200-mm sized wafers, ranging from 800 nm process to 130 nm process:^[4]

• Erfurt, Germany - producing CMOS semiconductors and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS devices) from 200-mm wafers ^[15]
• Dresden, Germany - producing CMOS semiconductors from 200-mm wafers^[16]
• Itzehoe, Germany - producing MEMS devices from 200-mm wafers^[17]
• Corbeil-Essonnes, France - producing 180-nm CMOS semiconductors^[18]
• Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia - producing CMOS semiconductors from 200-mm wafers^[19]
• Lubbock, Texas, United States - producing CMOS and BiCMOS semiconductors from 150-mm wafers^[20]

X-Fab employs a total of 2,946 people in all its production facilities as of 2016.^[4]

X-fab's chips are used in automotive, industrial, consumer, and medical industries.^[1] As of 2016, X-Fab's European/Middle East customers accounted for 54% of the sales, followed by Asia (36%) and North America (10%).^[4] The biggest buyer of X-Fab's chips is Melexis (34%).^{[4] [14]} Other buyers of X-Fab chips are: Goodix, Lite-On, Micronas, Sensata, Integrated Device Technology, Knowles Electronics, and others.^[2] Russian buyers for X-Fab chips were: CJSC PKK Milander, KTTS "Electronics", VZPP-S, VZPP-Mikron, and OJSC NII Electronic Engineering (NIIET).^[21]

In 2022 X-Fab licensed a 130 nm siGe BiCMOS platform from the Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics(IHP).^{[22] [23]} Beforehand, X-Fabs products were already being used in IHPs SG13S and SG13G2 chips.^[24]

• Pure-Play Semiconductor Foundry
• List of semiconductor fabrication plants

• Foundry semiconductor companies
• Semiconductor companies of Germany
• Companies based in Erfurt
• German brands
• Companies listed on Euronext Paris

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata