KUCHING: European chipmaker X-FAB Silicon Foundries SE is increasing its production capacity by 10,000 wafers per month with the completion of a major capacity expansion project at its Sarawak wafer fabrication (fab) in Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone here.
Monthly production by X-FAB Sarawak Sdn Bhd will increase to 40,000 wafers from 30,000 wafers.
The expansion project involved the construction of a new building and clean room, which were completed late last year, and the focus in the first half of 2025 was on equipping the new clean room.
“All the equipment has been delivered and is at different stages of installation and qualification,” X-FAB Silicon Foundries said in a statement on its financial results for the second quarter of 2025 (2Q25).
“A number of tools and machines have successfully completed qualification, allowing for a phased ramp-up of X-FAB’s 180nm complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) production from the 3Q25 onwards.
“The expansion provides sufficient capacity to serve current and future customer demand for this popularity technology, which is key to supporting X-FAB’s CMOS and microsystems business going forward,” the statement added.
For 2Q25, X-FAB posted revenue of US$215.3mil, up 5% year-on-year (y-o-y) and 5% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q).
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation stood at US$51.6mil, up 7% y-o-y and 4% q-o-q.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is scheduled to officiate the opening of the new building and clean room on Sept 12.
X-FAB Sarawak, formerly known as 1st Silicon, opened its plant in 1998 as Malaysia’s first semiconductor manufacturing facility.
1st Silicon later merged with X-FAB and was renamed X-FAB Sarawak in 2006.
The Sarawak operation currently has about 1,500 employees, 90% of whom are Sarawakians.
X-FAB is a global foundry group providing a comprehensive set of specialty technologies and design intellectual property to enable its customers to develop world-leading semiconductor products that are manufacturered at X-FAB’s six-wafer fabs located in Sarawak, Germany, France and the United States.
With its expertise in analog/mixed-signal technologies, microsystems/MEMS and silicon carbide, X-FAB is the development and manufacturing partner for its customers, primarily serving the automotive, industrial and medical end markets.
In 2023, X-FAB Silicon Foundries launched a three-year expansion programme with total investment of more than US$1bil for its wafer fabs in Sarawak, France and the United States.
According to Rudi De Winter, the company’s chief executive officer, the majority of these investments were made in the expansion of the company’s popular 180nm CMOS platform, for which demand has been holding up well.
“The additional capacity is essential to support the needs of our customers and the strong new business pipeline going forward,” he said in the company’s 2024 annual report.
He said X-FAB France had made good progress in ramping up production with the expansion project.
In addition to complementing the 180nm CMOS capacity of X-FAB Sarawak, X-FAB France’s expansion will also support the business of X-FAB’s new state-of-the-art 110nm VCD-on-SOI technology.
X-FAB’s three-year programme to expand manufacturing capacity across the group was completed in 2Q25.
“As X-FAB’s business is no longer constrained by capacity and factory cycle times have shortened, customers place orders later than usual and more frequently at short notice, resulting in a reduced visibility.
“The backlog for 2Q25 amounted to US$412.9mil, compared to US$386.7mil at the end of the previous quarter,” said the chipmaker.
