'World's most advanced' analogue manufacturing facilty announced

According to TI, the fab, known as 'RFAB', will be the world's only production facility to use 300mm silicon wafers to manufacture analogue chips. This will allow high volume production, as thousands of analogue chips can be etched onto each of these wafers. Rich Templeton, TI's chairman, president and ceo, said: "The time is right for this investment. Customer demand for analogue chips is growing and there's tremendous desire to save energy and protect the environment. The chips produced here will help our customers make thousands of electronic products that are more energy efficient. It is significant that these devices will be made here, in North Texas, in one of the industry's most environmentally responsible fabs." Templeton added that TI plans to ship the first chips from this facility by the end of 2010. He noted that when the first phase of equipment is ramped and producing at full capacity, the facility will be capable of shipping over $1billion worth of analogue chips per year. The RFAB facility will result in the creation of approximately 350 jobs.