Minebea Mitsumi acquires Omron’s of 8-inch fab

Analog semiconductors are one of the important components driving IoT technologies; which also happens to be a business area which Minebea Mitsumi focuses on. The company says in a press release that it intends to further expand its analog semiconductor business by enhancing its product portfolio and entering new application markets. However, as the company states, there is a currecnt need to eliminate the shortage of production capacity in pre-process and to realise product strategies. Which is also why the company aimed to acquire an 8 inch pre-process plant. “Furthermore, the acquisition of such a plant has become an urgent issue because of the acceleration of the production capacity shortage due to a recent increase in demand for semiconductors,” the press release reads. Though the semiconductor / MEMS plant of the Omron has mainly manufactured MEMS products, the plant has the 8-inch semiconductor pre-process capable of manufacturing analogue ICs, which will contribute to the Minebea Mitsumi’s target of production capacity enhancement in terms of process, proprietary technologies, size, operators' skills and so on. With the acquisition, the Minebea Mitsumi will be able to obtain the 8-inch production base, which is necessary to strengthen the competitiveness of the its semiconductor business in the future, and secure the realisation of the analogue semiconductor business's growth target. After the business acquisition, the company says will build a production system for approximately 20’000 8-inch wafers per month at the plant by investing more than JPY 10 billion (EUR 76.6 million) as a first step for capacity increase. “Thereafter, as there is further room for expansion at the plant, we intend to increase its capacity in accordance with demand etc. In this manner, we will build up a new core plant for MinebeaMitsumi Group's pre-process and contribute to the strengthening of the domestic supply chain for analogue semiconductors as well,” the company writes.