The Queen opened the fab in 1991 and Fujitsu did very well out of it on the back of the 4Mbit DRAM and had fully depreciated its $580 million investment by 1998 when it was closed during a massive market oversupply of 64Mbit DRAM.
In 1999 the fab was bought by Filtronic and then went through a succession of owners – RF Micro Devices in 2008, Compound Photonics in 2013, Kaiam Corp in 2017 and, later that year II-VI, later renamed Coherent, bought the the fab to make GaAs RF and opto chips for comms, aerospace & defence customers including a VCSEL IC for 3D sensing used for face recognition in iPhones. However, earlier this year, Apple ended the contract.
“Divesting the Newton Aycliffe plant is part of our effort to optimise our portfolio and streamline our operations, which allows us to focus our investment and capital on the areas of greatest long-term growth and profitability,” says Coherent CEO Jim Anderson.
The fab, says the MoD is “the only secure facility in the UK with the skills and capability to manufacture GaAs semiconductors”.
“This acquisition is a clear signal that our government will back British defence production,” says Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey, “we’ll protect and grow our UK defence supply chain, supporting North East jobs, safeguarding crucial tech for our Armed Forces and boosting our national security.”
The fab currently employs about 100 people.
