Merged Taiwanese foundry to ramp capacity
WIN Semiconductors and Global Communication Technology (GCT) have joined forces to create Taiwan s biggest GaAs foundry.
With WIN scheduled to ramp monthly production at its 6-inch facility from the current level of 1100 to 1600 wafers, the additional GCT capacity will give the combined company a monthly capacity of 2600 wafers.
That makes it larger than its one remaining Taiwanese rival - Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Company (AWSC), which makes GaAs HBTs primarily.
Announced during last week s Compound Semiconductor Week held in Monterey, California, the merger comes almost exactly one year after GCT announced that it would merge with US-based Global Communication Semiconductor (GCS).
However, for reasons that have yet to be made clear, the planned GCT-GCS merger never took place. One possibility is that GCS links to the US military affected the deal.
The latest deal comes after the collapse of Suntek in the wake of the Procomp Informatics scandal
