Newport Wafer Fabmanufactures semiconductor devices for automotive, medical, industrial, consumer, telecom and high power solutions.
Also, Newport Wafer Fab is a silicon and compound semiconductor foundry in Wales which was bought in July 2021 by Chinese-owned firm Nexperia.
As well as being the UK’s largest semiconductor plant, Newport Wafer Fab was one of the anchor companies for the UK’s first compound semiconductor innovation cluster, CSConnected.
As the chip foundry for CSConnected, NWF was a partner in at least 14 Innovate UK programmes to develop gallium nitride (GaN) and photonics devices, including a project to develop high-frequency GaN designs for 5G defence radar systems.
China’s 14th Five Year Plan (2021-2025) specifically identifies compound semiconductors as an area where China could take the lead in a field where it isn’t as far behind as it is in conventional silicon-based chipmaking.
