$100m semiconductor tool centre for Wales
KLA is to break ground tomorrow on a $100m R&D and production plant for its SPTS division in Newport, Wales.
The investment will create a 200,000 square foot facility with offices, cleanrooms, storage and support facilities and accommodate up to 750 employees. The innovation centre will provide over 25,000 square feet of cleanrooms for R&D and more than 35,000 square feet of bespoke manufacturing assembly halls. With groundbreaking tomorrow at the new site, the building is due to be completed early in 2025.
SPTS tools for fanout are increasingly important for chiplet packaging.
“We are investing in the new site to support SPTS’s growth and to establish additional facilities for the wider KLA European organization,” said Oreste Donzella, executive vice president of the Electronics, Packaging and Components (EPC) Group, at KLA in California.
The groundbreaking at KLA in Newport on October 5th
Orbotech of Israel bought SPTS from private equity backers in 2014 and was itself bought by KLA in 2019.
“Expanding in South Wales allows us to tap into the region’s attractive talent pool and benefits from an appealing quality of life with access to many international sporting events, historic parks and outdoor activities. This area is also home to some of UK’s leading universities and research institutes with strong semiconductor competencies and industry ties for collaborative research,” said Donzella.
Rick Wallace, CEO of KLA said the expansion would build on expertise in advance packaging and compound semiconductor processing technologies.
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Welsh Government Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething, said: “We will continue to support and grow Wales’ semiconductor cluster and to ensure we are maximizing the regional and global opportunities of this cutting-edge technology.”
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