Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israeli company that manufactures

integrated circuits An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

using specialty process technologies, including SiGe,

BiCMOS Bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) is a semiconductor technology that integrates two semiconductor technologies, those of the bipolar junction transistor and the CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) logic gate, into a single integrated circuit. ...

Silicon Photonics Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometre precision, into microphotonic components. These operate in the infrared, most commo ...

SOI In Thailand, a ''soi'' ( ) is a side street that branches off of a major street (''thanon'', ). An alley is called a ''trok'' (). Overview Sois are usually numbered, and are referred to by the name of the major street and the number, as in "S ...

, mixed-signal and RFCMOS,

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss ", , ) is a type of MOSFET, metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) semiconductor device fabrication, fabrication process that uses complementary an ...

image sensors An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to form an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves (as they pass through or reflect off objects) into signals, small bursts of curren ...

, non-imaging sensors,

power management Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers, computer CPUs, computer GPUs and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power ...

(BCD), and

non-volatile memory Non-volatile memory (NVM) or non-volatile storage is a type of computer memory that can retain stored information even after power is removed. In contrast, volatile memory needs constant power in order to retain data. Non-volatile memory typ ...

(NVM) as well as

MEMS MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) is the technology of microscopic devices incorporating both electronic and moving parts. MEMS are made up of components between 1 and 100 micrometres in size (i.e., 0.001 to 0.1 mm), and MEMS devices ...

capabilities. Tower Semiconductor also owns 51% of TPSCo, an enterprise with Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan (NTCJ).

Overview

The company manufactures specialty analog integrated circuits for semiconductor companies such as:

On Semiconductor ON Semiconductor Corporation (stylized and doing business as onsemi) is an American semiconductor supplier company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Products include power and signal management, logic, discrete, and custom devices for automotive, c ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data cen ...

Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

, Teledyne,

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

, Skyworks Solutions,

Semtech Semtech Corporation is an American supplier of analog signal, analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms for consumer, enterprise computing, communications and industrial end-markets. It is based in Camarillo, California, Cam ...

and Vishay Siliconix. Moreover, the company also has Qualified open foundry Silicon Photonics platform which is used by companies such as Inphi Corporation. Tower Semiconductor operates several manufacturing facilities: Fab 2 (200mm) located in Migdal Haemek, Israel, Fab 3 and Fab 9 (200 mm) located in

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Located about southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Newport Beach is known for its sandy beaches. The city's harbor once supported maritime indu ...

and in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

, two additional fabs (200 mm and 300 mm) through TPSCo located in the

Hokuriku region The is located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lies along the Sea of Japan and is part of the larger Chūbu region. It is almost equivalent to the former Koshi Province (Japan), Koshi Province and Hokurikudō are ...

of Japan, and is sharing a 300 mm manufacturing facility in Italy with ST Microelectronics and has access to a 300mm capacity corridor in Intel’s New Mexico factory. In addition, Tower Semiconductor operates a worldwide design center in Netanya, Israel. Tower Semiconductor is an Israeli public company that is traded on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, both under the ticker TSEM, and is included in the TA-35 Index and the TA BlueTech Index. In 2010, Tower Semiconductor became the #1 specialty foundry by revenue, with 70% revenue growth year-over-year. On 15 February 2022, Intel announced that it was going to acquire Tower Semiconductor.

History

Tower Semiconductor was founded in 1993 and became a public company in 1994. Shares are traded on

(TSEM) and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TSEM). In January 2001, an adjacent facility (Fab 2) was constructed. In September 2008, Tower acquired Jazz Semiconductor. In November 2009, the combined companies took the name TowerJazz. In June 2011, TowerJazz acquired Micron Technology's fabrication facility in Nishiwaki City, Hyogo, Japan. The acquisition nearly doubled TowerJazz's 2010 internal manufacturing capacity and cost-effectively increased production by 60,000 wafers per month. In April 2014, TowerJazz announced the successful transaction with Panasonic Corporation (First Section of TSE and NSE ticker: 6752) to form a newly established Japanese company, TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor Co. (TPSCo) for the manufacture of Panasonic and additional third-party products. TowerJazz announced cessation of its Nishiwaki facility operations in the course of rationalizing and restructuring its manufacturing and business activities in Japan. This enables the company to reduce its annual fixed costs by approximately $130 million per annum. In February 2016, TowerJazz announced the successful acquisition of an 8-inch wafer fabrication facility in San Antonio, Texas, United States from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., the consideration, of $40 million was paid by approximately 3.3 million ordinary TowerJazz shares. This acquisition increased TowerJazz's production by 28,000 wafers per month. On 21 August 2017, TowerJazz, and Tacoma (

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

) Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd announced that TowerJazz received a first payment from Tacoma (Nanjing) according to their agreement for establishing a partnership to build a wafer fab in China. TowerJazz would provide its technical knowledge and project management skills, meanwhile Tacoma (Nanjing), and a Chinese regional authorities named Nanjing Economic and Technology Development Zone, would fully support and fund the project. On 22 June 2020, the Chinese court announced that Tacoma (Nanjing) Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd was in bankruptcy proceedings. On March 1, 2020, TowerJazz announced a new brand identity. As of March 2020, the company's official brand name is Tower Semiconductor and includes all of the company's worldwide subsidiaries. On February 15, 2022,

announced an agreement to acquire Tower Semiconductor for $5.4 billion. On August 16, 2023, Intel terminated the acquisition as it failed to obtain approval from Chinese regulators within the 18-month transaction deadline period and will pay a termination fee of $353 million to Tower.

Fabrication facilities

Fab 1 6" Migdal Haemek, Israel

Fab 1, located in Migdal Haemek,

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

is a 150 mm (wafer diameter) facility which was acquired from National Semiconductor in 1993 at the time of Tower Semiconductor's founding. Since that time, Fab 1 has been significantly modernized and offers process geometries ranging from 1.0- micron to 0.35-micron including CMOS image sensors, embedded flash and mixed-signal technologies.

Fab 2 8" Migdal Haemek, Israel

Fab 2, a 200 mm wafer facility was constructed in January 2001, adjacent to Fab 1 in Migdal Haemek.

Fab 3 8" Newport Beach, California

Fab 3, located in Newport Beach,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

was acquired by Tower when it merged with Jazz Technologies in 2008. Jazz Semiconductor was formed in 2002 and inherited the 200mm facility that was once operated by Rockwell Semiconductor. At Fab 3, Jazz established SiGe,

and

technologies and expanded upon its heritage for on-shore, specialized foundry services focused on the Aerospace and Defense industry.

Fab 9 8" San Antonio, Texas

Fab 9, located in San Antonio, Texas, United States was acquired by Tower in 2016 from Maxim Integrated.

Additional fabs through TPSCo

TPSCo is 51% owned by Tower Semiconductor Ltd. and 49% owned by Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan. TPSCo has three (only two are working) manufacturing facilities in Hokuriku, Japan ( Uozu, Tonami, and not working Arai) which have been producing large scale integrated circuits for over 30 years. Areas of process technology focus include high dynamic range image sensors (CIS and CCD), integrated power devices (BCD, SOI and LDMOS) and high frequency silicon RFCMOS. TPSCo offers both IDMs and fabless companies over 120 qualified silicon process flows on 200mm and 300mm substrates from super micron to 45 nm, as well as internal back end processing, assembly and test services.

References

{{Authority control, state=expanded Foundry semiconductor companies Semiconductor companies of Israel Computer companies established in 1993 Electronics companies established in 1993 Israeli brands Companies listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Companies in the TA-35 Index Israeli companies established in 1993