Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd. said Tuesday it’s expanding production of silicon wafers for chips at its Newport Beach plant.
The company is spending $15 million to add equipment to the Newport Beach plant and another in Israel to boost production of silicon wafers, the building blocks of semiconductors.
The Newport Beach plant is expected to boost production by 3,000 wafers per month, which will bring the plant to full capacity, Tower said.
The company’s Israel plant is expected to up production by 2,500 wafers per month. Combined, the two plants should yield 66,000 wafers per year and based on customer forecasts, company officials said.
Tower, which operates as TowerJazz, bought what was Newport Beach’s Jazz Semiconductor Inc. in 2008 for $40 million plus an additional $129 million in debt.
Jazz got its start as the chip making arm of Rockwell International Corp., which no longer exists but left behind Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation Inc. and Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Rockwell Collins Inc.
What became Jazz made chips for aerospace and modems.
Rockwell spun off the business as Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc. in 1999.
In 2002, Conexant split off its Newport Beach chip factory as Jazz.
In 2007, Apple Inc. alums Gil Amelio, Steve Wozniak and Ellen Hancock bought Jazz after raising money from investors.
Amelio ran Jazz as chief executive until the sale to Tower.
TowerJazz makes makes chips Milpitas-based Intersil Corp. and South Korean customers, among others. The company has yearly sales of about $400 million.
