RF Micro Devices Inc., based in Greensboro, plans to upgrade its clean-room manufacturing space. The two-year, $58-million project will also provide new semiconductor manufacturing equipment for its partner, Agere Systems Inc., in Orlando, Fl., to produce high-performance chips for communications products. RF Micro will also build a facility in Beijing to test and finish chips for the Chinese market.
Iomega Corp. is relocating its corporate headquarters to 10,000 sf in San Diego within the next six months. One hundred marketing and executive staff members will be moved, with the company's R&D operation remaining in Roy, Utah.
Cypress Semiconductor plans to install a $2.1-million, 335-kW solar power array at its new administrative facility in San Jose, providing about 12 percent of Cypress’ energy. The three-story building is scheduled to open in January 2002, and the solar energy system installed by PowerLight Corp. of Berkeley, Calif., is expected to pay for itself in seven years. The system can be retrofitted as technology improves, and is expected to last 25-30 years.
Semiconductor manufacturer Extreme Devices is expanding by opening a bigger chip fabrication plant with adjoining offices in Southeast Austin. The combined 43,200-sf facility is a significant expansion from the firm's previous 6,000-sf location. The fabrication plant has cost Extreme Devices less than $10 million to build.
Gigawave Technologies of San Antonio is preparing to move from an outgrown 3,000-sf into a new 10,000-sf facility. Gigawave provides training services for Cisco Systems and for companies installing new wireless LANs.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Digital Optics Corp. has moved into a 100,000-sf manufacturing facility on 7 acres in University Research Park. Over the next five years the photonic chip manufacturer plans to triple its facilities on the site.
Intel has awarded Braintree-based Integrated Builders a $3 million, 80,000-sf office renovation contract in Hudson.
Iomega Corp. of Utah is considering locations in Southern California for relocation of its headquarters. The high capacity diskette, drive, and data storage maker is favoring Orange County sites over San Diego at present, due to the grouping of data storage companies in the area and a large labor pool. In addition to relocating some of the 500 employees currently housed at the firm's headquarters near Salt Lake City, Iomega hopes to draw new staff that were previously deterred by location. Some Utah facilities will be retained in the move.
ADCS Inc., a hi-tech company specializing in data/document capture and conversion, has contracted Smith Consulting Architects for architecture and interior design of a 94,000-sf, two-story office building in the Parwkay Business Center in Poway. Construction of the $7.9 million project is scheduled to begin in November with completion expected in March 2002. The building will feature a photovoltaic solar collection as part of its state-of-the-art energy saving system.
EKC Technology Inc. has relocated its corporate headquarters to Danville from Hayward, Calif., allowing for an expansion of the company’s manufacturing and R&D operations at the recently-upgraded Hayward site. The new 11,000-sf headquarters houses sales, marketing, accounting, HR, and R&D. EKC, A ChemFirst Inc. company, has additional plants in Scotland and Japan and supplies the semiconductor industry with chemicals for wafer cleaning, surface preparation and residue removal.
Lightconnect Inc., a fiber optic components design firm, has opened a 5,000-sf manufacturing and testing facility adjacent to its headquarters in Newark. At full capacity the new facility will employ up to 300 people and produce 10,000 variable optical attenuators and 300 dynamic gain equalizers each month. Lightconnect's existing headquarters is focussed on research and development, with limited manufacturing space.
Intel Corp. has selected Braintree-based Integrated Builders to manage the $3 million renovation of its 80,000-sf Hudson offices.
UK-based ARM Ltd. is seeking approximately 45,000 sf in addition to its 20,000-sf microprocessor design center in Austin, as they have completely filled out their current facility. ARM designs 32-bit microprocessors that are licensed to its customers.
Opticom Inc. has moved 95 employees into 33,000-sf at Brickstone Square in its home city of Andover, Mass. The software firm has an option on more space at the facility and plans to occupy up to an additional 15,000 to 20,000 sf by 2002.
KLA-Tencor has put occupation of its new Livermore campus on hold until the end of the year. The San Jose-based semiconductor firm purchased 43 acres in the Shea Business Park in May 2000 for a 720,000-sf, six-building campus. Construction on the two buildings to house manufacturing and customer service will continue; totaling 120,000-sf, the facilities are nearing completion.
