Pragmatic Semiconductor opens wafer fab in Durham

UK's first 300mm facility

Cambridge-based Pragmatic Semiconductor has officially opened the UK's first 300mm wafer fab in Durham, just four months after it closed a record Series D funding round.

Pragmatic's new line produces chips based on flexible integrated circuit (FlexIC) technology. These chips are not a direct replacement for silicon in high-performance compute applications, and are instead intended for use in IoT applications like smart packaging and sensors.

The company says the Durham site will be able to produce "billions" of FlexICs every year, providing "item level intelligence" to "trillions" of smart objects over the next decade.

The chips are created using thin-film transistor (TFT) tech and a silicon-free fabrication process. Pragmatic claims the fabs are more sustainable than traditional plants working with silicon, using both less energy and water.

Pragmatic Park, located in Sedgefield, south of Durham, is a 60,000m² brownfield site with space for as many as nine fabs. It is planned to create as many as 500 skilled jobs in the area over the next five years.

This optimistic picture is very different from a year ago, when Pragmatic threatened to leave the UK due to a lack of government support for the country's nascent chip industry. At the same time, the EU and USA were promising high subsidies in a bid to lower their reliance on Asian firms.

The UK did eventually follow suit, announcing the £1 billion National Semiconductor Strategy in May last year. It also committed to rejoining the EU's related research programme earlier this month.

Pragmatic did an about-face shortly after the government announcement, running a funding round late last year that raised a record-breaking £182 million - mostly from British sources.

The company said at the time that the funding would support the opening of two fabs in Durham, one of which has now been completed.

Competing on quality, not quantity

The £1 billion the UK bookmarked for semiconductor development last year was initially criticised for its size, compared to the $52 billion in the USA's CHIPS Act, or €43 billion ($46.5 billion) in the EU Chips Act.

However, the UK is not trying to compete with the likes of Taiwan in bulk chip production; instead, it is concentrating on specialist areas.

Pragmatic's FlexICs are one example, while another is the compound semiconductors produced at the Newport Wafer Fab.