News: Suppliers
10 February 2021
OIPT to relocate to new manufacturing facility
Plasma etch and deposition processing system maker Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OIPT) of Yatton, Bristol, UK plans to move to a new manufacturing facility in Bristol in summer 2022. The relocation is driven by the growing demand from customers (which include leading semiconductor device manufacturers and materials research institutions worldwide, the firm says).
“The continued and accelerating demand for our production and research solutions has meant it’s time to create a new facility,” says Matt Kelly, managing director of Plasma Technology. “Our new site will be a leading-edge laboratory, manufacturing and office environment for our colleagues, customers and collaboration partners; an inspiring environment that supports team working, innovation, training and provides greater flexibility. Our customers will have even more opportunity to see our solutions and train at our facility. Our building will also be an excellent base to welcome community groups, such as schools and universities promoting STEM subjects,” he adds.
“The new premises is just 20 minutes away from our current site and is a purpose-built facility in Bristol,” Kelly continues. “We took the decision to keep our manufacturing and R&D facilities in the Bristol area, for several reasons,” he adds. “Our employees are of utmost importance to us, and limited disruption to their current work/home life balance was key. We are also passionate about our involvement in and support of the local economy and want to maintain our contribution here. As we grow further, we will continue to provide additional employment opportunities in the Bristol/West-Country tech cluster.”
The new facility will include ISO 5 & 6-class application laboratories spanning 1000m2 equipped with a complete suite of wafer processing solutions and characterization/metrology technologies; many of these being supplied by Oxford Instruments businesses. This is intended to not only enable development of next-generation processes for all customers but also allow continuous improvement, and intense reliability testing of the firm’s high-volume manufacturing (HVM) application processes, combining silicon semiconductor standards with compound semiconductor solutions.
The design of the new site incorporates a range of energy-saving technologies to reduce environmental impact, with the goal of eliminating the use of fossil fuels. This includes the option to generate significant amounts of energy from photovoltaic panels, reusing heat from the building’s cooling and heating systems, and harvesting rainwater.
