News: Microelectronics
15 April 2025
ST reshaping manufacturing footprint to invest in 300mm silicon, 200mm SiC, and technology R&D
As part of the program announced in October 2024, STMicroelectronics of Geneva, Switzerland has disclosed further plans to reshape its global manufacturing footprint that will “future proof our integrated device manufacturer model with strategic assets in Europe and improve our ability to innovate even faster,” according to president & CEO Jean-Marc Chery.
“As we focus on advanced manufacturing infrastructure and mainstream technologies, we will continue to leverage all of our existing sites and bring redefined missions for some of them to support their long-term success,” he adds. “We are committed to managing this program responsibly, according to our long-established values, and exclusively through voluntary measures. The technology R&D, design and high-volume manufacturing activities in Italy and France will continue to be central to our global operations and will be reinforced via planned investments in mainstream technologies.”
Innovating and scaling up to increase efficiency across manufacturing operations
As innovation cycles shorten, ST’s manufacturing strategy is evolving to accelerate the delivery of proprietary technologies and products at scale to customers globally, across automotive, industrial, personal electronics and communication infrastructure applications.
The reshaping and modernization of ST’s manufacturing operations aims to achieve two main objectives: prioritizing planned investments towards future-ready infrastructure such as 300mm silicon and 200mm silicon carbide wafer fabs to enable them to reach a critical scale, and maximizing the productivity and efficiency of legacy 150mm capabilities and mature 200mm capabilities. In parallel, ST plans to continue to invest in upgrading the technology used across its operations, deploying additional AI and automation for extra efficiency in technology R&D, manufacturing, reliability and qualification processes, with a continued focus on sustainability.
Strengthening ST’s manufacturing ecosystem
Over the next three years, the reshaping of ST’s manufacturing footprint will design and strengthen ST’s complementary ecosystems: in France around digital technologies, in Italy around analog and power technologies and in Singapore on mature technologies. The optimization of these operations aims to achieve full capacity utilization and to drive technological differentiation to compete globally.
Building 300mm silicon megafabs in Agrate and Crolles
The Agrate (Italy) 300mm fab will continue to be scaled up, to become ST’s flagship high-volume manufacturing facility for smart power and mixed-signal technologies. The plan is to double its current capacity to 4000 wafers per week (wpw) by 2027, with planned modular expansions increasing capacity up to 14,000wpw, depending on market conditions. As the focus on 300mm manufacturing increases, the Agrate 200mm fab will refocus on MEMS.
The Crolles (France) 300mm fab will be further cemented as the core of ST’s digital products ecosystem. The plan is to increase capacity to 14,000wpw by 2027 with planned modular expansions increasing capacity up to 20,000wpw, depending on market conditions. In addition, the Crolles 200mm fab will be converted to support Electrical Wafer Sorting (EWS) high-volume manufacturing and advanced packaging technologies, hosting activities that do not exist today in Europe. The focus will be on next-generation leading technologies including optical sensing and silicon photonics.
Specialized manufacturing and competence center for power electronics in Catania
Catania will continue to serve as a center of excellence for power and wide-bandgap semiconductor devices. The development of the new Silicon Carbide Campus is progressing as planned, with production of 200mm wafers set to begin in fourth-quarter 2025. Resources supporting Catania’s existing 150mm and EWS capabilities will be refocused on 200mm silicon carbide and silicon power semiconductor production, including gallium nitride (GaN)-on-silicon.
Optimizing other manufacturing sites
Rousset (France) will remain focused on 200mm manufacturing, with additional volumes reallocated from other sites enabling full saturation of existing manufacturing capacity for optimized efficiency.
Tours (France) will remain focused on its 200mm silicon production line for select technologies, while other activities – including legacy 150mm manufacturing activities – will be transferred to different ST sites. It will also remain a center of competence for GaN, mainly on epitaxy. The Tours site will also host a new activity: panel-level packaging, one of the major enablers of chiplets (a technology for complex semiconductor applications that will be key for ST in the future).
Ang Mo Kio (Singapore), ST’s high-volume fab for mature technologies, will remain focused on 200mm silicon manufacturing and will also host the firm’s consolidated global legacy 150mm silicon capabilities.
Kirkop (Malta), ST’s high-volume test & packaging fab in Europe, will be upgraded by adding advanced automated technologies that will be key to support next-generation products.
Workforce and skills evolution
As ST reshapes its manufacturing footprint over the next three years, the workforce size and required skill sets will evolve. Advanced manufacturing will shift roles from legacy processes involving repetitive manual tasks to a stronger focus on process control, automation, and design. ST says tht it aims to manage this transition through voluntary measures, with a continued commitment to ongoing constructive dialogue and negotiations with employee representatives in accordance with applicable national regulations.
Based on current projections, the program (including both the previously disclosed resizing of cost base and the reshaping of manufacturing footprint) is expected to see up to 2800 staff leaving the company globally on a voluntary basis over three years, on top of normal attrition (ST’s existing staffing is almost 50,000). These changes are expected to occur mainly in 2026 and 2027.
ST targets annual cost savings in the high triple-digit million-dollar range exiting 2027.
ST and Sanan creating 200mm SiC device fab JV in China
ST to build €730m silicon carbide wafer factory in Catania, Italy
