According to Jiwei.net, the British government has recently approved the sale of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF) to Siliconix and Vishay of the United States, and has placed strict restrictions on who can use the factory.

The NWF wafer plant covers an area of 28 acres and is an automotive-grade 200mm wafer processing plant. Its products are mainly supplied to automobiles. It is also the largest semiconductor manufacturing plant in the UK. Nexperia Semiconductor, a subsidiary of China Wingtech, acquired this wafer fab for 60 million pounds in 2021 and invested heavily in equipment and personnel. However, the investment plan was interrupted because the British government blocked Nexperia from acquiring the fab and required it to divest the asset on the grounds of national security in November 2022. After a year of fighting, Anshi was finally forced to give up. On November 8 last year, Siliconix & Vishay signed a share purchase agreement with Anshi.

While Nexperia has been using the engineering to produce CMOS power devices, it has also been OEMing gallium nitride devices for aerospace and defense companies.

The UK issued a final order under Section 26 of the National Security and Investment Act 2021, which came into effect on February 29 local time, including that Vishay must notify the UK government in advance of any transaction that allows a third party to use any part of the NWF plant. condition. Additionally, Siliconix, Vishay or their subsidiaries must notify the Secretary of State before consummating any agreement to sell, transfer, grant a lease or license to any third party and permit such third party to use any portion of the NWF facility.

The UK's move is to avoid any risk to national security arising from the acquisition by third parties of sensitive intellectual property, expertise and/or other sensitive information related to the design, development or manufacturing of compound semiconductors at the NWF facility, including their dual-use applications.

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