Semiconductor Companies in Texas
The "Silicon Hills"
Miltary Grade Chips from Texas Instruments
The state of Texas has been home to many semiconductor & electronics manufacturing companies since Texas Instruments was first formed in Dallas in 1951 to manufacture their new invention - the transistor.
Texas Instruments would grown to have numerous semiconductor plants in Texas, and lead the way for numerous other companies to follow. Top semiconductor companies now have new wafer Fab's being constructed, including Samsung and Texas Instruments.
Today, the semiconductor industry in central Texas is one of the fastest growing industries in this region. The semiconductor industry employs over 100,000 people and generates $8 billion annually for the economy of Texas.
New semiconductor plants being built in Texas are part of a larger effort to create a more secure and reliable supply chain for the technology industry. Texas is home to a number of large tech companies, such as Dell, IBM, and Apple, which benefit from having their own semiconductor plants nearby. Furthermore, the state of Texas is known for its low taxes and business-friendly environment, making it an attractive location for tech companies to invest in.
Besides semiconductors, other high-tech industries are growing in Texas. Electric vehicle manufacturer Telsa Motors relocated their headquarters from California to Austin in 2021. Tesla now has a 5.3 million square ft gigafactory in Austin that will produce their Tesla Model Y and Cybertruck electric vehicles.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments opened semiconductor Fabs in both Dallas and Sherman Texas to build Integrated Circuits early in the 1970's. They are currently producing chips there still on 150mm wafers. In 2021, Texas Instruments announced they plan to close down the aging 50 year old Fabs, expected to happen in the next 3 to 5 years.
In 2000, Texas Instruments started up a 300mm analog chip Fab located in Richardson Texas called DMOS6, which went through a retooling in 2009.
A new 5-million sq ft, 300mm wafer Fab is currently planned in the city of Sherman, Texas. The new FAB is expected to break ground as early as 2022 and could start production by 2025.
AMD
In the 1979. AMD built their first Fab outside of Silicon Valley, in Austin, called FAB 14. They would continue to grow in Austin by adding FAB 15, producing CPU's and Flash memory chips in both Fabs. Fab 25 was added in 1992.
The aging Fab 14 and Fab 15 would close down in 2001. In 2009 AMD would decide to become fab-less, splitting off their semiconductor manufacturing to Global Foundries.
Today, AMD's still has a campus in Austin for non-manufacturing, design & engineering work.
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics first came to Texas in 1996 when they chose Austin to be the site of there first semiconductor Fab in the United States. Their initial products made at this FAB in 1997 were DRAM memory chips.
A second advanced semiconductor Fab was built at the same site in 2007, to build NAND Flash memory chips.
In July 2017, Samsung's Austin Fab's became part of Samsung's family of Foundry sites. Semiconductor Foundries manufacture chips that have been outscourced by a customer who designs the chips. Current customers of Samsung's chip manufacturing include IBM, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Tesla.
Samsung is currently in the process of constructing a new $17 billion, 6 million sq ft semiconductor fab near Austin, in Taylor, Texas. The site is located on 1200 acres and is expected to start 3nm wafer production as early as 2024.
Micron Technology
Micron Technology is considering the Austin area for a potiential new site to construct a $40 billion new semiconductor Fab to build their latest memory chips.
ON Semiconductor
ON Semiconductor, a a spinoff of Motorola's Semiconductor Components Group, has a design and Engineering center located in Austin.
NXP Semiconductor
NXP, a major supplier of chips used in the automotive industry, has two large semiconductor fabs in Austin.
Infineon Technologies
Another major semiconductor manufacturer, Infineon, has a semiconductor fab located in Austin. Infineon is also a leading supplier of chips for automotive electronics.
Tower Semiconductor
Israel-based Tower Semiconductor, has a foundry semiconductor Fab located in San Antonio, Fab 9, that manufactures advanced analog integrated circuits on 200mm wafers. In Feb. 2022 , Intel announced they would be aquiring Tower Semiconductor to expand their Intel Foundry Services IFS).
Intrgrated Circuit products are manufactured for a wide range of markets, including consumer electronics, personal computers, communications, automotive, industrial, aerospace and medical device applications.
Techologies manufactured by Tower Semiconductor include CMOS image sensors, non-imaging sensors, wireless antenna switch Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI), mixed-signal, radio frequency CMOS (RFCMOS), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon-germanium BiCMOS (SiGe BiCMOS or SiGe), high voltage CMOS, radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies, MEMS, power management, and Gallum Nitride (GaN) devices.
Semiconductor Companies in Austin
The majority of Texas's Semiconductor industry now takes place in the Austin area. In the past other areas such as Midland, Odessa, and Dallas had the majority of semiconductor manufacturing activity.
Austin, nicknamed "Silicon Hills", has become a major High-tech hub, with more than 2000 companies and new start-ups now competing in the hardware and software industries.
The Austin area has been the home of numerous semiconductor manufacturing facilities by IBM, Freescale, ON Semiconductor, Cypress, Dallas Semiconductor (now Maxim Integrated / Analog Devices), Samsung, NXP, AMD, Altera, Intel, Spansion, Infineon, Cirrus Logic, ARM, Zarlink, Alereon, Marvel, PMC-Sierra, Silicon Laboratories, Applied Micro Circuits, Micron, Semiconductor Technology Inc., Temp Semiconductor, and BandSpeed.
Semiconductor Companies in Dallas
The Dallas - Fort Worth area has several large semiconductor manufacturers including Texas Instruments, Vitesse Semiconductor, ON Semiconductor, Semiconductor Technology Inc., and National Semiconductor.
Semiconductor Companies in Houston
In the Houston area there is a SK Hynix Semiconductor manufacturing facility.
Semiconductor Companies in San Antonio
Both Philips Semiconductor and Sony Electronics closed their semiconductor Fabs in San Antonio back in 2003. There is now one remaining major semiconductor manufacturer in the area, Tower Semiconductor, now aquired by Intel Corp.