Pure play foundry reports strong Q3 growth

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Nov 12, 2003

PolarFab has reported exceptionally strong sales for the third quarter of 2003, significantly outperforming even the recent upturn in the overall semiconductor market.

PolarFab has reported exceptionally strong sales for the third quarter of 2003, significantly outperforming even the recent upturn in the overall semiconductor market.

PolarFab CEO and President Greg Peterson commented: "We are tremendously encouraged by our third quarter results and overall performance for the year.

Despite what was just reported as a disappointing increase in third quarter wafer sales in the broad market, our performance was outstanding and we think it bodes well for a continued recovery in our sector-particularly for those of us specialising in mixed signal and analogue ICs".

Peterson also noted that PolarFab's Q3 performance was its best since the first quarter of 2002.

The current quarter represented a 12% increase over the previous quarter and an even healthier 38% increase over the same quarter a year ago.

"We are delighted with those percentage increases", commented Peterson.

"And perhaps even more encouraging is the fact that year-to-date business generated by new customers is more than double what it was at this time last year".

Vice President of Marketing and Sales Dennis Gaetano attributed the surging PolarFab sales to a number of factors.

"We are certainly benefiting from the larger industry trends", Gaetano noted.

"But more than that, we are seeing the significant investments we've made in new process technologies and upgrades to existing ones pay off.

We've been able to attract new customers and expand the scope of our business with our existing customer base.

This year alone we've improved all of our bipolar, BiCMOS and BCD process technologies, including qualifying our new 8in PBC4 process for power management and smart-power applications.

We have also expanded our process design kit capability to make it even easier for our customers to achieve first-pass design success".

Gaetano added: "The global IC market is expected to grow 14% this year.

At PolarFab, we're anticipating 75% growth or better for our non-legacy business.

Remaining ahead of our customers needs and staying very flexible in our processes and operations will help ensure that".