X-FAB Silicon Foundries and Brazilian-government-backed entity the Excellence Center for Advanced Electronic Technology (CEITEC) have reached a strategic licensing agreement for semiconductor manufacturing. Under terms of the agreement, CEITEC will license X-FAB's advanced 0.6 micrometer process technology called XC06, enabling CEITEC to establish the first commercial CMOS semiconductor front-end manufacturing operation in Brazil. Small volume manufacturing and prototyping will take place at CEITEC's fab in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and larger volumes will be manufactured by X-FAB in its facilities in Erfurt, Germany and Lubbock, Texas, USA.

CEITEC is part of a Brazilian-government-sponsored effort to develop a domestic microelectronics industry. As part of this effort, seven chip design centers have been created, which now have direct access to Brazil's first semiconductor front-end wafer fab that will use the XC06 technology. CEITEC's 0.6 micrometer process will be fully compatible with X-FAB's XC06 process.