Renesas is planning a sale of its production facility in Germany (Renesas Semiconductor Europe in Landshut, RSEL) – to Silicon Foundry Holding (SFH). SFH is a Germany-based company specializing in semiconductor foundry services. RSEL has been present in Landshut for 28 years and has produced microcontroller wafers for smart card applications with 0.35 µm and 0.18 µm processes. However, in a fast developing market, the trend evolves down to ever-smaller microchips, which Renesas cannot produce with high volume at small facilities like RSEL. So Renesas has decided to concentrate its wafer fabrication investments in its bigger production facilities to exploit economies of scale and remain competitive.

SFH is held and managed by former RSEL managers Michael Lehnert and Gerhard Spitzlsperger together with Hans-Martin Dudenhausen and will act as a local foundry specialized in analog mixed signal production.