Polar Semiconductor, the U.S.-owned merchant foundry specializing in sensor, power, and high-voltage semiconductors, announced that it has signed a technology licensing agreement with Tower Semiconductor to enable domestic production of Tower’s robust TS18 Power Management (“TS18PM”) process. Under the terms of the agreement, Polar will license Tower’s broad 180 nm technology to become the only U.S.-based foundry capable of high-voltage power BCD semiconductor wafer production for Aerospace & Defense, and commercial end markets.

This collaboration advances Polar’s aim to onshore qualified defense technologies to bolster U.S. national security. Through this technology license, Polar gains a versatile process design kit (PDK) to engage with its customers in design enablement and technology transfer. The license agreement between Tower and Polar will enable a U.S.-based fabrication site for this critical technology, while concurrently enabling ITAR fabrication and eventually, Trusted fabrication.

“Tower is very pleased to expand onshore access of its technologies in support of the U.S. Aerospace and Defense community through this license arrangement with Polar,” said Tower Semiconductor’s Senior Director for Aerospace & Defense, Mike Scott. “This mature technology is in high-volume production in Japan and Israel serving automotive, industrial, and consumer applications and Polar will provide access for customers that have requirements to manufacture in the U.S. such as USG Primes serving the Aerospace and Defense market.”

Surya Iyer, President and COO of Polar said, “One of the key tenets of Polar’s transformation roadmap is our commitment to support U.S. National Security interests as we work to expand our facility and broaden our technology base. All of us at Polar are very excited to offer our customers a versatile process technology manufactured in an automotive quality fab, and a robust PDK to enable the design of their innovative products. Building on the announcement of a direct funding award as part of the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act and investment through the Minnesota Forward Fund, our strong and growing partnership with Tower is a major step forward in becoming an independent, U.S.-owned foundry and supporting technologies that are critical to DoD customers.”

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