ON Semiconductor in South Portland has been awarded a $1 million challenge grant from the Maine Technology Institute and plans to invest a total of $23.2 million to upgrade its manufacturing plant.

The investment comes less than two years after the Phoenix-based company officially purchased the facility, which had been owned by rival Fairchild Semiconductor, for $2.4 billion. At the time of the sale, there were concerns about the age of some of its equipment and what that could mean long-term.

The global semiconductor industry has been in a state of flux as competing companies opt for consolidation and outsourcing to capture greater market share and better returns. ON Semiconductor, which has a global workforce of about 25,000, told investors in September 2016 that it planned to close two or three manufacturing facilities in its global network by the end of 2018.

According to the award announcement from MTI, ON Semiconductor plans to add new “equipment and facilities infrastructure to enable the introduction and volume manufacturing of two new technologies. … The introduction of the new technologies will advance factory capability, improve factory utilization and create more than 25 jobs.”

 

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Pressherald