News: Microelectronics
11 April 2025
European firm to invest up to €250m in photonic chip production at former BelGaN site
The curators of gallium nitride (GaN) foundry BelGaN of Oudenaarde, East Flanders (Belgium’s last industrial chip manufacturer) – which filed for bankruptcy in July 2024, leaving more than 440 staff unemployed – have reached an agreement for a European investor to acquire the premises for €20.35m (including an advance payment of €2m that has been paid). The facility includes two large cleanrooms, but excludes manufacturing equipment, which was auctioned online between late November and mid-March in about 1800 lots (including wafer processing machines, mainframe computers and other specialized equipment), raising over €23m.
The fab in Oudenaarde started as MIETEC in 1983, was acquired by Alcatel Microelectronics in 1990 then AMI Semiconductor in 2002, and sold in 2008 to ON Semiconductor, making semiconductor products for the automotive, industrial and medical sectors. The team there started GaN development in 2009. Established in September 2021, BelGaN acquired what was ON Semiconductor Belgium BV from onsemi in early 2022. The site in Oudenaarde was subsequently transformed from a silicon fab to an automotive-qualified GaN fab. However, after the significant initial investment associated with this transition, BelGaN could not raise further investment. High labour and energy costs (in 2023 particularly) led to insufficient cash flow to maintain operations.
In mid-March, the curators revealed that three candidates had shown interest in acquiring the factory: two from Asia (a Chinese and an Indian company) and one from Europe.
The new investor plans to invest €200–250m to restart chip production at the site, possibly providing 500 jobs. However, manufacturing would not involve GaN.
“There is a business plan for photonic chip production,” says curator Ali Heerman. “The new technology would mainly have applications in AI data centers and the automotive industry,” he adds.
According to Blgian newspaper De Tijd, the project involves a gradual scaling up of employment, from almost 100 staff in 2026 to almost 600 in 2030, plus an equal number of indirect jobs.
Aixtron to deliver G10-GaN MOCVD system to BelGaN by end-2023
