Nexperia China replaces cut-off European wafer supply with domestic 12-inch capacity

Source: Time Weekly Author: Zhu Chengcheng

Nearly a year after Nexperia's "split," the first thing to be rewritten was not equity, but a wafer.

In the past, Nexperia's production chain was assembled across borders: European wafer fabs handled front-end manufacturing, while China, Malaysia, and the Philippines were responsible for packaging and testing. Among them, two wafer fabs in Hamburg, Germany, and Manchester, UK, had a combined monthly capacity of approximately 59,000 wafers (8-inch equivalent), while Nexperia's Dongguan factory in China accounted for about 70% of global packaging and testing capacity.

This system operated for many years until it was abruptly severed in the second half of 2025.

At the end of September 2025, the Dutch government and local courts took a series of measures against Nexperia Semiconductor citing national security concerns, restricting Wingtech Technology's control over Nexperia Netherlands. Subsequently, the Chinese and Dutch entities of Nexperia effectively moved toward separation, and the originally highly coordinated global supply chain was dismantled accordingly.

For Nexperia China, the most direct impact came from wafer supply: without overseas wafers, its domestic packaging and testing capacity might have no chips to package.

Over the past year, what Nexperia China has done can be summarized as a "reconstruction" of its manufacturing system. Instead of waiting for the original supply chain to recover, Nexperia China began seeking wafer capacity within China, gradually migrating some 6-inch and 8-inch products that previously relied on Europe to 12-inch platforms, while continuing to expand domestic packaging and testing capabilities.

Recently, reporters from Time Weekly visited Nexperia China's R&D center and learned that Nexperia China is relying on the 12-inch wafer platform of its strategic partners in China to ensure continuous product delivery, while simultaneously advancing iterative upgrades of existing product lines.

Sources close to Nexperia China told Time Weekly reporters:

"After the disruption of overseas wafer supply channels, Nexperia China concentrated efforts on developing transistor wafer alternatives starting in Q4 2025. By the end of Q1 2026, cooperation with Chinese strategic partners was finalized, successfully completing the introduction of the 12-inch wafer process platform, while simultaneously advancing new product verification and mass production ramp-up."

As of August this year, based on the 12-inch wafer platform of its Chinese strategic partners, Nexperia China has:

• Launched the T2X series low-voltage MOSFETs and the eighth-generation FS8 IGBTs
• Achieved R&D and mass production of 12-inch bipolar diodes and transistors
• Exceeded 1,300 mass-produced part numbers on the 12-inch logic chip platform

Breaking Through Difficulties with 12-Inch Wafer Platforms

In the past, Nexperia was a typical globally integrated semiconductor company.

Wafers were manufactured in Europe, then shipped to China, Malaysia, and the Philippines for packaging and testing, finally entering markets such as automotive, consumer electronics, and industrial applications.

Among these:

• Hamburg wafer fab (Germany): Established in 1953, currently has a monthly capacity exceeding 35,000 wafers (8-inch equivalent)
• Manchester wafer fab (UK): Primarily produces 6-inch TrenchMOS devices, with a monthly capacity of approximately 24,000 wafers (8-inch equivalent)
• Combined capacity: Approximately 59,000 wafers per month (8-inch equivalent)

By comparison, the Chinese strategic partner introduced by Nexperia China already possesses substantial wafer production scale.

Staff members close to Nexperia China's strategic partner told Time Weekly reporters that the facility is the first 12-inch automotive-grade power semiconductor wafer fab, with:

• Current monthly capacity: approximately 36,000 wafers
• Utilization rate: exceeding 100%
• Planned monthly capacity by end of 2026: 50,000 wafers

Converted by wafer size, 36,000 12-inch wafers are roughly equivalent to 81,000 8-inch wafers.

Previously, industry views suggested that using 12-inch wafers to produce mature products like diodes, transistors, MOSFETs, and IGBTs implied "using large materials for small purposes." However, from the perspectives of manufacturing efficiency and product consistency, the advantages of 12-inch platforms extend beyond merely having larger dimensions.

Compared to the Hamburg and Manchester fabs, which started operations earlier and have been running for decades, the 12-inch wafer fab of Nexperia China's strategic partner is equipped with fully automated production equipment, offering certain advantages in:

• Per-wafer output
• Manufacturing costs
• Product consistency

The aforementioned staff member explained that the effective area of a 12-inch wafer is approximately 2.25 times that of an 8-inch wafer. Under identical process conditions, more chips can be diced from a single wafer, and economies of scale help dilute unit manufacturing costs, thereby enhancing price competitiveness.

Meanwhile, the new fab adopts automated production processes, enabling finer control over critical process dimensions, which helps reduce the dispersion of electrical parameters and improve batch-to-batch consistency. For markets with high requirements for reliability and consistency, such as automotive and industrial sectors, this represents one of the key values of the 12-inch platform.

Regarding yield rates, full automation reduces fluctuations caused by manual operations. Combined with stricter cleanroom management and defect control, this helps maintain stable yields.

Beyond Defending the Core Business

For Nexperia China, the 12-inch wafer fab under its Chinese strategic partner addresses more than just wafer supply issues. More importantly, leveraging the new manufacturing platform allows Nexperia China to rebuild scalable manufacturing capabilities for mature power devices, logic devices, and bipolar discrete devices at lower unit costs and with more stable yields.

This shift has already begun to transmit to the product side.

In August this year, based on the 12-inch wafer process platform, Nexperia China simultaneously updated its three core product lines:

| Product Line | Key Developments | |--------------|-----------------| | Power devices | Launch of T2X series low-voltage MOSFETs and eighth-generation FS8 IGBTs | | Bipolar discrete devices | Successful R&D design and mass production of certain 12-inch wafer-based bipolar diodes and transistors | | Logic chips | Over 1,300 part numbers entered mass production, covering consumer electronics, industrial, automotive, and AI applications |

Behind this lies the most significant achievement of Nexperia China over the past year: reconnecting manufacturing capabilities that had been interrupted by supply chain adjustments.

Previously, affected by supply chain adjustments, the delivery pace of Nexperia China's MOSFET, logic, and analog IC products faced phased pressure. Sources close to Nexperia China stated that as supply chain optimization continues, the continuity of supply for MOSFET, logic, and analog IC products has gradually improved; the supply of transistor products is expected to return to normal levels successively in the second half of 2026.

Simultaneously, new products are accelerating entry into customer verification. Currently, several medium- and low-voltage MOS, IGBT, and transistor new products have completed fabrication and sample submission, primarily targeting AIDC (AI Data Centers) and new energy vehicle markets.

Automotive Business: The Core Foundation

The automotive business remains Nexperia China's most important core foundation.

It is reported that:

• Over 90% of Nexperia China's semiconductor products meet automotive-grade standards
• The Dongguan packaging and testing factory has completed full automotive industry quality system certifications
• The facility is capable of meeting the reliability, lifespan, and environmental tolerance metrics required by OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers
• The automotive power device business has become the most core revenue base for Nexperia China

However, the automotive sector is changing. Rising penetration rates of new energy vehicles, widespread adoption of advanced intelligent driving, and increasing electronic content in traditional internal combustion engine vehicles are all driving up semiconductor usage per vehicle. For Nexperia China, accumulated automotive-grade customers and product capabilities remain the core foundation, while new energy vehicles and intelligent driving offer new incremental space.

AI: A New Growth Driver

Another source of growth comes from AI. On the surface, AI data centers represent a GPU computing power race, but at the underlying level, they constitute a competition in power and power management. High-voltage electricity from the grid cannot directly enter GPUs; it must undergo transformation, rectification, and voltage regulation, ultimately converting into low voltages usable by chips. The denser the computing power, the higher the power consumption, and the greater the importance of the power system.

Nexperia China's MOSFETs, protection devices, and other products are entering scenarios such as AI servers and AI PCs along this chain. In other words, Nexperia China's strength lies not in AI chips themselves, but in "powering" these AI chips. As AI server power consumption continues to rise, power conversion efficiency has shifted from a backend parameter to an integral part of computing infrastructure, and power semiconductors are beginning to gain new demand space beyond their traditional role as supporting components.

For Nexperia China:

• The 12-inch wafer platform solves manufacturing-side issues
• The automotive market defends the core foundation
• Scenarios such as AI servers determine how far this localized manufacturing system can go in the future

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