History

Tower and Jazz Semiconductor merged in September 2008 in a stock for stock transaction and the combined companies officially launched as TowerJazz. The merger has provided several key benefits: increased global capacity, a larger customer base, a more comprehensive product portfolio, and a stronger financial base.  We are the fastest growing pure play specialty foundry in the past three years.

Tower was founded in 1993, with the acquisition of National Semiconductor’s 150-mm wafer fabrication facility. Tower became a public company in 1994 and shares are traded on NASDAQ (TSEM) and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TSEM). Since that time, we have significantly modernized the facility (Fab 1) in Migdal Haemek, Israel and offer process geometries ranging from 1.0-micron to 0.35-micron including CMOS image sensors, embedded flash and mixed-signal technologies.   In January 2001, we constructed an adjacent, state-of-the-art facility (Fab 2), designed to operate in geometries of 0.18-micron and below, using advanced CMOS technology.

Jazz Semiconductor was formed in 2002 as a spinoff of Conexant Systems, a fabless semiconductor company that spun-off from Rockwell Semiconductor in 1999. Jazz inherited the Newport Beach, California 200mm fabrication facility and the company’s legacy including the establishment of industry leading SiGe, BiCMOS and MEMS technologies and the cultivation of a strong design support organization.  In addition, Jazz expanded upon its heritage for on-shore, specialized foundry services focused on the Aerospace and Defense industry.