Micross, a portfolio company of Behrman Capital, announced on January 15, that it has acquired Integra Technologies, headquartered in Wichita, KS.
Since both are privately owned, the exact amount that Micross paid to acquire Integra Technologies hasn’t been publicly disclosed in the available sources.
Micross Components makes microelectronic components for aerospace & defense, space, medical, industrial & commercial applications. The acquisition of Integra gives Micross significant test capabilities and further broadens Micross’ portfolio of high-reliability microelectronic services and products.
Micross’ acquisition continues to build on its desire to enhance Micross’ semiconductor assembly, test and services capabilities. The acquisition will also expands Micross’ geographic footprint in the U.S., and broadens the company’s presence in medical and other high-reliability end markets.
Integra
Founded in Wichita, KS 40 years ago, Integra is an employee-owned company with operations in Wichita and Silicon Valley, providing OSAT services to more than 500 active customers, including sectors such as the military, aerospace, medical, aviation, automotive, commercial and industrial. Integra services include die preparation, packaging and assembly, electrical testing, reliability and qualification, and counterfeit detection, all performed in their state-of-the-art facilities located in Wichita, KS and Milpitas, CA.
Focused on the communications, military, medical, and automotive industries, Integra Technologies offers customized solutions for complex semiconductor requirements.
Integra Expansion & CHIPS Funding
In 2023, Integra announced it was planning to build a $2.5 billion facility in Bel Aire Kansas. On Feb. 2, 2023, the State Finance Council awarded Integra its premier incentive package. The state would put up roughly $304 million in taxpayer-funded incentives over 10 years to help build the new production facility, however, Integra’s planned expansion was contingent on Integra receiving federal CHIPS funding which requires companies to secure local and state incentives. Integra wouldn’t say how much money it was seeking from the federal CHIPS and Science Act — but it’s expected to be larger than the state’s contribution.
In Jan of 2023 Integra announced that they had missed a deadline to secure funding and the $2B expansion project could be in jeopardy if CHIPS and Science Act didn’t come through with funding. In late November 2023 the Kansas Department of Commerce extended the deadline for Integra to secure federal money to April 1 after the Wichita-based company missed the original deadline. If Integra does not secure federal funding, its contract with Kansas will be canceled and it will not receive the more than $300 million in incentives the state promised last year.
Through this period, Integra CEO Brett Robinson said his company was forbidden from providing any updates on its efforts to secure federal funds.
In Oct 2024, the $304 million state incentive package for Integra expired because of a lack of federal funding. Completion of the awarding of the CHIPS and Science Act incentive money was due by the end of 2024. By the end of 2024 U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo had announced that more than $35 billion of the $39 billion allocated for incentive money through the CHIPS Act has already been awarded for projects spread across 23 states. Kansas was not one of them.
In the past, Integra did not respond when asked whether the company would continue to pursue expansion in the Wichita Region if it was passed over for CHIPS money.
Hynix HBM Booked through 2025
SK Hynix reports that it has already sold all the high bandwidth memory (HBM) produced in 2024 and its expected 2025 production.
The company also says it is set to expand its output of memory chips, predicting that global demand is set to increase over the long term thanks to applications such as AI. In the near term, the company plans to provide customers with samples of its fifth-generation HBM products – 12-layer HBM3E – during May, and start mass production of these in the third quarter.
Rival Samsung revealed this week that it plans to mass produce HBM3E 12-layer products and a 128 GB product based on 32 GB DDR5 within the second quarter of 2025, also with an eye on demand driven by AI.
Hynix has announced that the company will be able to increase HBM chips production after completing new fabrication and advanced packaging facilities, in South Korea and the US.
South Korea President tells nation’s chip makers – now build processors
In remarks presented at a recent government economic review meeting, President Yoon Suk Yeol called for South Korea to “open a new future for the semiconductor industry.”
Samsung and SK Hynix collectively hold over 70 percent of the market for DRAM and NAND flash. But South Korea is not home to a notable manufacturer of high-value processors.
Yoon offered that “Our semiconductors have dominated the world in the memory field over the past 30 years…..In the future, the success or failure of the semiconductor industry will be determined by system semiconductors, which account for two thirds of the entire market.” He then called on his nation “to bet on system semiconductors, which are constantly expanding beyond CPUs and GPUs to AI semiconductors.”
To make that happen, he has created a $19B program to fund construction of “chipmaking mega-clusters” The plan will see a “mini-fab” created, so that small and medium-sized fabless chip firms have a resource they can use to get their products off the drawing board. Yoon continued “the semiconductor industry is the most important and sure foundation for making our people’s lives richer and making our economy take off.”
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