TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. is taking over a 38-acre facility of Micron Technology Texas LLC.The plant contains a 48,500-sf class 1 clean room, 10,000-sf class 100 clean room and about 84,000 sf of office space. The purchase will facilitate an expansion of TriQuint's wafer fabrication capacity and enable its 350-member TX division to relocate from leased space at the Dallas campus of Texas Instruments. A TriQuint statement says the relocation will be completed in two years.

TriQuint will undertake an upgrading of the purchased property, installing new process lines that will increase fabrication capacity to make it larger than the current combined capabilities of its Dallas and Hillsboro, OR, facilities. The company says the move will enable the TX division to beef up personnel, possibly as high as 900. TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. is a leading international supplier of a broad range of high-performance gallium arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits. Tom Cordner, TriQuint VP and TriQuint Semiconductor Texas GM, will manage the Richardson facility and the transition from the Dallas leased facility.

"When operational, the facility will give TriQuint a total manufacturing capacity well in excess of $1 billion," says Steve Sharp, TriQuint President and CEO. Synthetic lease financing was arranged through ABN AMRO Bank.