Dow Corning Moves Silicon Valley Operations to Single, Bigger Facility

Staff Reporter -- Electronic News, 10/24/2006

Dow Corning Corp. has announced plans to expand its Silicon Valley operations to better serve its global customer base in the semiconductor, LED, display, computer, communications and other emerging markets.

Dow Corning has relocated this facility from its original Menlo Park, Calif. location across San Francisco Bay to a larger, customized, 32,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Newark, Calif. Increased demand for its products across the globe in existing and emerging markets, such as flat panel displays, power modules and automotive electronics applications, prompted the company’s move to the larger facility.

Dow Corning said the facility manufactures fabricated thermal interface materials, fabricated gel pads and strips.  The new facility also consolidates Dow Corning’s Silicon Valley operations, including its approximately 55-person staff, in a single location.  Previously Dow Corning’s Silicon Valley operations occupied several satellite locations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

The interior of the new facility was built to the company’s specifications, and will house manufacturing operations, an on-site manufacturing support laboratory, applications engineering, and administrative offices for marketing and technical sales.

“Market drivers dictated that we invest and expand our thermal pad manufacturing capability,” said Jeroen Bloemhard, global industry executive director for Electronics & Advanced Technologies for Dow Corning, in a statement. “We remain dedicated to Silicon Valley since it is a major hub for electronics innovation. Having manufacturing, marketing and technical service in one location allows us to respond better and faster to emerging changes in market or customer requirements.”

The move to Newark is the latest example of Dow Corning’s continued growth in the thermal management market. It originally acquired the Menlo Park facility in 2003 as part of its acquisition of the Raychem Power Materials Business Unit of Tyco Electronics. That move expanded Dow Corning’s product offerings in fabricated materials, adding fabricated gel and thermal interface materials to its existing wet-dispensed materials capabilities.

Dow Corning also recently staked a claim in the Solar market.