In what it calls a “major step” towards its goal of becoming a “world leader in essential semiconductors,” a global player in the industry is setting up a presence in North Texas.

Nexperia, a Netherlands-based semiconductor manufacturer, is opening a new design center in Richardson—its first research and development operation in North America—with plans to rapidly grow its local workforce.

“Upon presenting this investment proposal to the CEO of Nexperia, Xuezheng Zhang, it received near immediate approval, as entering the analog market delivers on our strategy to transition the Nexperia portfolio towards more differentiated, unique and combined products,” said Dan Jensen, general manager of Nexperia’s analog and logic integrated circuit business group, in a statement.

Growing headcount six-fold

Irene Deng, general manager of Nexperia’s power and signal conversion business group, will head up the R&D facility in Richardson. [Photo: Nexperia]

At the new Richardson-based center, Nexperia says it plans to focus on areas including analog, power management, and signal conditioning integrated circuits. The company has a portfolio of semiconductor products, including logic, discrete, and wide-bandgap devices.

The R&D facility will be led by Irene Deng, the general manager of Nexperia’s power and signal conversion business group. She joins the company from a previous role as a product line general manager at semiconductor giant Texas Instruments, where she helped set up one of the company’s R&D centers in China. 

“The Dallas design center represents an important company milestone,” Deng said in a statement.

Currently, Nexperia lists nearly 20 open positions for the new Richardson facility on its website, and says it has plans to increase the center’s employee headcount six-fold by the end of next year.

“To capture the opportunities that address the power management and signal conversion requirements, Nexperia will both strengthen and expand its portfolio with more complex and high-power products,” the company wrote in a news release.

Building its R&D portfolio

Nexperia was spun out of Dutch semiconductor designer and manufacturer NXP Semiconductor in 2017. The company, which says it has more than 12,000 employees, was acquired the following year by Chinese smartphone contract manufacturer Wingtech Technology in a $3.63 billion deal.

The new DFW operations will add to the other five R&D facilities Nexperia operates in Europe, China, and Malaysia. The company also has front-end fabrication operations in Germany and the U.K., as well as assembly and testing operations in China, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

‘Tremendous pool’ of talent

A spokesperson for the company told the Dallas Business Journal that it chose Richardson for its North American R&D hub due to the region’s “tremendous pool” of talent in the semiconductor industry, in addition to new talent and collaboration opportunities with universities in the area.

Nexperia joins a number of other global players in the semiconductor space with local operations, including Texas Instruments, Qorvo, Mouser Electronics, and Micron.

The company’s move to Richardson comes as the city is looking to build out its Innovation Quarter (IQ), a 1,200-acre stretch of the city aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Currently, the IQ counts Raytheon, Verizon, Siemens, and id Software as tenants. Nonprofit makerspace TheLab is planning on operating a space within the IQ. And UT Dallas is planning on opening a “headquarters” in the quarter that will include operations for its Venture Development Center and Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, along with spaces for centers focused on things like mobility and applied technologies.

Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.

Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.