Pragmatic Semiconductor opened a 300-mm semiconductor wafer fabrication line on Mar. 27 for flexible ICs at its new site near Durham in the northeast of England (UK).  The official opening was conducted by Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal (Princess Anne), who was educated on the process for manufacturing flexible ICs (flexICs), which can be produced in 48 hours at low cost and in a small footprint.

The fab opening comes as Pragmatic goes on an expansion plan following its $231 million series D funding that closed in December 2023. The company said its 60,000sqm site has capacity to host up to nine fabrication lines, each capable of producing billions of chips per year.

During a video interview, we caught up with Pragmatic Semiconductor CEO Dave Moore recently in London to learn more about the company’s vision, strategy and market opportunity with its fab-in-a-box for flexICs.

Moore talks about what has been happening since he joined Pragmatic as CEO just a year ago, he explains the concept of flexible ICs, capacity expansion plans, the company’s business model and more. We also discuss the UK’s ambitions for semiconductors, and how it fits into the global supply chain and is satisfying market demand.

Pragmatic’s mission is to provide “item level” intelligence to trillions of smart objects over the next decade across a wide range of applications with significant opportunities in smart packaging of fast-moving consumer goods. In fact, one of its early strategic investors was Avery Dennison, who was keen to leverage the potential of PragmatIC’s flexICs in its inlays portfolio.