According to Scottish Enterprise, the foundry’s investment will mean an injection of £1.25 million into the Scottish economy as the organisation improves cost-efficiency while exploring more niche and newer technology MEMS sensors. Three new local full time new jobs are expected to be created.

“We really appreciate this support from Scottish Enterprise,” said joint-MD Alan James. “The investment is an important step in our drive to reduce lead times and fully utilise the capacity of our three wafer fabrication facilities here in Glenrothes.”

Semefab exported over 85% of its output to Europe, USA and Far East in 2014/15 and “intends to compete globally with this new investment and attract new customers”.

Its ICs and MEMS sell into medical, automotive, industrial and consumer markets worldwide.It sees sensors for IoT applications as a key development area – particularly for home, wearables, phones and environmental monitoring. Another potential market is in-home medical sensors for diagnostics and medication control.

“This is a superb example of a Scottish manufacturing company at the forefront of enabling technologies such as micro and nanotechnology. We are very pleased to be supporting Semefab enhance their competitiveness and add even greater value to Scotland’s economy,” said Adrian Gillespie, MD of growth companies, innovation and infrastructure at Scottish Enterprise.