Atmel Corp, a San Jose, California Flash memory and EPROM maker will invest $16m over three years in a smartcard factory in Scotland. Atmel Smartcard IC Ltd UK will make read-only memory (ROM) for contact and high-end contactless cards at an East Kilbride fab bought from Motorola in April. The facility augments Atmel’s existing smartcard plants in Rousset, France and Colorado. Mike Tierney, Atmel’s European Operations Manager, said that the factory will produce ROM for up to 30 million cards a year, targeting the telecommunications, government and banking sectors. Atmel will expand the 70 strong staff roster to 200 over the next three years. Tierney expects the factory to record revenue of $200m by 2003.
