RF Micro Devices, Inc., a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance radio frequency solutions, will phase out manufacturing at its British-based facility and transition most of its manufacturing to its Greensboro, North Carolina facility. The firm said its new Gallium Arsenide sourcing strategy is intended to increase manufacturing flexibility, expand gross margin, and support aggressive growth.

RFMD will also partner with leading Gallium Arsenide foundries for additional capacity. The Newton Aycliffe facility had been RFMD's primary source for cellular switches, which RFMD has transitioned to higher performance, lower cost silicon on insulator. The transition will occur over the next nine to 12 months to support existing millimeter wave customer contracts.

Bob Bruggeworth, president and CEO of RFMD, said, "RFMD is enjoying increasing demand for our GaAs- and silicon-based RF solutions by delivering the industry's highest performance and most innovative products and technologies, including power amplifiers, switches, antenna tuners, and envelope tracking solutions. The combination of our industry-leading internal GaAs manufacturing capabilities and our external GaAs and silicon foundry partnerships support our longstanding commitment to Optimum Technology Matching, satisfy the full breadth of our customers' performance, size, and cost requirements, and give RFMD unlimited growth potential. We expect these structural changes to have a lasting positive effect on the Company's cost structure, resulting in meaningful gross margin expansion."