Soilbuild, Qualcomm's RF360 invest over S$600m to build Kallang Way facility

SOILBUILD Group is constructing a building at Kallang Way to house RF360, the Singapore joint venture company between American semiconductor giant Qualcomm and Japanese electronics components maker TDK.

RF360, formed in February, makes radio frequency modules and filters for mobile devices, drones, robotics, and automotive applications.

RF360 said that it is expanding to capture the strong demand growth in the radio frequency application market, and is committing S$500 million to the custom-built site.

Soilbuild is also investing over S$110 million in the building, Solaris @ Kallang 171, which is expected to be completed in June 2019 with a total gross floor area of over 320,000 square feet.

Solaris will be long-leased to RF360. Typically, leases for customised sites are no shorter than seven to 10 years.

Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat visited the Solaris construction site on Wednesday for a collaboration ceremony.

When the site is ready, RF360 will create 300 new jobs in the electronics manufacturing sector, Mr Heng said.

Solaris will house RF360's electronics production, research and development, product testing, laboratory and ancillary offices. Production will focus on surface acoustic wave (SAW) structured wafers, and state-of-the-art thin film acoustic packaging, which serves the module integration markets.

Qualcomm's Test Center of Excellence operations will also be housed there. Qualcomm owns 51 per cent of RF360 and TDK controls 49 per cent. Qualcomm also has a 30-month option from February to buy out TDK's stake.

An RF360 spokesman told The Business Times: "The Singapore government and Economic Development Board have shown continuous commitment to support and host the electronics industry. In addition, the SAW manufacturing for front-end production has been in Singapore since 1997 with a proven track record and supported by the highly skilled labour in Singapore."