Southern California · Semiconductors
Semiconductor companies in Southern California: 22 chip makers, designers and suppliers
Who actually makes wafers here, who designs chips, and where to go for memory, materials, testing and equipment. With a map.
By Abhi, FirmsLedger · October 31, 2026
At a glance
Silicon Valley gets the attention, but Southern California has a chip industry of its own, and much of it is the specialist kind. The region has long been a center for aerospace and defense, and it shows: there are fabs here making radiation-hardened transistors, gallium nitride chips for radar and satellite links, and solar cells for spacecraft.
The 22 companies below fall into four groups. Seven run wafer fabs in the region: Tower in Newport Beach, Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, HRL in Malibu, EIC in Irwindale, Semicoa in Hawthorne, SSDI in La Mirada and Spectrolab in Sylmar. Seven are chip companies with their headquarters or design offices here, led by Qualcomm in San Diego and Skyworks in Irvine. Four make memory or materials, and four test chips or build the equipment and boards around them.
Orange County is the busiest area on the list, with 11 of the 22 companies. Los Angeles County has 8, San Diego 2 and Ventura County 1.
How to pick: for parts built to military or space specs, start with Semicoa and SSDI, which both hold JANS qualification. For a foundry, look at Tower (silicon), Northrop Grumman (indium phosphide and gallium nitride) and HRL (gallium nitride). If you need chips tested and don't have a lab, ISS in Santa Ana does burn-in and ESD testing.
Step 1: Tower Semiconductor, Newport Beach (fab)
A foundry that makes analog chips for other companies, including image sensors, SiGe BiCMOS and silicon photonics. Newport Beach is one of its four fabs. See the Tower Semiconductor page
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Its other fabs are in Migdal Haemek in Israel, San Antonio in Texas and Agrate in Italy, so customers can run the same process in more than one place. Tower says it serves more than 300 customers in mobile, infrastructure, automotive, medical and industrial markets. Its quality system covers ISO 9001, AS9100 and IATF 16949, and it holds CMMC Level 2 for defense work.
Step 2: Northrop Grumman Microelectronics Center, Redondo Beach (fab)
A wafer foundry on the Space Park campus that makes indium phosphide (InP) and gallium nitride (GaN) chips, and does advanced packaging. See the Northrop Grumman Space Park page
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Its specialty is space-qualified MMICs: microwave chips built to survive in orbit. Compound semiconductors like InP and GaN handle higher frequencies and more power than plain silicon, which is why they end up in radar, satellite links and high-speed communications.
Step 3: HRL Laboratories, Malibu (fab)
A research laboratory that also runs its own gallium nitride foundry. Its ISO 9001:2015 certificate covers making and testing semiconductor wafers. See the HRL Laboratories page
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The foundry works in GaN on silicon carbide (GaN-on-SiC) and makes GaN MMICs, the material of choice for high-power, high-frequency parts.
Step 4: EIC Semiconductor, Irwindale (fab)
Makes discrete semiconductors in its own wafer fab and assembly plant: Zener, switching and rectifier diodes, TVS devices, thyristors and small-signal transistors. See the EIC Semiconductor page
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The catalog runs to more than 15,000 part numbers in over 50 package types. Many parts are AEC-Q101 qualified for cars, and the company also sells into aviation and medical. Owning both the wafer fab and the assembly plant lets it control quality and supply from start to finish.
Step 5: Semicoa, Hawthorne (fab)
Designs and fabricates high-reliability transistors and diodes for harsh environments, including radiation-hardened parts. Qualified to JANS under MIL-PRF-19500. See the Semicoa page
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Products include bipolar power transistors, small-signal transistors and ceramic surface-mount diodes. Testing is done in house to MIL-PRF-19500: radiation lot acceptance, real-time X-ray, PIND testing and leak testing. JANS is the highest reliability level for discrete parts in US military and space programs. Also certified to AS9100D and ISO 9001:2015.
Step 6: Solid State Devices (SSDI), La Mirada (fab)
In La Mirada since 1967. Makes high-power and high-voltage parts: rectifiers, IGBTs, thyristors, power modules and hybrids, much of it for aerospace and defense. See the SSDI page
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The plant has cleanroom microelectronics fabrication, wafer processing, assembly and test under one roof. SSDI holds JANS, ISO 9001 and AS9100, and makes both standard parts and custom power devices.
Step 7: Spectrolab, Sylmar (fab)
Makes multijunction solar cells for satellites, up to 32% efficient, and builds them into complete space solar panels and arrays. See the Spectrolab page
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Spectrolab has more than 70 years in space solar. Its cells stack three materials (GaInP, GaAs and Ge), each catching a different part of sunlight. Finished arrays go to satellite makers for commercial, civil and defense missions. It also runs a semiconductor foundry and packaging operation.
Step 8: Qualcomm Technologies, San Diego
Designs the Snapdragon chips used in many Android phones: system-on-chips, modems and RF transceivers. Founded in San Diego in 1985. See the Qualcomm Technologies page
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Qualcomm Technologies is the part of Qualcomm that runs engineering, research and the chip business. Beyond phones it designs chips for cars and connected devices, with AI accelerators built into the chips.
Step 9: Skyworks Solutions, Irvine
Designs and makes radio frequency (RF) and analog chips: amplifiers, switches and filters. Founded in 1962, with 5,000 to 9,999 employees. See the Skyworks page
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Its parts go into wireless devices, connected (IoT) products and cars, including isolated gate drivers for automotive safety systems. Some parts are AEC-Q100 qualified for automotive use.
Step 10: ElevATE Semiconductor, San Diego
Designs chips for automatic test equipment, the machines that test other chips: pin electronics, measurement units and DACs with deskew. See the ElevATE page
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Its Rainier device runs at 1.6 Gbps. Diodes Incorporated has announced a deal to buy the company.
Step 11: More chip companies in Orange County
Syntiant in Irvine designs edge AI chips. Mobix Labs in Irvine designs mmWave RF modules and EMI filters. Telink in Tustin designs wireless chips for Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread and Matter. Microsemi in Aliso Viejo makes FPGAs, SoCs, ASICs and timing devices.
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Syntiant and Mobix Labs are fabless: they design chips here and use outside foundries and assembly partners, which is common in the industry. Telink, founded in 2014, makes chips for smart home devices, including an automotive-grade line.
Step 12: Netlist, Irvine (memory)
Designs and makes memory and storage: DDR4 and DDR5 memory modules, enterprise NVMe SSDs and embedded flash. Founded in 2000. See the Netlist page
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Products include HybriDIMM storage-class memory and HyperCloud load-reduced DIMMs. Production runs in the company's own ISO-certified plant in Suzhou, China.
Step 13: Viking Technology, Costa Mesa (memory)
Rugged memory and storage for defense, aerospace, telecom and cars: DDR4 multi-chip modules, M.2 NVMe drives up to 2 TB and persistent memory. See the Viking Technology page
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Drives can have hardware AES-256 encryption, write protection and quick-erase options. The site holds AS9100, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, is ITAR registered, and tests in a clean room at up to 110 GHz.
Step 14: Materials: silicon, crystals and wafers
American Elements in Santa Monica makes semiconductor-grade silicon and high-purity materials, from a catalog of more than 35,000 products. United Semiconductors in Los Alamitos grows III-V crystals and sells polished wafers from 25 to 150 mm.
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American Elements also does custom manufacturing, spray drying and contract tolling for large volumes. United Semiconductors, founded in 2005, slices, polishes, anneals and etches the wafers it grows, and does wet chemical etching for outside customers.
Step 15: Semiconductor Equipment Corporation, Moorpark (equipment)
Since 1975, builds manual and semi-automatic machines for the back end of chipmaking: die bonders, die handling, rework stations, pick-and-place and test equipment, plus wafer tape and tape mounting. See the SEC page
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It is also an authorized distributor for Nitto Denko dicing and back-grinding tapes. Manual and semi-automatic tools suit labs, prototype lines and small-volume production.
Step 16: Integrated Semiconductor Solutions (ISS), Santa Ana (testing)
A test lab for chip companies: reliability stress testing, package qualification, burn-in, and ESD and latch-up testing to JEDEC and ESDA standards. See the ISS page
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Founded in 2001 by Troy Gray, ISS works with chip makers, including fabless and start-up companies that don't have their own reliability lab. It also designs and builds burn-in boards and test PCBs. Certified to ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D.
Step 17: Circuit board assembly
Semi Kinetics in Lake Forest assembles circuit boards, cable harnesses and complete products in a 35,000-square-foot plant. OSI Electronics in Hawthorne makes electronics for OEMs, from development to mass production.
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Semi Kinetics holds ISO 9001, AS9100 and ISO 13485, is ITAR registered and builds to IPC Class III, so it takes aerospace, defense and medical work. OSI Electronics has more than 40 years in electronics manufacturing.
Which semiconductor companies are in Southern California?
This list covers 22, including Qualcomm and ElevATE in San Diego, Skyworks, Netlist and Syntiant in Irvine, Tower in Newport Beach, Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, HRL in Malibu and Spectrolab in Sylmar.
Are there chip fabs in Southern California?
Yes. Tower (Newport Beach), Northrop Grumman (Redondo Beach), HRL (Malibu), EIC (Irwindale), Semicoa (Hawthorne), SSDI (La Mirada) and Spectrolab (Sylmar) all make wafers in the region.
Where are most semiconductor companies in Southern California?
Orange County, with 11 of the 22 on this list, mostly around Irvine. Los Angeles County has 8, spread from Malibu and Santa Monica to the South Bay, Irwindale, La Mirada and Sylmar. San Diego has Qualcomm and ElevATE.
Who makes military or space-grade semiconductors in Southern California?
Semicoa in Hawthorne and SSDI in La Mirada both hold JANS qualification. Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach makes space-qualified MMICs, and Spectrolab in Sylmar makes solar cells and panels for satellites.
Where can I buy semiconductor equipment in Southern California?
Semiconductor Equipment Corporation in Moorpark builds die bonders, pick-and-place, rework and test equipment, and supplies wafer tape and tape mounting.
Where can I get chips tested in Southern California?
Integrated Semiconductor Solutions (ISS) in Santa Ana does burn-in, reliability stress testing, package qualification and ESD and latch-up testing, including for fabless and start-up chip companies.
What is a fabless chip company?
A company that designs chips but doesn't own a factory to make them. It sends the designs to a foundry, such as Tower, and uses outside partners for packaging and testing.
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