The company’s semiconductor heritage spans successful missions from Apollo to Artemis II
National: Microchip Technology has announced that its Nantes facility in France has expanded its Qualified Manufacturers List (QML) MIL‑PRF‑38535 certification scope to include QML Class Y, reinforcing the company’s commitment to delivering high‑reliability semiconductor solutions for aerospace and defense applications. The Nantes site expanded its certification scope from QML Classes V and Q to now include Class Y.
Microchip’s Nantes site has maintained QML certification to Classes Q and V since 1999, supporting the most demanding space and defense mission requirements. The addition of Class Y certification advances the facility’s capabilities to include additional packaging technologies, including non‑hermetic solutions, enabling higher levels of integration and supporting more advanced semiconductor architectures required by next‑generation military and space programs.
“We’re honored to be a leading supplier of semiconductors to the aerospace and defense industry and continue to deliver the quality and reliability our customers depend on for critical missions,” said Patrick Johnson, senior corporate vice president of Microchip’s Aerospace and Defense Group. “Microchip’s products are in most military applications, and in space, we are virtually in everything that leaves Earth.”
With Class Y certification, the Nantes facility strengthens Microchip’s European manufacturing footprint for high‑reliability devices. The site also holds ESCC QML and AS9100:2018 certifications, positioning it among Microchip’s most highly qualified manufacturing locations for aerospace and defense solutions.
The company’s Nantes facility is equipped to support qualification and testing of its PIC64 High-Performance Spaceflight Computing (PIC64‑HPSC), a series of 64-bit microprocessors (MPUs) that are radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant for space exploration applications. This capability enhances Microchip’s ability to meet evolving customer requirements for electrical testing, qualification, and long‑term mission assurance in harsh operating environments.
Microchip has worldwide qualification sites in the United States and Europe, each certified to specific military standards and classes aligned with their product focus. In the U.S., the company’s site in San Jose, Calif., is qualified to MIL-PRF-38535 Classes Q, V and Y, for advanced digital and space applications, while its site in Garden Grove, Calif., supports Class Q for analog and mixed-signal devices. The company’s Lawrence, Mass. facility provides capabilities under MIL-PRF-19500 and MIL-PRF-38534 Classes H and K for discrete and hybrid microelectronics. In Europe, in addition to the Nantes site, Microchip’s facility in Ennis, Ireland, is certified to MIL-PRF-19500 for its discrete manufacturing. These sites ensure consistent high-reliability qualification across regions without reliance on dedicated lab certifications.
With over 60 years of space heritage, Microchip has a broad portfolio of high-reliability solutions designed for the aerospace and defense market including Radiation-Tolerant (RT) and Radiation-Hardened (RH) MCUs, MPUs, FPGAs and Ethernet PHYs, power devices, RF products, timing solutions, as well as discrete components from bare die to system modules. Additionally, Microchip offers a wide range of components on the Qualified Products List (QPL) to better serve its customers. For more information about Microchip’s aerospace and defense solutions, visit the website.
