Globalfoundries to build FDSOI fab in China
The joint venture is Gexin (Chengdu) Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Co, Ltd. and is being built to satisfy Chinese and global demand for company’s 22FDX 22nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) manufacturing process, Globalfoundries said.
Neither the value of capital expenditure globally nor in China, nor the time-scale were revealed. Similarly Globalfoundries’ share in the joint venture was not disclosed. Globalfoundries is a private company owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi through Mubadala Development Company, the emirate’s national wealth fund.
Globalfoundries said it will invest in expanding manufacturing capacity in New York and Dresden and Singapore as well as building the Chinese wafer fab. The Chengdu fab will start production of mainstream technologies in 4Q18, with fabrication of the advanced 22FDX expected to begin in 4Q19.
In the US, GF plans to expand 14nm FinFET capacity by an additional 20 percent at its Fab 8 facility in New York with the additional production coming online at the beginning of 2018. New York will continue to be the center of technology development for 7nm manufacturing and the insertion of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The 7nm FinFET production is planned for Q2 2018, Globalfoundries said.
“We are seeing strong demand for both our mainstream and advanced technologies, from our world-class RF-SOI platform for connected devices to our FD-SOI and FinFET roadmap at the leading edge,” said CEO Sanjay Jha, in a statement.
Globalfoundries said that in Germany it would expand manufacturing capacity for 22FDX FDSOI at its Fab 1 in Dresden with a plan to grow overall fab capacity by 40 percent by 2020. Dresden will continue to be Globalfoundries’ center for FDSOI technology development with customer tape-outs on 12FDX expected in the middle of 2018. According to local reports Dresden will receive more than €1.5 billion (about $1.6 billion) although the exact sum will depend on support from Germany and the European Union (see European chip project worth ‘billions’ is making progress).
Next: More spending
Singapore is home to more mature wafer fabs, formerly Chartered Semiconductor, but Globalfoundries said it would increase production capacity for 40nm CMOS at its 300mm wafer fab there by 35 percent. The company will also add the ability to produce RF-SOI technology there.
“We are pleased to see GF bringing its innovative 22FDX technology to China and investing in the capacity necessary to support the country’s growing fabless semiconductor industry,” said Min Li, CEO of Rockchip, in the same statement.
Globalfoundries has spent about $13 billion in the United States over the last eight years.
Related links and articles:
News articles:
European chip project worth ‘billions’ is making progress
Globalfoundries preps 12nm FDSOI process
Ferroelectric memory startup aims at GloFo’s 22FDX
Globalfoundries offers embedded MRAM on 22nm FDSOI
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