GlobalFoundries announced in February plans to expand its global manufacturing footprint in response to growing customer demand for its comprehensive and differentiated technology portfolio.
The company is investing in its existing leading-edge fabs in the United States, including the Fab 8 plant in Malta, and Germany, expanding its footprint in China with a fab in Chengdu, and adding capacity for mainstream technologies in Singapore.
“We continue to invest in capacity and technology to meet the needs of our worldwide customer base,” said company CEO Sanjay Jha. “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. These new investments will allow us to expand our existing fabs while growing our presence in China through a partnership in Chengdu.”
In the United States, GlobalFoundries plans to expand 14nm FinFET capacity by an additional 20 percent at its Fab 8 facility in Malta, with the new production capabilities to come online in the beginning of 2018.
This expansion builds on the approximately $13 billion invested in the U.S. over the last eight years, with an associated 9,000 direct jobs across four locations and 15,000 jobs within the regional ecosystem.
Jha said Malta will continue to be the center of leading-edge technology development for 7nm and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, with 7nm production planned for 2018.
In Germany, GlobalFoundries plans to build up 22FDX 22nm FD-SOI capacity at its Fab 1 facility in Dresden to meet demand for the Internet of Things (IoT), smartphone processors, automotive electronics, and other battery-powered, wireless-connected applications, growing the overall fab capacity by 40 percent by 2020. Dresden will continue to be the center for FDX technology development. GlobalFoundries engineers in Dresden are already developing the company’s next-generation 12FDXTM technology, with customer product tape-outs expected to begin in the middle of 2018.
Jha said in China, GlobalFoundries and the Chengdu municipality have formed a partnership to build a fab in Chengdu. The partners plan to establish a 300mm fab to support the growth of the Chinese semiconductor market and to meet accelerating global customer demand for 22FDX. The fab will begin production of mainstream process technologies in 2018 and then focus on manufacturing GlobalFoundries’ commercially available 22FDX process technology, with volume production expected to start in 2019.
In Singapore, GlobalFoundries will increase 40nm capacity at its 300mm fab by 35 percent, while also enabling more 180nm production on its 200mm manufacturing lines. The company will also add new capabilities to produce its industry-leading RF-SOI technology.
“GlobalFoundries has had a strong foundry relationship with Qualcomm Technologies for many years across a wide range of process nodes,” said Roawen Chen, senior vice president, QCT global operations, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We are excited to see GlobalFoundries making these new investments in differentiated technology and expanding global capacity to support Qualcomm Technologies in delivering the next wave of innovation across a range of integrated circuits that support our business.”
“Collaborative foundry partnerships are critical for us to differentiate ourselves in the competitive market for mobile SoCs,” said Min Li, chief executive officer of Rockchip. “We are pleased to see GlobalFoundries bringing its innovative 22FDX technology to China and investing in the capacity necessary to support the country’s growing fabless semiconductor industry.”
“As our customers increasingly demand more from their mobile experiences, the need for a strong manufacturing partner is greater than ever,” said Joe Chen, co-chief operating officer of MediaTek.