GlobalFoundries

Overview

As of 2015, the firm owned ten fabrication plants. Fab 1 is in Dresden, Germany. Fabs 2 through 7 are in Singapore. Fabs 8 through 10 are in the northeast United States. These sites are supported by a global network of R&D, design enablement, and customer support in Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Fab 1

Fab 1, located in Dresden, Germany is a 364,512 m² plant which was transferred to GlobalFoundries on its inception: Fab 36 and Fab 38 were renamed Module 1 and Module 2, respectively. Each module can produce 25,000 300 mm diameter wafers per month.

Module 1 is a 300 mm wafer production facility. It is capable of manufacturing wafers at 65 nm and 45 nm for use in AMD CPUs, APUs, 32 nm SOI HKMG silicon, 28 nm PolySION, HKMG CPUs, APUs and future 22 nm FDSOI. Module 2 was originally named "(AMD) Fab 30" and was a 200 mm fab producing 30,000 Wafer Outs Per Month (wopm), but has now been converted into a 300 mm wafer fab. Together they have a maximum full capacity of 80,000 of 300 mm wafers/month. (180,000 200 mm wafers/month equivalent), using technologies of 45 nm and below.

In September 2016, GlobalFoundries announced Fab 1 would be refit to produce 12 nm Fully Depleted Silicon on insulator products. The company expected customer's products would begin to tape out in the first half of 2019.

Fab 7

Fab 7, located in Singapore, is an operational 300 mm Fab, originally owned by Chartered Semiconductor. It produces wafers at 130 nm to 40 nm on bulk CMOS and SOI processes. It has a maximum full capacity of 50,000 300 mm wafers/month (112,500 200 mm wafers/month equivalent), using 130 to 40 nm technology.

Fab 8

Fab 8, located in Luther Forest Technology Campus, Saratoga County, New York, United States is a new 300 mm Fab. This fabrication plant was constructed by GF as a green field fab for advanced technologies. It is capable of manufacturing 14 nm node technology. The plant's construction began in July 2009 and the company started mass production in 2012. It has a maximum manufacturing capacity of 60,000 of 300 mm wafers/month, or the equivalent of over 135,000 of 200 mm wafers/month. in September 2016, GlobalFoundries announced it would make a multibillion-dollar investment to refit Fab 8 to produce 7 nm FinFET parts starting in the second half of 2018. The process is planned to initially use Deep ultraviolet lithography, and eventually transition to Extreme ultraviolet lithography.

Fab 10

Fab 10, located in East Fishkill, New York, USA, was previously known as IBM Building 323. It became part of GlobalFoundries operations with the acquisition of IBM Microelectronics. It currently manufactures technology down to the 22 nm node.

200 mm fabrication facilities

All 200 mm fabs except Fab 9 are located in Singapore, and originally owned by Chartered Semiconductor.

Fab 2

Fab 2 is located at Singapore capable of manufacturing wafers at 600 to 350 nm for use in selected automotive IC products, High Voltage power management IC and Mixed-signal products.

Fab 3/5

Fab 3/5 is capable of manufacturing wafers at 350 to 180 nm for use in high voltage IC's for small panel display drivers and mobile power management modules.

Fab 3E

Fab 3E produces 180 nm wafers for use in selected automotive IC products, High Voltage power management IC and Mixed-Signal products with embedded non-volatile memory technology.

Fab 6

Fab 6 is a full copper fab that is capable of highly integrated CMOS and RFCMOS products for applications such as Wi-Fi / Bluetooth at 180 to 110 nm processes.

Fab 9

Fab 9, located in Essex Junction, Vermont, USA, near Burlington, Vermont, became part of GlobalFoundries operations with the acquisition of IBM Microelectronics. The fab manufactures technologies down to the 90 nm node. The site also hosts a captive mask shop, with development efforts down to the 7 nanometer node.

Merger with Chartered Semiconductor

The majority investor of GlobalFoundries, Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Co., announced on September 6, 2009, that it has agreed to acquire Singapore-based Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., for a total of $3.9 billion, with Chartered's operations being folded into GlobalFoundries.

Chartered Semiconductor is a member of the Common Platform, IBM's semiconductor technology alliance. GlobalFoundries is a JDA partner of Common Platform Technology Alliance.

Acquisition of IBM's chip-manufacturing unit

In October 2014, GlobalFoundries received US$1.5 billion from IBM to accept taking over IBM's chip-manufacturing business unit, including a 200 mm fab (now Fab 9) in Essex Junction, Vermont, and a 300 mm fab (now Fab 10) in East Fishkill, New York. As part of the agreement, GlobalFoundries will be the sole provider of IBM's server processor chips for the next 10 years. The deal closed on July 1, 2015.