GlobalFoundries Inc. is the world's second largest^[3] independent semiconductor foundry, with its headquarters located in Milpitas, California. GlobalFoundries was created by the divestiture of the manufacturing side of AMD on March 2, 2009, and was expanded through its merger with Chartered Semiconductor on January 13, 2010. The Emirate of Abu Dhabi is the largest investor in the company via its subsidiary ATIC. On March 4, 2012, AMD has announced that they have divested their final 14% stake in the company, which concludes AMD's multi-year plan to divest its manufacturing arm ^[4].

GlobalFoundries manufactures integrated circuits in high volume mostly for semiconductor companies such as AMD, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and STMicroelectronics.

The company has five 200mm fabrication plants in Singapore, and two 300 mm fabrication plants each in Germany and Singapore, as well as a new 300mm fabrication plant under construction in Saratoga County, New York in the United States.^[5]

Overview[link]

GlobalFoundries services the manufacturing needs of its customers through its high volume foundry services. It currently owns eight fabrication plants. Fab 1 is in Dresden, Germany. Fabs 2 through 7 are in Singapore, and a new plant, Fab 8, will be operational in the United States in 2012. 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. ^[6]

Fabrication facilities[link]

300mm fabrication facilities[link]

GlobalFoundries Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany

^[5]

Fab 1[link]

Fab 1, located in Dresden, Germany is a 364,512 m² plant. When transferred to GlobalFoundries in its inception, Fab 36 and Fab 38 were renamed Module 1 and Module 2, respectively. Each module can produce 25,000 wafers per month.^[5][7]

Module 1 is a 300mm wafer production facility. It is capable of manufacturing wafers at 65nm and 45nm for use in AMD CPUs, APUs, and future 32nm SOI HKMG silicon.

Module 2 is in a transition period, converting from 200mm to 300mm wafer production for 55nm and 40nm for use in chipsets, GPUs, and future 32nm and 28nm bulk HKMG silicon.

• Maximum full capacity: 80,000 of 300mm wafers/month. (180,000 200mm wafers/month equivalent)
• Technologies: 45 nm and below.

Fab 7[link]

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 is one of the most advanced fully automated fabs.^[5]

• Maximum Full Capacity: 50,000 of 300mm wafers/month. (112,500 200mm wafers/month equivalent)
• Technology: 130 to 40 nm.

Fab 8[link]

Fab 8, located in Luther Forest Technology Campus, Saratoga County, New York, USA is a new 300 mm Fab. This fabrication plant was previously named Fab 4x when it was still part of AMD. It is going to be a new 28 nm wafer plant. The plant's construction began in July 2009 and the company expects to start mass production in 2012.^[5][8]

• Maximum Full Capacity: 60,000 of 300mm wafers/month. (More than 135,000 200mm wafers/month equivalent)
• Technology: 28 nm and below.

200mm fabrication facilities[link]

All 200 mm fabs are located in Singapore, and originally owned by Chartered Semiconductor.^[9]

Fab 2[link]

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.^[9]

• Maximum Full Capacity: 50,000 of 200mm wafers/month.
• Technology: 600 to 350 nm.

Fab 3/5[link]

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.^[9]

• Maximum Full Capacity: 54,000 of 200mm wafers/month.
• Technology: 350 to 180 nm.

Fab 3E[link]

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.^[9]

• Maximum Full Capacity: 34,000 of 200mm wafers/month.
• Technology: 180 nm.

Fab 6[link]

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.^[9]

• Maximum Full Capacity: 45,000 of 200mm wafers/month
• Technology: 180 to 110 nm.

Merger with Chartered Semiconductor[link]

The majority investor of GlobalFoundries, Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Investment Co., announced on Sept. 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.^[10]

Ajit Manocha is the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GlobalFoundries.^[11]

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

See also[link]

• ATIC
• AMD
• Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing
• TSMC
• List of Semiconductor Fabrication Plants

References[link]

External links[link]

• GlobalFoundries official web site
• GlobalFoundries 28nm Technology Videos
• Chip plant to hide use of taxpayer funds

Ajit Manocha is a semiconductor industry executive. He is currently serving as CEO of GlobalFoundries.^[1] Until recently, he was an advisor to ATIC and Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations and a member of the Executive Management Board at Spansion.^[2] At Spansion, Manocha managed global integrated circuit manufacturing, supply chain management and purchasing for its semiconductor division.^[3]

Earlier he was Executive Vice President and Chief Manufacturing Officer at NXP Semiconductors.^[4]

Manocha has also worked at AT&T Microelectronics and AT&T Bell Laboratories.^[5] Manocha began his career as a Research Scientist and was granted over a dozen U.S. and international patents for several novel inventions in the field of technology for microelectronics, including one for Anistropic etching that is a “process for treating patterned Very-large-scale integration lithographic masks to retain their shape during processing of VLSI wafers”.^[6][7]

Manocha currently serves on the Board of Directors for SVTC Technologies^[8][9] and Signet Solar.^[10] He has previously sat on the boards of International Sematech, the Crolles Alliance, ASMC and has also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of SSMC in Singapore.^[11] He holds a bachelor of science degree from the University of Delhi and a master's degree in physical chemistry from Kansas State University.^[12]

References[link]