Looking to capitalize on the continuing chip crunch, GlobalFoundries this morning is asserting that the corporate is constructing a brand new chip fab in Singapore, with the groundbreaking going down instantly. The unnamed fab will probably be becoming a member of the corporate’s present cluster of fabs in Singapore, and as soon as absolutely ramped up in late 2023, will probably be able to processing 450Okay 300mm wafers per yr. The fab is the primary of a bigger, three part plan for the foundry, which with investments from clients and the Singapore authorities, will probably be spending $four billion to assemble the brand new fab.
Like the remainder of the chip lithography trade, GlobalFoundries is presently having fun with a booming market the place they will’t make chips quick sufficient to fulfill buyer demand. Even with a number of fabs situated in Singapore, Dresden, and the US, the corporate is working at capability and might be promoting extra chips if they may make them. To that finish, the corporate is getting ready to make the primary of a number of deliberate capability expansions, beginning with its fab cluster in Singapore.
Keeping consistent with GlobalFoundries’ pivot in direction of extra specialised processes for particular lessons of chips, the brand new fab goes to be targeted on bigger course of nodes. GloFo is principally investing in capability for his or her automotive, 5G mobility and safe machine clients, which implies including capability for his or her 55nm BiCMOS course of for RF, in addition to their 40nm processes for embedded reminiscence and RF. A small a part of the fab’s capability can be being put aside for 90nm. And, since this fab is being constructed with trendy instruments, the corporate is being fast to emphasise that these allocations aren’t static, and that a lot of their instruments are fungible, permitting them to be moved between completely different strains as dictated by demand.
Owing to the distinctive processes being employed and the general chip crunch – which even after it diminishes isn’t anticipated to totally abate any time quickly – GloFo is fast-tracking the event of this new fab. With development already underway (and the formal groundbreaking set for immediately), the corporate expects the fab to supply its first business wafers in early 2023, solely round 18 months from now. And by the point the fab is absolutely ramped up on the finish of 2023, the 250,000 sq. ft of unpolluted room area will probably be able to processing 450Okay wafers per yr (~38Okay/month). Overall, this marks an almost 50% improve in GloFo Singapore’s capability, bringing the full capability for operations there to 1.5M 300mm wafers per yr.
Funding for the $four billion fab, in flip, is coming from a couple of sources. According to GlobalFoundries, a part of the funding for the fab is coming immediately from clients, who’re pre-paying for the capability. As nicely, Singapore’s Economic Development Board is being listed as a accomplice. And lastly, with GlobalFoundries simply turning a revenue, the corporate has a lot simpler entry to loans and different types of borrowing than it has in earlier years.
Overall, this marks the subsequent step in an essential turnaround for the contract fab, which was spun-off from AMD virtually 13 years in the past. Though GlobalFoundries’ plans to compete as a bleeding-edge fab finally fell to the wayside because of the ever-increasing prices of R&D, the corporate has discovered a brand new function as a large-scale supplier of older and extra specialised manufacturing processes. As a outcome, GloFo is lastly a financially profitable chip fab, and with that success comes the necessity to broaden. Once completed, the brand new Singapore fab would be the first brand-new (and never acquired) fab to be constructed by the corporate in a number of years.
Meanwhile, Singapore is simply the primary of a number of deliberate additions for the contract chip fab. Mindful of the present political local weather and each main nation’s want to safe native…
