To bolster the domestic microelectronics industrial base, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has made a $117 million award to GlobalFoundries to advance its semiconductor technologies. The award comes as part of a Defense Production Act Title III Agreement in pursuit of boosting domestic microelectronics manufacturing capability for national and economic security. It is also in support of Executive Order 14017 pertaining to protecting America’s supply chains.
As part of the agreement/award, GlobalFoundries will transfer its 45-nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) semiconductor manufacturing process from its Fab 10 facility in East Fishkill, NY to its Fab 8 facility in Malta, NY (the figure shows the town's annual Armed Forces Day Parade). This switch is part of a follow-on effort from an $8 million award from the DoD in 2021 in which GlobalFoundries performed initial engineering baseline activities needed for the full process transfer. Because 45-nm SOI semiconductors are widely used in DoD electronic circuits, this agreement will ensure availability and access to those semiconductors needed for critical military electronic systems and subsystems. GlobalFoundries is also at work on a new fabrication facility at its Malta site that's expected to bring 1000 new jobs to the site and to serve growing demand for feature-rich integrated circuits (ICs). The new fabrication facility will help fill national and global semiconductor wafer shortages.
The DoD agreement is part of a long-running relationship between the U.S. DoD and GlobalFoundries. SOI semiconductor technology has proven to provide the performance needed for high-frequency analog and high-speed-digital (HSD) devices while maintaining high reliability under the hostile operating conditions of space and the battlefield.