4 April 2011

GLOBALFOUNDRIES partners with IMEC

GLOBALFOUNDRIES of Milpitas, CA, USA has signed a strategic long-term partnership on sub-22nm CMOS scaling and gallium nitride-on-silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology with nanoelectronics R&D center IMEC of Leuven, Belgium, as well as becoming a full IMEC core CMOS partner.

Launched in March 2009 through a partnership between microprocessor maker AMD of Sunnyvale, CA and the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, GLOBALFOUNDRIES claims to be the world’s first full-service semiconductor foundry with a global manufacturing and technology footprint. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the firm has manufacturing operations in Singapore (through acquisition of silicon foundry Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing in January 2010), Germany, and a new fab under construction in Saratoga County, NY, USA. These sites are supported by a global network of R&D, design enablement, and customer support in Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, the USA, Germany, and the UK.

IMEC’s sub-22nm core CMOS program aims to develop processes that can be used in high-volume manufacturing of future logic and memory ICs. The program encompasses material and device studies, tool and process step exploration, integration options and advanced characterization towards process technology platforms for the next generation of ICs, as well as exploring and developing the options for further generations.

The firm will also collaborate on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, device technology for logic and memory, nano-interconnects and 3D integration together with other integrated device manufacturers (IDMs), foundries, fabless and fablite companies, equipment and material suppliers who are part of the IMEC research ecosystem.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES is also joining the IMEC GaN research program, which targets high-performance, cost-effective GaN devices on silicon. This program brings together IDMs, foundries, compound semiconductor companies, equipment suppliers and substrate suppliers to develop 8-inch GaN technology on silicon.

“Partnering with GLOBALFOUNDRIES is very important for IMEC and our partners since it strengthens our collaboration with foundries and thus also the ecosystem we offer in our programs to IDMs and the fabless and fablite community,” says IMEC’s president & CEO Luc Van den hove. “We expect this partnership to give a further boost to our research programs over the coming years,” he adds.

“GLOBALFOUNDRIES has long embraced a collaborative approach to R&D innovation based on a model of shared objectives and shared investments with partners around the world,” says the firm’s VP of alliances, David Bennett. “The mission and capabilities of IMEC are highly complementary to our current collaborative R&D approach and will add another important dimension to our technology pipeline.”

Tags: GLOBALFOUNDRIES IMEC CMOS GaN-on-Si

Visit: www.globalfoundries.com

Visit: www.imec.be

Join Semiconductor Today's LinkedIn networking and discussion group