May 2, 2022
The public-private partnership provides a critical supply of U.S.-made and secure semiconductors for the nation’s most sensitive defense and aerospace applications.
MALTA, N.Y.—Semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries Inc. (GF) has entered a $117 million agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to supply U.S.-made semiconductors that are critical to national security systems. The first chips from the agreement are targeted for delivery in 2023, GF said in a release.
The chips will be securely manufactured in New York at GF’s most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility, its Fab 8 foundry in Malta. They will be used in some of the nation’s most sensitive defense and aerospace applications, the company said.
“GF is proud to be a longtime supplier to the U.S. Government, and we remain deeply committed to meeting the semiconductor technology needs of the Department of Defense, as well as the technologies so critical to our national security,” said GF CEO Tom Caulfield, in the release. “The strong public-private partnership demonstrated with this new supply and tech transfer agreement is an excellent example of the impact federal collaboration and investment in semiconductor manufacturing can have on strengthening domestic supply chains.”
The new agreement, building upon a longstanding partnership between the DoD and GF, provides the DoD with a supply of semiconductor chips manufactured on GF’s differentiated 45nm SOI platform. It calls for manufacturing of the chips to be transferred to GF’s Fab 8 from GF’s Fab 10 in East Fishkill, New York.
The technology transfer to Fab 8 will provide continuity of supply for the DoD. It will also enable GF to continue offering its 45nm SOI platform to commercial customers after GF’s Fab 10 transitions to ON Semiconductor, GF said in the release.
“Our partnership boosts the national economy, while also securing a strategic and reliable supply of chips needed by the U.S. government for aerospace, defense, and other mission-critical applications,” Caulfield said.
GlobalFoundries said that it employs nearly 3,000 people at Fab 8 and has invested more than $15 billion in the facility. The facility is reported to be in compliance with U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and highly restrictive Export Control Classification Numbers under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). GlobalFoundries is also working with the U.S. government to secure classified status for Fab 8, the company said.
“This agreement with GlobalFoundries will strengthen the domestic microelectronics industrial base, as part of the nation’s effort to sustain its semiconductor manufacturing capability necessary for national and economic security,” the DoD said in a statement. “Our agreement will ensure access to 45nm SOI semiconductors critical to DoD strategic systems, and is the latest collaboration in the longstanding partnership between the DoD and GF to provide silicon-based semiconductors for defense aerospace applications.”
GlobalFoundries noted the importance of its experience with ITAR and EAR regulations, in addition to the secure manufacturing at Fab 8 and the classified manufacturing taking place at Fab 9 in Vermont and at Fab 10. These factors, the company said, “are key to the GF Shield Program and GF’s embracing its role as the nation’s most secure and trusted semiconductor manufacturer.”
The GF Shield program is said to extend to GF commercial customers a level of key safeguarding and protection principles that are modeled on those GF uses to manufacture semiconductors for government entities.
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