GlobalFoundries and STMicroelectronics Finalize Agreement for 300mm Semiconductor Fab in France

[TheLostSwede]

GlobalFoundries Inc., a global leader in feature-rich semiconductor manufacturing, and STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, announced today the conclusion of the agreement to create a new, jointly-operated, high-volume semiconductor manufacturing facility in Crolles (France), which was announced on 11 July 2022.

"I would like to thank Minister Le Maire, the French Minister of the Economy and Finance, and his team for their support and the dedication for the last 12+ months that have made celebrating today's milestone possible," said Dr. Thomas Caulfield, President and CEO of GlobalFoundries. "In partnership with ST in Crolles, we are further expanding GF's presence within Europe's dynamic technology ecosystem while benefiting from economies of scale to deliver additional capacity in a highly capital efficient manner. Together we will deliver GF's market leading FDX technology and ST's comprehensive technology roadmap, in alignment with customer demand which is expected to remain high for Automotive, IoT, and Mobile applications over the next decades."




"Today marks an important milestone for ST, for GF as well as for Europe. This could not have been achieved without the support of the French government as well as of the European Commission," said Jean-Marc Chery, President and CEO of STMicroelectronics. "We will further reinforce the European and French FD-SOI ecosystem, building more capacity for our European and global customers in complex, advanced technologies for key end-markets including automotive, industrial, IoT and communication infrastructure, as they transition to digitalization and decarbonization. This new manufacturing facility will support our $20 billion+ revenue ambition."

The program represents an overall projected cost of 7.5 billion euro for CAPEX, maintenance and ancillary costs. The new facility will benefit from significant financial support from the State of France (administered by Bpifrance). The aid measure, in line with the objectives set out in the European Chips Act and part of the "France 2030" plan, recently received approval from the European Commission.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Minus Infinity]

Wow, that's a tiny fab. Will the workers even fit?

 

[Gargf]

A 300 mm node, it's important not to be overly ambitious.

 

[Aquinus]

A 300 mm node, it's important not to be overly ambitious.

I suspect that size of the node directly impacts production capacity and there may be other reasons for the large transistors such as the voltage range that it runs. Not all transistors need to be as small as possible. Something like voltage regulators and other relatively simple ICs would be a good use case for this.

If I was doing a project with my Pi Pico and needed to buffer a signal or do level shifting, I probably don't need to be using an IC with a bleeding edge node to do that.

 

[seronx]

It is going to be the 22FDX node; of which it will have a capacity of 30,000 wafers per month by 2026:

Also, it has an official designation that is GF12/Fab12:

STM-side will be supporting 18FDS and 8FDS*.
(*guessed name for 10nm node given: 28FDS -> 18FDS -> 8FDS)
Which will have a non-competitive capacity of 21,700 wafers per month.