Global Foundries, Santa Clara, Calif., says it will invest more than $2 billion at its Fab 8 facility in Malta, in upper New York state, to produce cutting-edge 7nm computer chips that will offer high performance for the next era of computing applications. This technology provides more processing power for data centers, networking, premium mobile processors, and deep learning applications.
The 7nm FinFET technology is expected to deliver more than twice the logic density and a 30% performance boost compared to today’s 16/14nm foundry FinFET products. The platform is based on an industry-standard FinFET transistor architecture and optical lithography, with EUV compatibility at key levels. This approach will accelerate the production ramp through significant re-use of tools and processes from the company’s 14nm FinFET technology, which is currently in volume production at its Fab 8 facility.
“The industry is converging on 7nm FinFET as the next long-lived node, which represents a unique opportunity for us to compete at the leading edge,” said Global Foundries CEO Sanjay Jha. “We are well positioned to deliver a differentiated 7nm FinFET technology by tapping our years of experience manufacturing high-performance chips, the talent and know-how of our former IBM Microelectronics colleagues, and the world-class R&D pipeline from our research alliance. No other foundry can match this legacy of manufacturing high-performance chips.”
To enable customers to accelerate adoption of 7nm FinFET technology, the company has expanded its strategic partnership with Invecas beyond 14LPP and FDX processes to now include foundry IP development for 7nm process technologies. This will provide customers with a strong foundation to build early designs that meet their performance, power, and area requirements.
The 7nm FinFET technology will be supported by a full platform of foundation and complex intellectual property (IP), including an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) offering. Test chips with IP from lead customers have already started running in Fab 8. The technology is expected to be ready for customer product design starts in the second half of 2017, with ramp to risk production in early 2018.
The company employs 3000 in Malta, and is owned by the government-backed Mubadala Development Company in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
