The Franco-Italian electronic chip manufacturer STMicroelectronics and its American partner GlobalFoundries announced on Monday a new chip production site based in Crolles, near Grenoble, in Isère.
This new production site will be an extension of the existing 300mm chip factory owned by STMicroelectronics in Crolles.
This large-scale project, announced at the “Choose France” summit, should reach full capacity by 2026, with “an annual production of 620,000 300 mm wafers at full capacity”, describe the two carriers of the project in a press release.
This new high-volume production site will notably support FD-SOI technology, as well as STMicroelectronics’ complete technology roadmap down to 18nm, for automotive and other applications. The partners specify that the FD-SOI technology is part of STMicroelectronics’ technological and product roadmap in its Crolles plant. It was subsequently used in the GlobalFoundries factory in Dresden, Germany. “FD-SOI offers substantial benefits to designers and customers, including ultra-low power consumption as well as easier integration of additional features such as RF connectivity, mmWave and security,” the authors point out. partners.
The mega fabs supported by the Chips Act
While the shortage of semiconductors is expected to last until the beginning of 2023, STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries intend to leverage economies of scale at the Crolles site to accelerate the establishment of semiconductor production capacity in Europe. This objective will contribute to the objectives of the Chips Act. This new draft European regulation for chips aims to attract investors to Europe to build “mega fabs”, giant chip factories, and thus serve local needs. The EU had set itself the goal of supplying 20% of the world’s chips by 2030.
As a reminder, the American chipmaker Intel also unveiled, a few months ago, a massive plan in Europe, including a semiconductor manufacturing site in Germany, as well as an R & D center and a design for its foundry service in France.
The investment should also include financial support from the French state, specify the two manufacturers, without specifying the amount of this aid. This is in line with the France 2030 plan, where nano-electronics is one of the priority segments. The project led by ST and GF will make it possible to “more than double production capacity in France in the technologies that will be at the heart of the needs of our industries by 2030 and beyond will very significantly contribute to strengthening French industrial resilience and in terms of component supply”, says the Elysée in a communication during Choose France.
Supplying European customers
The project leaders undertake to “better supply low-volume European customers, in particular start-ups, SMEs and ETIs which have been the companies most affected in the current crisis”.
“This new production unit will support our ambition to achieve a turnover of more than 20 billion dollars. The collaboration with GF will allow us to go faster, lower risk thresholds and strengthen the European FD-SOI ecosystem. We will have more capabilities to support our European and global customers in their transition to digitization and decarbonization,” said Jean-Mary Chery, CEP of STMicroelectronics.
The new facility will include dedicated foundry capacity for GlobalFoundries, managed by GF staff on site. “With today’s announcement, we are expanding GF’s presence within Europe’s vibrant technology ecosystem and strengthening our position as Europe’s leading semiconductor foundry,” added Thomas Caulfield, CEO. from GF.