Can Globalfoundries and Europe's chip firms unite?

Peter Clarke
EETimes Europe (July 16, 2015)

Globalfoundries' Dresden wafer fab could become the European More-than-Moore foundry that the local chip companies lacked the courage to commission. As such Globalfoundries could yet receive financial support from the European Commission to expand its presence in Europe.

If that seems like a stretch lets examine the clues.

Globalfoundries Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) is investing $250 million to develop and its own variant of a fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) manufacturing process and get it into production in Europe.

That's small beer compared with the billions of dollars spent in Malta, New York, which includes developing and then discarding a 14nm FinFET process and bring up an alternative 14nm FinFET process licensed from Samsung.

However, Globalfoundries says it is eager to spend more money to ramp production of 22nm FD-SOI in Europe if it becomes the winning process that CEO Sanjay Jha says it will (see Globalfoundries' CEO on why FD-SOI and why now).

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