Global Foundries goes global

SEMICONDUCTOR FOUNDRY Global Foundries has officially completed the merger of its operations with those of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, giving it fabs across Asia, Europe and the US.

According to Global Foundries boss Doug Grose, the ever increasing pace of chip design is creating an increasingly competitive market, making it imperative to be partnered with a full-service foundry.

"Thanks to the vision of our investors and months of dedicated work by teams across the globe, we have now created a new global company that leads the foundry market in advanced technology with unparalleled proximity to our customers and access to the world's best talent," he said.

The completed integration makes it the biggest semiconductor foundry around after Intel, with more than 150 customers across the industry including the likes of AMD, Qualcomm, STMicro and IBM.

Employing around 10,000 people worldwide, the combined company is headquartered in Silicon Valley, with five 200mm fabs as well as 300mm fabs in Singapore and Dresden. There are already plans underway to expand Fab 1 in Dresden and Fab 7 in Singapore, as well as construction of a new 300mm facility - Fab 8 - in Saratoga County, New York, which is on track to begin ramping initial production in 2012.

These are supported by R&D, design enablement and customer support in Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, Germany and the UK.

As well providing strong competition, Global Foundries reckons this expansion will provide a range of collaborative R&D, design and packaging opportunities. As well as promising top time-to-volume on 40 and 45nm technology the company is pushing its development of 32nm and 'Gate First' High-K Metal Gate technology. µ