Global Foundries to manufacture ST 40-nm low-power bulk silicon
First tape out and production of ST products by Global Foundries is planned to start in 2010.
By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- EDN, July 29, 2009
In a big step forward for Global Foundries, the AMD manufacturing spin-off today announced it has secured STMicroelectronics as its first customer for leading-edge, low-power bulk silicon technology.
The agreement will see Global Foundries produce products based on 40-nm low-power bulk silicon technology for the European powerhouse company. Global Foundries pointed out that a 40-nm low-power process is ideal for the next generation of wireless applications, handheld devices, and consumer electronics, which require increased performance and longer battery life. First tape out and production of ST products by Global Foundries is planned to start in 2010.
“When we launched Global Foundries, our long-term vision was to bring a new business model to the foundry market and to become the partner of choice for the largest and most innovative semiconductor design and manufacturing companies,” said Doug Grose, Global Foundries' CEO, in a statement this morning. “With the addition of an industry-leader in low-power technology like STMicroelectronics we now begin to deliver on this vision. We look forward to harnessing our full capabilities for ST to provide best-in-class service in bringing their 40-nm design innovation to life in high volumes and at mature yields.”
In addition to its work with Global Foundries, ST has several fabs of its own in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region. ST also has manufacturing agreements in place with the top two foundries, TSMC and UMC.
Today's announcement came on the heels of ST's Q2 and first half earnings statement, issued Tuesday afternoon. According to that statement, ST saw Q2 revenue of $1.993 million, up 20% sequentially, principally driven by stronger-than-expected performance across most market segments including computer, automotive, telecom and industrial, and in China and the Asia-Pacific. The company also noted that its "strong actions on fab loading to reduce inventory levels" have led to a reduction in inventories of almost $400 million in the first half. ST said that has accelerated inventory turns sequentially to 4.1 turns from 2.9 turns.
“To ensure ample capacity for our customer/partners at the leading-edge of low-power design, ST needs an agile and high-performance manufacturing partner that can adapt to our changing needs,” said Jean-Marc Chery, ST's executive VP and CTO, in today's statement. “With a strong commitment to manufacturing and technology excellence at the leading-edge, we believe Global Foundries is an excellent partner to collaborate on low-power design innovation in 2010 and beyond.”
Global Foundries production is currently centered at a 300-mm manufacturing campus in Dresden, Germany, known as Fab 1. Late last week, the company announced it had broken ground on Fab 2, a $4.2 billion wafer manufacturing facility in Malta, NY.
