Foundry Company to Expand Manufacturing Operations

GlobalFoundries Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based semiconductor foundry, announced that it will expand its manufacturing operations in several countries.

As part of the expansion, the company will build an additional wafer manufacturing facility in Dresden, Germany, and expand the cleanroom shell currently under construction at its Fab 8 facility in Malta, N.Y.

At the companys Dresden manufacturing campus, Fab 1, GlobalFoundries will construct a new facility that will add nearly 110,000 square feet of cleanroom space. The expansion will enable the site to scale output up to 80,000 wafers per month over the next two years, according to the company.

According to GlobalFoundries, Fab 1 is the largest wafer fabrication facility in Europe, and its equipment will cover an area equivalent to approximately eight soccer fields. While the company expects the expansion to begin producing output in 2011, the project is subject to the approval of a state aid package by the German authorities and the European Commission.

The company also plans to expand Fab 8, its new facility currently under construction at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta, N.Y. The expansion will increase the size of the cleanroom shell by approximately 90,000 square feet, bringing the total available cleanroom space to approximately 300,000 square feet, equivalent to roughly six soccer fields of state-of-the-art wafer fabrication equipment.

The total facility, which includes more than 1.3 million square feet of space, is expected to come online in 2012, with volume production targeted for early 2013, according to the company.

Expansion Also Planned in the Middle East, Singapore

In addition to the expansion projects in Germany and New York, GlobalFoundries majority shareholder, Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC), announced initial plans for the creation of an advanced technology cluster in Abu Dhabi. The site, adjacent to Abu Dhabi International Airport, is ideally suited to house a future advanced technology cluster in the region with close proximity to regional transportation hubs and physical infrastructure, according to the company.

The goal for the site is to be the Middle Eastern hub of a global technology and manufacturing network to support the long-term deployment of capital for ATIC portfolio companies, in capital-intensive advanced technologies, according to GlobalFoundries.

GlobalFoundries also is continuing with its previously announced expansion at Fab 7 in Singapore to reach an output level of 50,000 wafers per month, an increase of nearly 50% from current levels, according to the company.