ESSEX JUNCTION — Semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries has secured $30 million in federal funding to accelerate development of chips that will allow devices to connect more quickly to the internet and power electric vehicles.
The chips will be developed and manufactured at the company’s plant in Essex Junction.
GlobalFoundries executives announced the funding Monday morning at a press conference in a tent in front of the massive plant, also known as Fab 9, alongside U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who secured the funding in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2022.
The plant has already been making the gallium-nitride-on-silicon chips for weapons platforms for the U.S. Department of Defense. Gallium nitride is a material that can resist higher temperatures than silicon and operate at very high voltages.
“These chips have a unique ability to handle very high heat and power levels,” said Thomas Caulfield, president and chief executive of GlobalFoundries.
The funding will be used to commercialize the technology.
According to company officials, the chips would increase performance and efficiency in 5G and 6G smartphones, radio frequency wireless infrastructure, electric vehicles, industrial motors, power grids and solar energy.
Caulfield and Ken McAvey, the general manager of the Essex Junction facility, joined Leahy for the announcement, which was also a celebration of the senator’s long-standing support for the plant. The main entrance to the plant has been renamed for Leahy.
“The leadership and dedication of Sen. Leahy has been instrumental to the growth and success of semiconductor innovation and manufacturing in Vermont,” Caulfield said.
GlobalFoundries officials said the company would use the money to buy tools and extend the development and manufacturing of 200-millimeter gallium nitride wafers, which the semiconductors are imprinted upon. Caulfield said the company would become the only major manufacturer to make the large wafers, which are more cost-effective than smaller wafers.
“The resulting chips will enable batteries that are smaller, charge faster and lose less power that will be used in automobiles, phones, cell towers, industrial robots around the world,” Caulfield said.
More than 2,000 GlobalFoundries employees and 800 contractors work at the Essex Junction plant making chips used in smartphones, automobiles and communications equipment, making it Vermont’s largest private employer, McAvey said.
Most smartphones in the world contain chips made at the Essex Junction plant, McAvey and Caulfield said.
Caulfied said GlobalFoundries has invested $750 million in the plant since 2015, when the company acquired IBM’s microelectronics division.
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October 17, 2022 at 11:57PM
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GlobalFoundries secures $30 million in federal funding to develop advanced chips at Essex Junction plant - vtdigger.org
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