Semiconductor chip maker Intel Corp. is investing in the next generation of computer chip factories, and this development is of particular interest to Mohawk Valley EDGE, which is seeking to bring a computer chip plant to Oneida County.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, a founder of the Global 450 Consortium in Albany, has entered into a series of agreements with ASML to accelerate the development of 450-millimeter wafer technology and a new lithography process totaling about $4.1 billion. ASML makes multimillion dollar machines that are used at the heart of the semiconductor making process.
Change in the semiconductor industry is looming as players within the industry push toward using 18-inch, or 450-millimeter, silicon wafers. Computer chips are made from the wafer. The 450-millimeter wafer is viewed as better than the current 300-millimeter, or 12-inch wafer, because 2.25 times more chips can be produced from the larger wafer, resulting in a substantial cost reduction in the manufacturing process.
Global 450 Consortium, also known as G450C, was formed by Intel and other companies like IBM last year to speed up advances in tools for making computer chips. Now, Intel has now gone even further and invested directly in a company that equips chip plants. The tooling needed for making chips from 450-millimeter wafers is still in the developmental stages. Current computer chip factories make chips on 12-inch wafers.
"There will be 450 (millimeter) plants built," said EDGE President Steven J. DiMeo. "There will be a need for new plants."
He said that one of the chip fabricators EDGE has talked with that’s interested in building a facility on a greenfield location, like the one in Marcy, was making plans for the 450-millimeter wafer.
DiMeo said Intel’s investment in AMSL, based in the Netherlands, demonstrates how committed it is to the industry’s transition to the larger wafer.
"They’re really stepping up in the development of the tool set that will be needed for the 450 process," he said of Intel.
One of the main historical complaints from equipment suppliers has been that too much of the burden in early wafer size increases had been placed upon them.
DiMeo said full-scale commercial production of chips using 450-millimeter wafers isn’t likely until the 2017-18 timeframe.
EDGE has been working for some 10 years to make a site on the SUNYIT campus in Marcy shovel ready for a computer chip maker.
Coincidentally, EDGE representatives were in San Francisco, Calif., earlier this week attending Sem Installation of solar panel atop main airport building has begun. This may be more photographic once panels start going up (expected later this week). Sentinel has written about this project in past. It is part of the airport’s goal of cutting energy costs. icon West, a trade show for the Semiconductor industry. Attending such events is part of EDGE’s ongoing marketing effort to bring the Marcy site to the attention of semiconductor firms and site selectors.
On Tuesday, Intel committed to ASML’s research and development programs to help accelerate deployment of new technologies for 450-millimeter wafers and extreme ultra-violet lithography by as much as two years. The company specializes in lithography machines that etch chip patterns onto the wafers, and industry experts have worried that the jump to 450 mm could not be achieved without advancements in lithography.
ASML, the world’s largest supplier of equipment to computer chip makers, said other large customers may also take equity stakes.
As chipmaking technology has progressed, investments in further improving the focus of beams has become increasingly difficult, and now requires sums of money so great no one company can risk taking them alone - and no chipmaker could afford to miss out on a serious advance in technology.
"This investment further underscores the pioneering vision and recognized leadership of Governor Andrew Cuomo in establishing New York as the global capital for the nanotechnology-driven economy of the 21st century," said Alain Kaloyeros, senior vice president and CEO of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany. "Catalyzed by the presence of the Global 450mm Consortium at the UAlbany NanoCollege, and with the partnership of a ‘who’s who’ of international technology leaders, New York is poised to lead the world in research, development and manufacturing for the next generation of computer chips, fueled by Governor Cuomo’s blueprint for expanding nanotechnology investments across upstate, which is already paying dividends, including in the Utica-Rome region."
In September 2011, Cuomo announced the establishment of the Global 450 Consortium at the College of Nanoscale Science’s Albany complex. The program is part of a larger $4.8 billion initiative that also includes nearly $3 billion in spending by IBM to shrink computer chip components.
