STMicroelectronics and GlobalFoundries Inc. have agreed to establish and jointly operate a 300mm semiconductor manufacturing facility in France. Particularly, the planned facility will be adjacent to ST’s existing 300mm facility in Crolles.

More importantly, the two companies target to ramp at full capacity by 2026, with up to 620,000 300mm wafer per year production at full build-out.

ST and GF have committed to building capacity for their European and global customer base to support several technologies. Particularly, technologies include FD-SOI-based and will cover multiple variants. This includes GF’s market leading FDX technology and ST’s comprehensive technology roadmap down to 18nm. They expect this to remain in high demand for automotive, IoT, and mobile applications for the next few decades.

FD-SOI technology has origins in the Grenoble (France) area. It has been part of ST technology and product roadmap in its Crolles facility since the early beginnings. Later, it became available commercially for manufacturing at GF’s Dresden facility.

FD-SOI offers substantial benefits for designers and customers, including ultra-low power consumption as well as easier integration of additional features such as RF connectivity, mmWave and security.

Highlights Advanced Technologies

ST and GF will receive significant financial support from the State of France for the new facility. This facility will strongly contribute to the objectives of the European Chips Act, including the goal of Europe reaching 20 percent of worldwide semiconductor production by 2030.

In addition, aside from multi-year investment in advanced semiconductor manufacturing in Europe, it will support the leadership and resilience of the European technology ecosystems. This ranges from R&D to large-volume manufacturing. Furthermore, it also aims to support European and global customers with additional capacity in complex, advanced technologies for key end-markets. This includes automotive, industrial, IoT, and communication infrastructure. The new manufacturing facility will be a substantial contributor to global digital and green transformations. Consequently, it will deliver key enabling technologies and products. Moreover, it will also generate additional employment at the ST Crolles site, with additional 1,000 new staff, and across its ecosystem of partners, suppliers, and stakeholders.

Jean-Marc Chery, President and CEO of STMicroelectronics said they expect the new facility to support the company’s US$20-billion-revenue goal. Most importantly, he said they will have more capacity to support European and global customers as they transition to digitalization and decarbonization.

“ST is transforming its manufacturing base. We already have a unique position in our 300mm wafer fab in Crolles, France. We continue to invest into our new 300mm wafer fab in Agrate (near Milan, Italy), ramping up in H1 2023 with an expected full saturation by end 2025.” In addition, Chery said they are also ramping up investments in their vertically-integrated silicon carbide and gallium nitride manufacturing.

Expands GF’s Europe Presence

The new facility will include GF dedicated foundry capacity for customers offering GF’s unique innovation. GF personnel will manage onsite. This jointly operated, new manufacturing capacity expansion leverages ST’s Crolles existing facility infrastructure. Hence, enabling GF to accelerate growth while benefiting from economies of scale to deliver additional capacity in a highly capital efficient manner on our differentiated 22FDX platform.

Meanwhile, Dr. Thomas Caulfield, CEO at GF said, “With today’s announcement, we are expanding GF’s presence within Europe’s dynamic technology ecosystem and reinforcing our position as the leading semiconductor foundry in Europe.”

“Our global footprint enables GF to not only meet our customers capacity needs but also provides them supply chain security. The partnership investment with the French government, along with our long-term customer agreements, creates the right economic model for GF’s investment.”