GE, SUNY Poly reveal possibility in forum

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="453"] Thomas Caulfield, general manager of GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 factory, right, speaks during the Northeast Semi Supply Conference on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany, N.Y. Joining him is Michael Liehr, executive vice president of Innovation and Technology at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)[/caption]

Albany

A full-scale factory could be in the future of the Capital Region if a $500 million power electronics manufacturing consortium takes off, General Electric Co. and SUNY Polytechnic Institute said.

The disclosure came Wednesday at a semiconductor supplier conference.

GE and SUNY Poly announced the creation of the Albany consortium in July to commercialize GE's silicon carbide technology for use in power electronics chips.

The chips could be used in everything from airplanes to electric cars and wind turbines.

Today, the chips that handle power in electronic devices are made from silicon wafers, like their logic chip counterparts that are the brains of smart phones and computers.

But silicon carbide, which has the strength of diamonds, is more durable and can handle much more electricity and heat than silicon. As a result, the chips can be made much smaller, and cheaper.

The group formed by GE and SUNY Poly, known as the New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium,  is building a manufacturing line at SUNY Poly's Albany campus that is expected to be ready by 2017 and would serve a variety of industrial customers, including GE.

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By Larry Rulison

Updated 7:32 am , Thursday, April 16, 2015