Times Union: School to house research center
Published:
Tuesday, February 9, 2016 - 16:43
I wanted to share the following article with you from the Albany Times Union:
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="383"]
Workers at SUNY Polytechnic Institute's NanoFabX building on Monday, Feb. 9, 2016 working on a lithography tool. A new five year, $500 million lithography center will employ 100 workers in the same building working on EUV lithography. (Courtesy SUNY Poly)[/caption]
Albany
The Cuomo administration is set to announce Tuesday that it has reached a deal with GlobalFoundries to create a $500 million computer chip research center at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany that will focus on introducing extreme ultraviolet lithography into the manufacturing process.
The center, known as the Advanced Patterning and Productivity Center, or APPC, will lead to the creation of 100 new jobs and build upon work already done by IBM in the EUV arena.
GlobalFoundries will run the center along with SUNY Poly as well as IBM, Tokyo Electron and other industry suppliers and chip makers. No state money is involved.
The announcement is perhaps the most significant for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's push to make New York state a semiconductor industry leader since SUNY Poly was awarded a $110 million federal grant to create a photonics institute in Rochester.
"Today's announcement is a direct result of Gov. Cuomo's innovation-driven economic development model," Alain Kaloyeros, president of SUNY Poly, said. "His strategic investments supporting the state's world-class nanotechnology infrastructure and workforce have made us uniquely suited to host the new APPC, which will enable the continuation of Moore's Law and unlock new capabilities and opportunities for the entire semiconductor industry."
Moore's Law is a semiconductor industry theory that chip makers should be able to double computer power every two years by shrinking the size of transistors on chips. The idea has helped to drive the industry's substantial profits as the price per transistor has dropped and the chip technology has advanced.
However, making those smaller and smaller chip patterns has become increasingly difficult as the feature sizes start reaching atomic levels. The patterning machines are known as lithography tools, and those using extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, light, are expected to be used when components reach the 7-nanometer level.
The new APPC will allow GlobalFoundries to eventually incorporate EUV at its Fab 8 computer chip factory in Malta, home to 2,900 workers. Fab 8 is GlobalFoundries' most advanced factory and is currently working on 14-nanometer chips, with 10-nanometer chips in development. After that would come 7-nanometer chips.
GlobalFoundries has worked with IBM on next-generation computer chip development. But GlobalFoundries acquired IBM's chip manufacturing operations last year and has been pushing to make SUNY Poly the center of its research operations along with its Malta fab.
IBM has been operating its own EUV machine at SUNY Poly for several years and used the $200 million piece of equipment made by the Dutch company ASML to make the world's first 7-nanometer prototype chip with working transistors last year. Through the APPC, a second ASML EUV machine will be ordered and installed at the SUNY Poly building where the other EUV machine is located.
"GlobalFoundries is committed to an aggressive research road map," Gary Patton, the chief technology officer at GlobalFoundries, said. "With the recent acquisition of IBM Microelectronics, GlobalFoundries has gained direct access to IBM's continued investment in world-class semiconductor research and has significantly enhanced its ability to develop leading-edge technologies. Together with SUNY Poly, the new center will improve our capabilities and position us to advance our process geometries at 7 nanometer and beyond."
