Last year, GlobalFoundries signed a contract with the US Department of Defense to produce chips for defense and aerospace projects.
Yesterday, the parties signed an agreement worth $117 million, under which deliveries of 45 nm GlobalFoundries products on SOI substrates will begin in 2023. The Fab 8 plant in New York State will produce the chips, and these products will be the first defense order for the enterprise.
Historically, IBM factories have worked for the Pentagon. GlobalFoundries was not allowed to do such work for reasons of secrecy, which also did not change after the transfer of two IBM factories into the hands of GlobalFoundries. Three years ago, GlobalFoundries started selling factories in order to optimize costs. In particular, she agreed to transfer the former IBM Fab 10 plant to ON Semiconductor by the end of 2022. Consequently, military orders from this enterprise had to be transferred somewhere and GlobalFoundries began to turn the Fab 8 plant into a regime facility.
The Fab 8 enterprise cannot yet boast of full compliance with the requirements of secrecy, as it was at IBM factories. Nevertheless, this GlobalFoundries plant already operates according to the rules of such US regulatory documents as ITAR (Rules of International Arms Trade) and EAR (Rules of Export Administration). Time will pass, and Fab 8 will receive the full status of secret production, as it was in its time with IBM factories. The start of work on a contract with the Pentagon was the first sign in this area.
According to the orders of the military, GlobalFoundries will produce chips on 300 mm SOI plates. This is the so-called silicon on the insulator. The presence of an insulating layer under the silicon layer significantly reduces leakage currents and makes the chips as energy efficient as possible. By the way, the military is not confused by the fact that the chips will be produced using a 45-nm process technology. For their purposes, 3- and 5-nm semiconductors are unnecessary and even harmful, since they are much more sensitive to external influences.
