GlobalFoundries Files Patent Claims Against TSMC, Seeks to Ban Imports of Nvidia, Apple Chips

[tom´s Hardware, LINK] GlobalFoundries (GF) today announced that it filed lawsuits against Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in the U.S. and Germany over the alleged infringement of 16 patents. The company said that it's looking to halt the import of processors made with the technologies and is seeking "significant damages from TSMC based on TSMC’s unlawful use of GF’s proprietary technology in its tens of billions of dollars of sales." Impacted companies include Nvidia and Apple.

 

 

 

In summary 20 defendants:

Foundry: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC)
Fabless chip designers: Apple, Broadcom, Mediatek, nVidia, Qualcomm, Xilinx
Electronic component distributors: Avnet/EBV, Digi-key, Mouser
Consumer product: Arista, ASUS, BLU, Cisco, Google, HiSense, Lenovo, Motorola, TCL, OnePlus
 

GF Patents in the cases (16): The technologies at issue relate to the advanced semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing those devices. See table below.

Accused Infringing Technologies (5): TSMC 7nm, 10nm, 12nm, 16nm , 28nm

Globalfoundries Sells Off Photomask Assets to Toppan - tools and technology to transfer to AMTC in Dresden Germany

Following its decision to focus on specialized process technologies last August, Globalfoundries has been consolidating its assets as well as selling off businesses and facilities that are not essential for its current strategy. To that end, this week the company announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell off its Fab 9's photomask operations and IP to Toppan Photomasks. The latter will, in turn, provide photomask production services to GlobalFoundries in the coming years. 

 

Under the terms of the agreement, Toppan Photomasks, a division of Toppan Printing Co., will acquire certain assets of Globalfoundries' photomask facility in Burlington, Vermont. The tools and technologies from the Fab 9 will be transferred to Advanced Mask Technology Center (AMTC), a joint venture between Toppan Photomasks and Globalfoundries in Dresden, Germany.

 

Source: AnandTech LINK

 

GLOBALFOUNDRIES: GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Soitec Announce Multiple Long-term SOI Wafer Supply Agreements to Meet Accelerating Demand in 5G, IoT and Data Center

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Soitec Announce Multiple Long-term SOI Wafer Supply Agreements to Meet Accelerating Demand in 5G, IoT and Data Center.

 

Source: Design And Reuse  LINK

Semiconductor Foundry Landscape

Semiconductor Foundry Landscape Update 2019 by Daniel Nenni [SemiWiki]

The semiconductor foundry landscape changed in 2018 when GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Intel paused their leading edge foundry efforts. Intel quietly told partners they would no longer pursue the foundry business and GF publicly shut down their 7nm process development and pivoted towards existing process nodes while trimming headcount and repositioning assets.

"Today there are only two leading edge foundries left, TSMC and Samsung. TSMC is currently the foundry market leader and I see that increasing when mature CMOS process nodes that have second, third, and even fourth sources become obsolete and the unclonable FinFET processes take over the mature nodes."

 

Countinue reading: LINK 

 

 

GLOBALFOUNDRIES announces industry’s first 300 mm SiGe foundry technology

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Announces Industry’s First 300mm SiGe Foundry Technology to Meet Growing Data Center and High-Speed Wireless Demands

Santa Clara, Calif., November 29, 2018 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced its advanced silicon germanium (SiGe) offering, 9HP, is now available for prototyping on the company’s 300mm wafer manufacturing platform. The move signifies the strong growth in data center and high-speed wired/wireless applications that can leverage the scale advantages of a 300mm manufacturing footprint. By tapping into GF’s 300mm manufacturing expertise, clients can take advantage of increased production efficiency and reproducibility for high-speed applications such as optical networks, 5G millimeter-wave wireless communications and automotive radar.

Globalfoundries Fab 10 in East Fishkill, NY

 

GF is the industry leader in the manufacturing of high-performance SiGe solutions on its 200mm production line in Burlington, Vermont. The migration of 9HP, a 90nm SiGe process, to 300mm wafers manufactured at GF’s Fab 10 facility in East Fishkill, N.Y., continues this leadership and establishes a 300mm foothold for further roadmap development, ensuring continued technology performance enhancements and scaling.
“The increasing complexity and performance demands of high-bandwidth communication systems have created the need for higher performance silicon solutions,” said Christine Dunbar, vice president of RF business unit at GF. “GF’s 9HP is specifically designed to provide outstanding performance, and in 300mm manufacturing will support our client’s requirements for high-speed wired and wireless components that will shape future data communications.”

GF’s 9HP extends a rich history of high-performance SiGe BiCMOS technologies designed to support the massive growth in extremely high data rates at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies for the next generation of wireless networks and communications infrastructure, such as terabit-level optical networks, 5G mmWave and satellite communications (SATCOM) and instrumentation and defense systems. The technology offers superior low-current/high-frequency performance with improved heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) performance and up to a 35 percent increase in maximum oscillation frequency (Fmax) to 370GHz compared to its predecessors, SiGe 8XP and 8HP.

Client prototyping of 9HP on 300mm at Fab 10 in East Fishkill, N.Y. on multi-project wafers (MPWs) is underway now, with qualified process and design kits scheduled in 2Q 2019.

For more information on GF’s SiGe solutions, contact your GLOBALFOUNDRIES sales representative or visit globalfoundries.com.

Globalfoundries Fab 11 will ramp straight on to 22nm FD-SOI process for Chinese customers

[Andantech] Fab 11 was/is built as a partnership between GlobalFoundries and the Chengdu municipality. The original plan for the Chengdu fab included two phases with an aggregated capacity of approximately 1,000,000 wafers per year when both operate at full capacity. The first phase was to start operations in 2018 and process around 20,000 wafers per month using mainstream 180/130 nm fabrication technologies originally developed by Chartered for various general-purpose chips. The second phase was to begin operations in 2019, use GlobalFoundries’ 22FDX process and gradually expand its capacity to 65,000 wafers per month. At the same time, one of the terms of the agreement between GF and the Chengdu municipality was to develop an FD-SOI ecosystem locally.

 

 

Based on various reports, GlobalFoundries has failed to land orders for chips to be made using bulk 180/130 nm fabrication processes. As a result, the company will not equip its Fab 11 for those processes, but instead will jump straight to 22FDX. So far, GlobalFoundries has landed orders from six customers in China for 22FDX chips and these clients are currently ramping up their wafers at Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany.

“Given GlobalFoundries' renewed focus on differentiated offerings and discussions with potential clients, we have decided to bypass the original phase-one investment in mainstream process technology,” a GlobalFoundries executive said in an interview with DigiTimes. “In order to meet demand from China for differentiated offerings including our 22FDX technology, we have to revise the original timeline in order to better align capacity.”

 

Source: Andantech LINK

Globalfoundries, Chengdu government realign JV strategy

Globalfoundries and the Chengdu municipality have signed an amendment to their investment and cooperation agreement. Based on market condition changes, Globalfoundries' renewed focus on differentiated offerings and discussions with potential clients, the two firms have decided to bypass the original phase one investment in mainstream process technology (180/130nm). It is also agreed that the project's timeline will be adapted to better align capacity to meet demand from China for differentiated offerings including Globalfoundries' 22FDX technology.

 

With more than US$2 billion of design wins and more than 50 client designs, Globalfoundries' 22FDX technology is demonstrating traction as the industry's leading platform for power-optimized chips across a broad range of high-growth applications such as automotive, 5G connectivity and IoT. Globalfoundries' China-based clients have begun to adopt the technology at Globalfoundries' advanced manufacturing site in Dresden, Germany, including seven customers and more than nine products in various stages of manufacturing ramp.

Source: DIGITIMES LINK

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Extends FinFET Offering with New Features to Enable Tomorrow's Intelligent Systems

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Extends FinFET Offering with New Features to Enable Tomorrow's Intelligent Systems.

 

Santa Clara, Calif., September 25, 2018 – As part of the company's new focus on intensifying investment in differentiation, GLOBALFOUNDRIES announced today at its annual Global Technology Conference (GTC), plans to introduce a full set of new technology features to its 14/12nm FinFET offering. The features are designed to deliver better scalability and performance for applications in high-growth markets such as hyperscale datacenters and autonomous vehicles.

Source: Design And Reuse LINK

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Reshapes Technology Portfolio to Intensify Focus on Growing Demand for Differentiated Offerings

Santa Clara, Calif., August 27, 2018 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced an important step in its transformation, continuing the trajectory launched with the appointment of Tom Caulfield as CEO earlier this year. In line with the strategic direction Caulfield has articulated, GF is reshaping its technology portfolio to intensify its focus on delivering truly differentiated offerings for clients in high-growth markets.

GF is realigning its leading-edge FinFET roadmap to serve the next wave of clients that will adopt the technology in the coming years. The company will shift development resources to make its 14/12nm FinFET platform more relevant to these clients, delivering a range of innovative IP and features including RF, embedded memory, low power and more. To support this transition, GF is putting its 7nm FinFET program on hold indefinitely and restructuring its research and development teams to support its enhanced portfolio initiatives. This will require a workforce reduction, however a significant number of top technologists will be redeployed on 14/12nm FinFET derivatives and other differentiated offerings.

Globalfoundries Fab 8 Malta, NY (picture credit Globalfoundries.com).

“Demand for semiconductors has never been higher, and clients are asking us to play an ever-increasing role in enabling tomorrow’s technology innovations,” Caulfield said. “The vast majority of today’s fabless customers are looking to get more value out of each technology generation to leverage the substantial investments required to design into each technology node. Essentially, these nodes are transitioning to design platforms serving multiple waves of applications, giving each node greater longevity. This industry dynamic has resulted in fewer fabless clients designing into the outer limits of Moore’s Law. We are shifting our resources and focus by doubling down on our investments in differentiated technologies across our entire portfolio that are most relevant to our clients in growing market segments.”

The Foundries are aiming at AI chip orders in China with 10/14nm advanced process technologies

[Cage Chao, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES] Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), and the China-based production subsidiaries of both Globalfoundries and United Microelectronics (UMC) are looking to expand their advanced node offerings for the China market to include 10/14nm as they vie for orders from the local AI chip supply chain, according to industry sources.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) newly-established Nanjing fab, which has entered directly 16nm FinFET chip production since April 2018, has enjoyed robust orders from China-based AI chip developers eager to accelerate the adoption of advanced process technologies, the sources indicated.

China-based foundries including SMIC, and Globalfoundries' and UMC's production subsidiaries locally have informed their customers they will be capable of providing 10/14nm node manufacturing starting the second half of 2018 or 2019, the sources disclosed.These foundries are looking to catch up with TSMC in China's market for advanced process technologies, the sources said.

Source: Digi Times LINK

Globalfoundries updates on 7 nm and may skip 5 nm

[AnandTech]High-ranking executives of GlobalFoundries this month gave several updates concerning future plans of the contract maker of semiconductors. As it appears, in a bid to provide more tangible advantages to its customers and not to invest in short-lasting nodes, the company is mulling skipping 5 nm manufacturing technology like it did with the 10 nm fabrication process. In addition, the company admits that its only leading-edge fab may not have enough capacity for all of its customers at 7 nm, and some of its clients may need to work with other foundries to meet their demand. 

 

7LP On Track for HVM, But Capacities Are Concern Gary Patton, CTO of GlobalFoundries, said in an interview with EETimes that the company’s first-generation 7LP process technology (7 nm leading performance), which relies exclusively on DUV step and scan systems, is on-track for high-volume manufacturing in the second half of this year. One of the first customers to use this tech will be AMD, which briefly announced its 7LP Vega GPU for a couple of times already. Not everything is rosy with 7LP though.

Full article : LINK

AMD will start sampling GPUs and CPUs based on 7nm later this year for full production in 2019

AMD reviled that their revenue was $1.65 billion, up 40 percent year-over-year and 23 percent quarter-over-quarter, driven primarily by higher revenue in the Computing and Graphics segment. During their 1Q/2018 earnings call (23rd of April 2018) with analysts AMS announced that they will start sampling GPUs and CPUs based on 7 nm later this year using both TSMC and Globalfoundries and ramp to full production in 2019. 7 nm Foundry and 10 nm Intel logic are roughly comparable in pitch and it will be interesting to follow AMD and Intel product launches the next year since Intel just announced they will be pushing out their 10 nm production to 2019.  Please find the statements  relating to 7 nm manufacturing below:

We have a 7-nanometer GPU based on Vega that we'll sample later this year. We have a 7-nanometer server CPU that we'll sample later this year. And then, obviously, we have a number of products that are planned for 2019 as well. So it's a very, very busy product season for us. But we're pleased with the sort of the execution on the product roadmap.

So our foundry strategy is to use both TSMC and GLOBALFOUNDRIES on the first 7-nanometer product. We are using TSMC for that product [the Vega GPU mentioned above] and we have a very strong relationship with them. And so, we do see a good momentum on it from what we see, and I'm not concerned about capacity.

7-nanometer Zen 2 based product we'll sample later this year to customers and that will be in production in 2019, and we do believe that the adoption rate of the second-generation could potentially be higher than the adoption rate of the first-generation, mostly because customers will be more familiar with our systems and our products. And so, we'll see how it goes, but we certainly – our overall goals are ambitious in the server space. 

I think as we look forward, and I think this is important, we believe that the 7-nanometer capability of the foundry ecosystem is very good, and that puts us in a good competitive spot from a manufacturing standpoint.

- Lisa T. Su - Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Full Call Transcript as supplied by Seeking Alpha : LINK 

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Toppan Photomasks extend advanced photomask joint venture in Germany

GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. (GF) and Toppan Photomasks, Inc. (TPI) today announced a multi-year extension to their Advanced Mask Technology Center (AMTC) joint venture in Dresden, Germany. Opened in 2002, the AMTC provides GF’s fabs in Dresden, Malta and Singapore with high-end production and development masks at world-class cycle times in support of the foundry’s ambitious technology roadmap. The AMTC also supports TPI customers worldwide from Dresden.

Owned equally by TPI and GF, the AMTC joint venture was previously extended in 2012 to further increase tool capability and capacity. This new extension to the agreement aims to continue the current charter for manufacturing production masks as well as developing mask technology for ever smaller geometries. GF is both TPI’s partner in the joint venture and a strategic and critical customer, while TPI is GF’s preferred mask supplier, leveraging AMTC and TPI’s global manufacturing network to support GF’s worldwide operations.

Full article in Solid State Technology : LINK

Globalfoundries announces optics strategy on 300 mm wafers

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 6, 2018 — Semiconductor foundry GlobalFoundries Inc. has announced details of its “silicon photonics roadmap” that aims to enable the next generation of optical interconnects for data center and cloud applications.

The company has now qualified a 90-nm manufacturing process using 300-mm wafers while also unveiling its upcoming 45-nm technology to deliver higher bandwidth and energy efficiency. GlobalFoundries’ silicon photonics technologies are designed to support the data of today’s global communication infrastructure. Instead of traditional interconnects that transmit data using electrical signals over copper wires, silicon photonics technology uses pulses of light through optical fibers to move more data at higher speeds and over longer distances, while also minimizing energy loss.

Source: Photonics LINK

GlobalFoundries to Soon Pilot 7nm and EUV Production

GlobalFoundries is pushing ahead with a plan to pilot EUV and 7nm production. We recently got a chance to sit down with the company and talk about its plans for the future.

Source: ExtremeTech LINK

Globalfoundries: Next-generation chip factories will cost at least $10 billion

The economics of the chip industry are pretty staggering. Sanjay Jha, CEO of contract chip manufacturer Globalfoundries, recently told me that it could cost between $10 billion and $12 billion to build a next-generation chip factory, based on the latest technology, dubbed 7-nanometer production. And the generation after that, dubbed 5-nanometer production, could cost $14 billion to $18 billion

Source: VentureBeat LINK

Globalfoundries to roll out 12nm FinFET technology for high-performance devices

Globalfoundries has announced plans to introduce a new 12nm leading-performance (12LP) FinFET semiconductor manufacturing process. The technology is expected to deliver better density and a performance boost over Globalfoundries' current-generation 14nm FinFET offering, satisfying the processing needs of the most demanding compute-intensive applications from artificial intelligence and virtual reality to high-end smartphones and networking infrastructure.

 

Source: DIGITIMES LINK

Accordig to a press release by Global foundries besides transistor-level enhancements, the 12LP platform will include new market-focused features specifically designed for automotive electronics and RF/analog applications—two of the fastest-growing segments in the industry.

• Emerging automotive applications in vehicle safety and automated driving require a combination of processing power and extreme reliability. The 12LP platform delivers both, with plans for Automotive Grade 2 qualification at Fab 8 by Q4 2017.
• A new RF offering extends the 12LP platform for RF/analog applications such as premium-tier transceivers in sub-6GHz wireless networks. 12LP offers the best scaling in both logic and memory for RF chip architectures with primarily digital and less RF/analog content.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES on Track to Deliver Leading-Performance 7nm FinFET Technology

Santa Clara, Calif., June 13, 2017 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced the availability of its 7nm Leading-Performance (7LP) FinFET semiconductor technology, delivering a 40 percent generational performance boost to meet the needs of applications such as premium mobile processors, cloud servers and networking infrastructure. Design kits are available now, and the first customer products based on 7LP are expected to launch in the first half of 2018, with volume production ramping in the second half of 2018.

Globalfoundries Fab8 in NY, USA

 

In September 2016, GF announced plans to develop its own 7nm FinFET technology leveraging the company’s unmatched heritage of manufacturing high-performance chips. Thanks to additional improvements at both the transistor and process levels, the 7LP technology is exceeding initial performance targets and expected to deliver greater than 40 percent more processing power and twice the area scaling than the previous 14nm FinFET technology. The technology is now ready for customer designs at the company’s leading-edge Fab 8 facility in Saratoga County, N.Y.

Globalfoundries announces a Global expansion

Globalfoundries announced a Global expansion today.  Investments across existing and new Fabs announced, all connected by growing customer demand.

Santa Clara, Calif., February 9, 2017 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced plans to expand its global manufacturing footprint in response to growing customer demand for its comprehensive and differentiated technology portfolio. The company is investing in its existing leading-edge fabs in the United States and Germany, expanding its footprint in China with a fab in Chengdu, and adding capacity for mainstream technologies in Singapore.

 

In Germany, GF plans to build up 22FDX® 22nm FD-SOI capacity at is Fab 1 facility in Dresden to meet demand for the Internet of Things (IoT), smartphone processors, automotive electronics, and other battery-powered wirelessly connected applications, growing the overall fab capacity by 40 percent by 2020. Dresden will continue to be the center for FDX technology development. GF engineers in Dresden are already developing the company’s next-generation 12FDXTM technology, with customer product tape-outs expected to begin in the middle of 2018.

In China, GF and the Chengdu municipality have formed a partnership to build a fab in Chengdu. The partners plan to establish a 300mm fab to support the growth of the Chinese semiconductor market and to meet accelerating global customer demand for 22FDX. The fab will begin production of mainstream process technologies in 2018 and then focus on manufacturing GF’s commercially available 22FDX process technology, with volume production expected to start in 2019.

Continue:  https://t.co/R2nMYWJSa0

Global expansion for GF! Investments across existing & new Fabs announced, all connected by growing customer demand https://t.co/R2nMYWJSa0 pic.twitter.com/h3iblgnLLH

— GLOBALFOUNDRIES (@GLOBALFOUNDRIES) February 10, 2017

GLOBALFOUNDRIES launches embedded MRAM on 22FDX platform

GLOBALFOUNDRIES today introduced a scalable, embedded magnetoresistive non-volatile memory technology (eMRAM) on its 22FDX platform, providing system designers with access to 1,000x faster write speeds and 1,000x more endurance than today’s non-volatile memory (NVM) offerings. 22FDX eMRAM also features the ability to retain data through 260°C solder reflow, industrial temperature operation, while maintaining an industry-leading eMRAM bitcell size.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ eMRAM will be offered initially on its 22FDX platform, which leverages the industry’s first 22nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology. This versatile eMRAM technology is designed for both code storage (flash) and working memory (SRAM) to enable ultra-efficient memory sub-systems that can be power cycled without any energy or performance penalty. The power efficiency of FDX and eMRAM, coupled with the available RF connectivity IP, makes 22FDX an ideal platform for battery-powered IoT products and automotive MCUs.