eenewseurope.com, Jun. 06, 2025 –
GlobalFoundries (GF) is reported to be spending €1.bn to double production at its chip fab in Dresden, Germany over the next few years.
This comes as the company reported $3bn additional funding for its CMOS fab in Malta, New York and its gallium nitride (GaN) fab in Vermont. The company had already announced $13bn of funding for the sites as well as the recently launched New York Advanced Packaging and Photonics Center. However the US administration is pulling back on support for the Vermont and packaging centres.
Whether this is part of the current EU CHIPS Act, or part of the negotiations for the next CHIPS Act remains to be seen. The current EU CHIPS Act has been criticized by European auditors for a lack of transparency on the provision of funding and the outcomes and benefits.
The investment in Dresden will see a doubling of production to 1.5m wafers a year in several years’ time. The fab is key for the 22nm 22FDX FD-SOI low power process technology used for power and RF devices and also provides 28nm, 40nm and 55nm processes for devices such as automotive and IoT microcontrollers.
GF and indie Semiconductor have a strategic partnership to develop 77 GHz and 120 GHz radar systems-on-chip (SoC) on 22FDX for safety-critical advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) chips. It also works with Bosch on a single chip radar sensor on 22FDX.
GF is also working with Ayar Labs on the industry’s first Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) optical interconnect chiplet using a monolithic photonics platform.
The fab currently has 60,000 square meters of cleanroom space and employs around 3,200 people. It had been looking for €1bn of funding under the second IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) which was approved in June 2023.