A Global Tech Leader Rises in Upstate New York

Home , Empire State, Malta Test Station, SEMATECH

BFOct10_CoverStory_GF.vs5 10/14/10 3:11 PM Page 1

COVER STORY By Jack Rogers

A GLOBAL TECH LEADER RISES IN UPSTATE NEW YORK GlobalFoundries’ Fab 8 in Malta will be the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing facility in the world, producing microchips with components as small as 22 nanometers.

he autumn leaves are in the midst of their annual burst of color, but changing foliage isn’t the most spectacular development in Upstate New York this year. That honor belongs to GlobalFoundries’ Fab 8 project. Taking shape on the 1,414-acre Luther Forest Technology Campus in scenic Saratoga County is the world’s most advancedT semiconductor manufacturing facility. At the heart of this $4.2-billion project in Malta, NY stands the emerging shell of a 300,000-square- foot cleanroom that soon will begin churning out 300-mm wide semiconductor wafers with microchip circuits as small as 28 nanometers (28nm). Shortly after manufacturing commences in mid-2012 at Glob- alFoundries (GF), the microchip plant will take a great leap forward and become the world’s first facility to produce 300-mm microchips with components as small as 22 nanometers. For those of us who wouldn’t know a nanometer from a thermometer, here are some mind-bog- gling numbers: a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter; a water molecule is one nanometer, a germ is about 1,000 nanometers; a human hair is 100,000-nm thick. If you want to view a 22-nm com- ponent on a microchip, you’ll have to swap your reading glasses for a powerful atomic micro- scope. Nanoscale semiconductor components are the new frontier in the never-ending quest to jam more circuitry onto the chips that govern our electronic cyberworld. Ground was broken for the massive project in Malta in July 2009. GF will begin installing nearly $2 billion worth of highly sophisticated tooling at Fab 8 next summer and then take about 12 months to calibrate and qualify the tools. Ini- tial manufacturing runs, utilizing 210,000 square feet of cleanroom space, are slated to begin in the middle of 2012. By late 2012, more than 1,400 people will be employed at Fab 8, a number that could increase significantly if the foundry

decides in coming years to PHOTO CREDITS: GLOBALFOUNDRIES; APPLE: THINKSTOCK

10 OCTOBER 2010 BFOct10_CoverStory_GF.vs5 10/14/10 3:12 PM Page 2

ramp up to full capacity—60,000 gically pure work duds as they are air- Malta Test Station. Although the rock- wafers per month utilizing the entire blasted clean of dust and dander. ets themselves were launched in White 300,000 square feet of the shell. The nearly 2-square-mile Luther Sands, NM, Malta town fathers like to After commercial production starts, Forest campus boasts a redundant call Luther Forest “the birthplace of the GF complex is expected to gener- electric and telecommunications ate an annual payroll of more than infrastructure. Power for the GF $88 million; the project also will cre- semiconductor facility will be pro- ate an estimated 5,000 indirect jobs vided by National Grid, a major in the region, yielding a total annual regional utility. payroll of nearly $300 million for all of the jobs associated with Fab 8. FROM ROCKET FUEL TO MICROCHIPS More than 2,700 construction jobs The nanoscale semiconductors that have been created during the $800- GF will produce at the Malta fab are a million construction phase of Fab 8. far cry from previous incar- The GF facility is being equipped nations of the Luther For- with huge systems for water and air est site, which sits about a filtration/circulation. To create the half-mile from I-87. super-clean environment required In the 1950s, a 165- for semiconductor production, acre tract of the unused mammoth air handlers built into the forest was acquired by the third floor of the complex will com- federal government, with pletely recycle the air in the building local officials granting a every three minutes. The facility also one-mile easement to cre- will consume a staggering 3 million ate a “non-habitation gallons of water per day for multiple zone” suitable for testing rinses needed as solvents and other fuel for rocket engines. chemicals are used to etch tiny cir- General Electric, then cuits onto silicon wafers. building rocket engines in “There are about 1,000 steps in Schenectady for the space the manufacturing process, and program, operated what almost every one of those steps became known as the includes a rinse,” says Travis Bullard, GF’s public affairs and communica- tions manager. To ensure the water is pure enough for microchip production, standard city tap water (pumped from the Hudson River) will be filtered at the GF plant. After the rins- ing process, the water will be filtered again before being discharged into the local wastewater system. “The water actually will be cleaner when we discharge it then it was when we got it as tap water,” says Bullard. The GF complex also will include an administrative building and special “gowning” rooms where technicians The $4.2-billion GlobalFoundries Fab 8 semiconductor manufacturing facility is the crown jewel of the Luther Forest Technology Campus (map, center) in Saratoga County, NY. Fab 8 will be the most advanced semicon-

PHOTO CREDITS: GLOBALFOUNDRIES will doff grubby street clothes for sur- ductor plant in the world, producing 300-mm microchips with nanoscale circuit components.

BUSINESS FACILITIES 11 BFOct10_CoverStory_GF.vs5 10/14/10 3:12 PM Page 3

In the wake of the cleanup, NYSERDA, the Saratoga Economic Development Corp. (SEDC) and the University of Albany formed a joint effort to develop the Malta property as a technology park. This resulted in Saratoga Technology + Energy Park (STEP), the nation’s only tech park focused on clean energy and environ- mental technologies. SEDC, meanwhile, created the non-profit Luther Forest Tech Cam- pus and acquired an option to purchase 160 acres of Luther Forest. SEDC turned to local financial insti- tutions for funding to build road, More than 1,400 highly skilled workers will be sewer and water infrastructure for the employed by GlobalFoundries Fab 8 operation. non-profit entity. NASA.” An original gantry, still stand- “Luther Forest Tech Campus came ing in the center of the property, is to us 10 years ago and said you need being designated a national historic to come together and do something preservation landmark. out of the box to help the region and In 1964, the New York State move this project forward,” recalls Atomic and Space Development Brian Cassella, senior vice president Authority (ASDA) acquired the test of KeyBank. “They needed to build a site and an adjacent 280 acres, renam- tremendous amount of infrastructure ing it the Saratoga Research and for the site, but as a non-profit they Development Center and leasing it to The ingredients are didn’t have a cash flow and couldn’t weapons contractors. In 1975, the take out a mortgage.” New York State Energy Research and here“ for growth and suc- The non-profit asked several Development Authority (NYSERDA) banks to each pony up $5 million for became the successor agency to ASDA; cess and a better future. a $25-million revolving credit line, NYSERDA took ownership of the site We know that Upstate but the banks were skeptical. Eventu- and changed the site’s mission to energy ally, KeyBank acted on its own to research and development. New York can succeed... create the $25 million credit line that In 1984, NYSERDA sold off 81 today continues to service the tech acres in the core of the site to Wright- and America needs you campus infrastructure needs. Malta Corp., a GE spin-off that con- “As one the largest employers in tinued to conduct federal weapons to succeed. the region and one of the leading testing on the property (Wright- —President” Obama financial services companies, we Malta eventually bought all 165 acres knew we needed to step up and be of the original Malta Test Station the entire 445-acre site a Superfund involved,” Cassella says. property). NYSERDA maintained its designation in 1987. This initiated a In the late 1990s, New York State ownership of the adjacent 280 acres. 10-year cleanup focusing on ground identified seven industry sectors that The rocket-fuel program and water contamination. The federal the state intended to target as central other weapons testing in Malta left a EPA declared the property safe for to its growth strategy, including

legacy of toxic debris, which earned development in 1998. semiconductor manufacturing. In PHOTO CREDITS: GLOBALFOUNDRIES

12 OCTOBER 2010 BFOct10_CoverStory_GF.vs5 10/14/10 3:12 PM Page 4

2000, as the University of Albany vinced AMD to take a site tour of semiconductor “foundry” to pro- began to establish its leadership posi- Luther Forest, after which the site duce microchips as an independent tion in the emerging science of nan- selection competition for AMD’s new contractor. The new venture was otechnology, the Hudson Valley fab kicked into high gear. officially branded GlobalFoundries, region zeroed in on the semiconduc- The site selection process was and the AMD fab in Dresden was tor industry as a major driver of completed in June 2006, when folded into GF. regional growth. AMD announced they preferred GF’s trajectory took another turn In 2004, SEDC exercised its Upstate New York as the location for in January of this year when the ven- option to purchase the 160-acre their new fab over competing sites in ture acquired Chartered Semicon- Luther Forest tract, eventually Dresden, Singapore and Israel. Three ductor, a manufacturer with five fabs acquiring an additional 1,200 acres years later, shortly before ground was based in Singapore. So what began as of the surrounding “managed forest” broken in Malta, the project’s mis- a relatively modest expansion for from two groups that had been sion was dramatically altered when AMD will become, by the time the involved in the rocket technology AMD decided to spin off its semi- GF Malta fab opens in 2012, a initiatives in Malta. conductor manufacturing operations global powerhouse operating eight —to go “asset light” in fiscal parl- fabs on three continents (with a COLD CALL SPAWNS GLOBAL GIANT ance—and focus strictly on ninth production unit planned for In the fall of 2005, a “cold call” microchip design. Abu Dhabi). from SEDC to semiconductor giant AMD found a manufacturing According to SEDC President Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) partner in Advanced Technology Dennis Brobston, a combination of started a conversation that eventually Investment Corp. (ATIC), based in creative incentives coupled with the resulted in the GF project. At the time, Abu Dhabi. In March 2009, AMD site’s proximity to a bevy of high-tech AMD was planning to expand its semi- and ATIC formalized a joint ven- R&D facilities and a wealth of higher conductor manufacturing in Dresden, ture to create the first truly global education programs geared to the Germany by building a workforce needs of semiconductor second fab, which also manufacturing were key factors that was expected to be propelled Luther Forest to the front placed in Dresden. The ranks of candidate sites for the AMD call from SEDC con- fab that eventually became GF. Scientists work inside a state-of- “[AMD] took an extensive look at the-art 300mm wafer cleanroom what they considered their key crite- at CNSE’s Albany NanoTech Complex. ria for workforce and [found] our area was very well stocked. What really put Saratoga and the Luther Forest site on the map was the ability to be close to the ongoing R&D,” Brobston says. “We’ve had an awful lot of R&D going on in our area ever since GE came to Schenectady.” The SEDC president also notes that the initial influx of tech muscle from GE was amplified by government research, including a nuclear reactor that made Saratoga County a national center for the training of An aerial view of CNSE’s $6.5 billion Albany NanoTech Complex, skippers for the U.S. Navy’s nuclear the most advanced research enterprise of its kind in the world.

submarine fleet. PHOTO CREDITS: CNSE

14 OCTOBER 2010 BFOct10_CoverStory_GF.vs5 10/14/10 3:13 PM Page 5

NANOTECH CAPITAL OF THE WORLD by individual companies like state improvement over 45nm chips, with The capital region of Upstate New secrets until they are commercialized, a 20-percent reduction in power con- York has attracted so many first-class semiconductor design is a collabora- sumption. The technology also research facilities that Albany, NY is tive enterprise in which major players enabled the production of SRAM now billing itself as the “Nanotech have formed research alliances to cells that measure just 0.12 square Capital of the World.” At the heart of move the technology to the next level. microns. A major target market for this burgeoning nanotech empire is This is evidenced not only by the the 28nm technology is mobile the College of Nanoscale Science and dozens of top industry players work- Internet devices, offering lower Engineering (CNSE), a University of ing shoulder-to-shoulder in the CNSE power consumption in standby Albany research hub that is part of cleanroom in Albany, but also by the mode and extending battery life. the SUNY system. IBM Technology Alliance that pio- The partners jointly developing The $6.5-billion CNSE complex neered 28nm microchip technology. the 28nm technology include Sam- is a public-private facility unlike any- Just a few months after industry sung Electronics, Chartered Semi- thing that can be found elsewhere in leader Intel unveiled its 32nm tech- conductor Manufacturing, Infineon the academic world. It’s unique nology in early 2009, the IBM Tech Technologies and STMicroelectron- 80,000-square-foot cleanroom is a Alliance took the wraps off its devel- ics. These industry leaders were join hive of activity for more than 250 opment of the technology for 28nm at the 28nm announcement by a new leading semiconductor players as well transistors. As with Intel and IBM’s team member—GlobalFoundries. as students honing their high-tech 32nm chip designs, the 28nm chips A few months before the April skills. CNSE contracts out the use of use low-leakage high-k metal gate 2009 IBM Alliance announcement, a its cleanroom to a bevy of semicon- technology. IBM says the 28nm group calling itself the Common ductor industry giants, including chips can provide up to a 40-percent Platform Alliance (Chartered Semi- Intel, Sematech and AMD, who test performance conductor and Samsung Electronics) prototype tooling and chip design at announced that it had teamed up the complex. About 20 GF techni- with ARM to design a system-on- cians currently are working at CNSE, chip platform that used both 32nm validating the equipment that will and 28nm technology. The plat- eventually be deployed at Fab 8. form’s 32nm ARM Cortex processor Unlike other high-tech initiatives, was revealed at the Mobile World in which major advances are guarded Congress in February 2009. GlobalFoundries has made clear Ground was broken for GlobalFoundries Fab 8 its intention to leapfrog the design plant in July 2009. The facility will begin operations next summer and may eventually have the competition with its plans to have capacity to produce 60,000 wafers per month.. the Malta facility capable of producing microchips with 22nm components soon after commencing manufacturing next summer. Hundreds of specialized tools, some costing as much as $50 million each, are being installed at Fab 8. “We will start at 28nm and then we will quickly ramp to a more advanced 22nm, so we will actually be two generations ahead of what we are doing right now,” Bullard says. However, since GF has positioned

itself as a foundry, the most advanced PHOTO CREDITS: GLOBALFOUNDRIES

16 OCTOBER 2010 BFOct10_CoverStory_GF.vs5 10/14/10 3:13 PM Page 6

chips it produces will be manufac- moved its headquarters from Austin became the Sematech CEO last year tured under contract to leading semi- to CNSE after receiving approval for after 25 years with another leading conductor manufacturers around the a $300-million incentive package high-tech player in the Hudson Val- world as well as AMD. from New York State. Ambrust ley region, IBM in Fishkill, NY. “We’ve added more than 150 dif- ferent customers over the past 18 months, mostly through the process of acquiring Chartered,” Bullard says. Bullard also notes that GF believes it will have a competitive advantage over semiconductor giants with production centered in Asia, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., because the U.S. has stronger laws protecting intellectual property.

SEMATECH SETS UP SHOP IN ALBANY Sematech, the global consortium of leading computer chip makers (including Intel, HP and Toshiba) has had a presence on the CNSE campus in Albany since 2003. Earlier this month, Sematech announced that it will move the bulk of its remaining operations from Austin, TX to CNSE in Albany in January, bringing at least Delivering energy 100 new jobs to the complex. Semat- ech CEO Dan Armbrust announced safely, reliably, that Sematech’s manufacturing arm, known as International Sematech efficiently, and Manufacturing Initiative Inc. (ISMI), will relocate its headquarters to responsibly. CNSE’s nanotech complex. ISMI and private partners will www.nationalgridus.com invest a combined $80 million in the Albany operation, including $20 million in state money contributed through the Empire State Develop- ment Corp. Committed to Economic Development “New York State has put tremendous backing behind this initiative,” and Community Investment Armbrust said. “I think we’ve crossed www.shovelready.com the tipping point where there are enough entities that are investing here that we have to be here too.” In 2008, another Sematech sub- sidiary, International Sematech, #0701 at www.BusinessFacilities.com

BUSINESS FACILITIES 17 BFOct10_CoverStory_GF.vs5 10/14/10 3:14 PM Page 7

Sematech’s decision on the Albany established companies working to fabs for Intel, including Intel’s most relocation was seen as a blow to commercialize R&D, operates next recently completed fab in China. Austin’s ambitions to match Upstate door to the GF fab site. In fact, GF has The incredible universe of semi- New York stride-for-stride in the been leasing 40,000 square feet from conductor-related resources in semiconductor field. The Texas capi- NYSERDA and using it to house a Upstate New York made the location tal scored a major triumph earlier temporary headquarters for GF until choice for GF a slam-dunk, indicates this year when semiconductor manu- the venture can move into Fab 8. GF’s Bullard. “When people ask us facturer Samsung decided to invest In January, HVCC opened its why we are building this facility in $2.3 billion in an expansion of its TEC-SMART campus just down the upstate New York, our answer is that semiconductor facility in Austin. road from GF’s Malta complex. The it revolves around the three ‘Es’: eco- In addition to Albany’s CNSE, a TEC-SMART campus is equipped nomics, education and ecosystem,” cluster of higher-ed programs produc- with a 30,000-square-foot clean Bullard says. ing specialized degrees geared to room where students can get hands- Regarding the first ‘E’—econom- math- and engineering-intensive stud- on training on semiconductor manu- ics—Bullards notes that “incentives ies critical for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The HVCC were the biggest piece of the puzzle.” facturing are within shouting distance campus also has specialized class- of the GF facility in Malta. Hudson rooms for advanced alternative INCENTIVES LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD Valley Community College (HVCC), energy tech courses (solar/wind SEDC and New York State gained Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute energy and battery technology). the upper hand in the AMD site selec- (RPI), Schenectady County Commu- Meanwhile, RPI, one of the nation’s tion competition by tailoring a pro- nity College and Fulton Montgomery leading engineering schools, is posed incentives package to the semi- Community College all have graduate churning out graduates at its conductor manufacturer’s most programs that are producing qualified Renssalear Nanotechnology Center critical need: achieving the lowest pos- candidates with the technical skills to in Troy, NY that are ready to hit the sible cost per wafer start. SEDC began work at GlobalFoundries. ground running at GF’s fab. by interviewing experts in the semi- NYSERDA’s STEP campus, an A common thread linking the conductor industry and developed a incubator for start-ups and a venue for emerging GF cleanroom to clean- credible cost calculation that enabled rooms at other the agency to compare the potential semiconductor cost per wafer start at the Luther For- giants and the est site with competing locations in CNSE cleanroom Dresden, Singapore, and Israel. in Albany is the “We developed a matrix so that we general contractor knew the delta between us and those now building the other places,” explains J. Shelby Schnei- GF complex, der, director of marketing and eco- M&W Group. nomic development specialist at SEDC. Based in Stuttgart, “We were able to really help AMD Germany for understand that our incentives were nearly a century, based on their industry, so they could M&W specializes work out the kinks and tell us what they in high-tech manu- needed and what they didn’t need.” facturing projects. What emerged from this The contractor interactive process was a $1.2-billion built AMD’s Dres- incentives package—the largest pri- den fab and the vate-public investment in the history CNSE cleanroom, of New York State—including $650

GlobalFoundries CEO Doug Grose (left) with ATIC CEO Ibrahim Ajami (right) as well as several million in Empire Zone tax credits for PHOTO CREDIT: GLOBALFOUNDRIES

18 OCTOBER 2010 BFOct10_CoverStory_GF.vs5 10/14/10 5:13 PM Page 8

property tax abatement, $500 million Foundries when the joint venture In his speech at HVCC, the presi- in reimbursable cash for construction, was formed. dent recited a litany of recent joint and $150 million for research and “The incentives package was vital undertakings between academia and development earmarked for three to this project because it leveled the leading high-tech companies: facilities in New York (CNSE, Luther playing field,” SEDC’s Brobston “Students here are training full Forest Tech Campus, and an R&D declares. According to the SEDC time while working part time at GE facility in East Fishkill, NY). president, New York state officials Energy in Schenectady, becoming a The importance of the cost per realized early on that they needed to new generation of American leaders wafer metric was significantly magni- put at least $1 billion in incentives in a new generation of American fied when AMD decided to spin off on the table in order to compete with manufacturing,” he said. “IBM has its global semiconductor manufac- other locations, but they also had a partnered with the University of turing operations. good sense of the potentially huge Albany; their partnership in nan- “Cost per wafer is a very impor- return on their investment. otechnology is helping students train tant metric for us, especially as our “They looked at what Dresden in the industries in which America manufacturing operations transition had done with the amount of money has the potential to lead. Rensselaer from a manufacturing group that that was given for the fab there, and is partnering not only with this insti- was making wafers in-house for the money that Texas threw in for the tution, but with businesses through- AMD to a company that’s a contract Samsung semiconductor project,” out the Tech Valley. And early next manufacturer,” explains GF’s Brobston says. “They also knew that year, Hudson Valley Community Bullard. “Now we truly are a the [German] state of Saxony had College’s TEC-SMART training foundry, so cost is a huge concern for undertaken a study of what the pay- facility is set to open side-by-side us as a contract manufacturer.” back would be and determined they with GlobalFoundries semiconduc- According to Bullard, the New would get between $3-4 billion in a tor plant.” York team’s willingness to build in short time frame.” Obama remembered a quotation flexibility in the disbursement of its from the former U.S. Senator from incentives was a major competitive PRESIDENT OBAMA HAILS THE FUTURE New York, Robert F. Kennedy: advantage for the Luther Forest site The high-tech hub that straddles “The future is not a gift. It is an in the location selection process. the scenic Hudson River in Upstate achievement.” “Semiconductor manufacturing is NY has garnered recognition from the “We are a people with a seemingly a very capital intensive business, and highest levels of the U.S. government limitless supply of ingenuity and dar- timing is really critical. You have to as one of the nation’s leading centers ing and talent,” Obama said. “That is bring products to market at exactly of 21st-century research, develop- what led to the building of the Erie the right time—if it’s too early or too ment and commerce. Canal which helped put cities like late you can really cost your whole President Obama visited Hudson Troy on the map, that linked east and business,” says Bullard. “We told Valley Community College in Troy, west and allowed commerce and com- New York state that [in terms of tim- NY last fall and hailed the cooperation petition to flow freely between. That is ing] the new fab precisely to the mar- between business and higher educa- what led an inventor and shrewd busi- ket, we didn’t know exactly when we tion that is making the region known nessman named Thomas Edison to can start construction or exactly as Tech Valley a global leader in high come to Schenectady and open what when we can bring it online. So the technology. Obama was introduced by is today a thriving mom-and-pop state agreed to give us a two-year Vice President Joseph Biden’s wife, Jill, operation known as General Electric.” window, which ran from July 2007 who has been a teacher at community “We know that Upstate New York to July 2009, [to initiate the use of colleges for three decades. can succeed,” Obama concluded. “And the incentives.]” “The ingredients are here for we know that in a global economy— The state also provided quick growth and success and a better where there is no room for error and approval to transfer the incentive future,” Obama said. “You are prov- certainly no room for wasted potential benefits from AMD to Global- ing that here in Hudson Valley.” —America needs you to succeed.”

BUSINESS FACILITIES 19