Pleased to share an article I wrote for Aviation Week Network about the $1.5 billion in funding that GlobalFoundries (GF) is receiving through the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act that will be used to manufacture secure chips in New York State and Vermont for A&D and other crucial markets. Excerpts below:
Malta, New York-based GF is the first semiconductor pure play foundry to receive an award of this size from the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to bulwark domestic semiconductor manufacturing, supply chains and national security. A key purpose of the award is to fund construction of a new state-of-the-art fab (semiconductor production facility) on GF’s Malta campus to meet expected customer demand for domestically manufactured essential chips for aerospace, defense, artificial intelligence and the automotive sector. The funding will also
support modernization of GF’s longest continuously operated fab in Essex Junction, Vermont, which is set to become the first domestic facility
capable of high-volume manufacturing of next-generation gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors.
GaN semiconductors, known for their superior switching speed and thermal conductivity, are used in active, electronically scanned array radars and electronic warfare systems. GaN “is foundational to nearly all the cutting-edge defense technology that we produce,” Colin Whelan, president of advanced technology at RTX, the world’s leading manufacturer of military-grade GaN, said in January 2023. In November 2023, RTX was awarded a four-year, $15 million contract from DARPA to boost the electronic capability of radio frequency sensors with high-power-density GaN transistors.
Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said in the news release that the company is “proud of our strategic partnership with GlobalFoundries to help increase access to domestically produced microelectronics–a true national security imperative.”
For the Pentagon, it has been a long-running challenge to persuade companies to keep producing old technology to support legacy chips with low profit margins. While consumer electronics and data centers generally use advanced semiconductors, defense systems designed decades ago require older chips when they are repaired.
#aerospace #defense #globalfoundries #lockheedmartin #gallium #galliumnitride #semiconductor #supplychain #industrialpolicy #military #nationalsecurity #aviation #departmentofdefense #rtx #chipsact
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