GlobalFoundries to help DMEA with chip fabrication for mission-critical military electronics
McCLELLAN, Calif. – U.S. military microelectronics experts are looking to GlobalFoundries U.S. 2 LLC in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., to continue providing foundry and electronic chip fabrication services for crucial U.S. military electronics systems.
Officials of the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) in McClellan, Calif., announced a $99.8 million contract modification to GlobalFoundries on Friday for option year one for access to leading edge, current, and legacy microelectronics and trusted processes for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and other federal agencies.
The DMEA State of the Art Trusted Foundry Services project seeks to give DOD and other government agencies access to a wide range of microelectronics services that will ensure the confidentiality and integrity of specialized military devices.
The globalization of the integrated circuit industry in recent years has made this function difficult, DMEA officials say.
The DOD Trusted Foundry program seeks to ensure that mission-critical national defense systems can obtain classified and unclassified microelectronics components like application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) from sources like GlobalFoundries that can protect the confidentiality and integrity of these devices.
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This program involves design, aggregation, mask manufacturing, wafer fabrication, post-processing, packaging and assembly, test, and broker services.
From GlobalFoundries, DOD officials require leading-edge and state-of-the-art semiconductor process technologies, including military temperature ranges and radiation hardness requirements.
The DOD needs GlobalFoundries to fabricate at least 1,200 8-inch wafers ASIC per year, as well as crucial microprocessors, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and other microelectronics components.
For this contract modification, GlobalFoundries will maintain a secret facility security clearance for manufacturing or assembly work, and otherwise will protect all trusted designs and devices with a cleared group of employees with personnel security clearances.
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GlobalFoundries will maintain its expertise in leading-edge and state-of-the-art complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technologies, as well as in silicon germanium BiCMOS technologies. The company also will develop the ability to produce trusted microprocessors, graphics processors, digital signal processors, analog-to-digital converters, photonics, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), and other advanced microelectronics.
The company will continue its ability to conduct dedicated prototype runs, production runs, obtain trusted masks, and provide complete ASIC services, including design, fabrication, packaging, and test.
On this contract modification GlobalFoundries will do the work in Burlington, Vt., and East Fishkill, N.Y., and should be finished in March 2018.
For more information contact GlobalFoundries online at www.globalfoundries.com, or the Defense Microelectronics Activity www.dmea.osd.mil/home.html.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
