GF Labs will focus on advancing new technology that will enable GF customers to develop innovative products and accelerate their time-to-market.
With semiconductor innovation reshaping the global economy and driving developments in the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, 6G, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and next generation automotive, the semiconductor market is set to generate more than $1.3 trillion in revenues by the end of the decade, according to International Business Strategies.
GF has a proven track record in the development of new materials such as FD-SOI on 22FDX, and device architectures.
GF Labs will be used to expand and accelerate innovation by creating an open framework of internal and external research and development initiatives that deliver a differentiated pipeline of market-driven process technology solutions for future data-centric, connected, intelligent and secure applications.
“Fostering semiconductor innovation is critical to delivering a differentiated technology portfolio that will continue to fuel emerging markets,” said Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of Technology, Engineering and Quality, GF. “Our focus is on making sure we’re always developing the latest technologies that provide meaningful differentiation for our customers, not just in the near-term, but far into the next decade. The launch of GF Labs accelerates our pursuit of the innovation it takes to develop and deliver powerful technological advances for our customers.”
GF has a long history of working with start-up innovators, industry consortia, material suppliers, universities and government entities around the world. Leveraging its extensive patent portfolio and deep technical expertise in digital, analogue, mixed-signal, RF and embedded memory, GF Labs will be able to use capabilities from a broad research platform including the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) in Belgium, Fraunhofer in Germany, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the U.S., and the Institute for Microelectronics in Singapore, along with a broad network of university partnerships.
Research and development within GF Labs is already underway with a slate of innovative technology capabilities and solutions already in development such as radio frequency silicon on insulator (RFSOI) and silicon-germanium (SiGe).
GF said that it will continue to invest to expand and develop tailored solutions, with GF Labs serving as the R&D engine accelerating differentiated solutions based on wide-band-gap semiconductors that go beyond the traditional approach of shrinking transistors.
Additional programme details and partners will be announced in the second half of 2022.
