The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) has teamed up with the economic development organization responsible for Mohawk Valley in upstate New York to develop a site that could accommodate up to three 450mm wafer fabs.

Each wafer fab would have approximately 450,000 square feet of cleanroom space after between $10 billion and $15 billion of private and public money had been spent. Such a build-out would create about 5,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs, CNSE said in a press release.

CNSE, based in Albany, N.Y., and Mohawk Valley EDGE plan to file a Wetlands Permit application that would earmark the Marcy Nanocenter site for semiconductor manufacturing. At the same time a preliminary development plan is being filed with the town of Marcy. No timelines were given for the pace at which the site might be developed or occupied by manufacturing companies.

The creation of a campus chip production of 450mm diameter wafers, most likely to be used by more than one company, would build on work already done by New York state to create the Global 450 Consortium (G450C) in the region. The $4.8 billion G450C is a wafer and equipment development program based at CNSE's Nanotech complex in Albany that includes five leading semiconductor companies: IBM, Intel, GlobalFoundries, Samsung, and TSMC. G450C is intended to help prepare for the transition to 450mm wafers while a campus would help reduce the cost for companies of building a manufacturing facility.

However, some G450C members already have plans to bring up 450mm manufacturing at other sites initially. Intel has a wafer module under construction in Oregon, and it was reported by Taiwanese local media that the Taiwan government had approved plans for TSMC to build a 450mm wafer fab in central Taiwan starting in 2014. (See: Construction of 450mm Fab 'Well Underway'.)

As part of the G450C initiative, CNSE built the NanoFab Extension (NFX) to provide a cleanroom to support R&D and pilot production of ICs on 450mm wafers. The Marcy Nanocenter site is intended to lead the development of full-scale manufacturing and enhance New York's position as a center of chip manufacturing, CNSE says.

By: DocMemory
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