Globalfoundries Gets U.S. Military Funding for GaN-on-Si

According to reports, Globalfoundries Inc. has recently secured $30 million in federal funding to support the development and production of Gallium Nitride on Silicon (GaN-on-Si) wafers at its semiconductor manufacturing facility in Vermont. This facility currently has the capacity to produce over 50,000 wafers per month.

The funding, part of the 2022 fiscal year omnibus appropriations bill, comes from the U.S. Department of Defense's Trusted Access Program Office (TAPO). Since 2019, TAPO has been actively supporting the research and development of dual-use GaN-on-Si technology. This new funding will enable Globalfoundries to purchase equipment and begin volume production of GaN-on-Si wafers on its 8-inch production line.

Compared to traditional GaN-on-Silicon Carbide (GaN-on-SiC) technologies, GaN-on-Si offers significant advantages in terms of substrate cost and availability, while also reducing the defects associated with GaN epitaxial growth.

About Globalfoundries

Globalfoundries, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is a leading semiconductor foundry. Originally spun off from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the company is now the world’s fifth-largest pure-play semiconductor foundry, following TSMC, Samsung Electronics, SMIC, and UMC. Globalfoundries went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange on October 28, 2021.