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The U.S. Division of Protection (DoD) is Intel Foundry Companies’ (IFS’s) “No. 1” buyer, IFS president Randhir Thakur advised EE Occasions, noting that IFS plans to be a part of the DoD state-of-the-art heterogeneous built-in packaging (SHIP) program. That program will necessitate deep data of gate-all-around (GAA) know-how facilitating high-transistor–density 3D chips.
Intel’s new foundry unit has an preliminary $250 million contract with the DoD to supply chip design and growth. The subsequent step, for a a lot bigger and unnamed greenback determine, will embrace manufacturing if IFS can meet sure nationwide safety standards, Thakur mentioned in an interview on the sidelines of Intel’s newest fab venture in Columbus, Ohio.
“They [the DoD] produce just a few chips, however boy, they higher work and be safe,” Thakur mentioned. If IFS hits the stringent high quality targets of the DoD, different prospects will really feel way more relaxed, he mentioned.
There’s super upside for IFS if the corporate can execute as a foundry, in keeping with Bob O’Donnell, president of TECHnalysis Analysis: “Your complete world acknowledges that there’s this horrible geographic imbalance in the place chips are made. There are only a few corporations on the earth that may do chips at scale, and Intel is one in every of them. They need to show that they will do it. It’s going to take just a few years.”
The DoD enterprise is value about $3 billion a yr, in keeping with Thakur. IFS, established in March 2021, expects to have a home-court benefit towards Asian rivals like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung Foundry.
The DoD wants to scale back dependence on abroad suppliers which are “within the shadow of China” and uncovered to better geopolitical dangers, in keeping with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Protection Kathleen Hicks.
“Right this moment, roughly 98% of these industrial microelectronics that the DoD is so depending on are assembled, packaged, and examined in Asia,” Hicks mentioned in July at a White Home occasion.
IFS received’t be the one foundry competing for the protection enterprise. SkyWater Expertise, a U.S. foundry that’s a trusted chip provider for the DoD, this yr introduced plans for a $1.8 billion fab in Indiana.
IFS, which counts MediaTek, Amazon, and Cisco amongst its largest industrial prospects, posted $800 million in income in its first yr of operation. That determine is dwarfed by the $56.9 billion that prime foundry TSMC made in 2021. MediaTek can also be one in every of TSMC’s largest prospects.
Intel’s acquisition of Tower Semiconductor this yr will add prospects and income to the IFS portfolio. Tower’s 2021 income from fabs positioned in Israel, Europe, the U.S., and Japan was about $1.5 billion.
After the Tower deal closes, IFS will add the metaverse to its key market segments that embrace high-performance computing, cell, and automotive chips.
“They’ve the flexibility to provide chips within the AR/VR metaverse area,” Thakur mentioned of Tower. “They’ve good functionality on show and sensors.”
Aggressive know-how roadmap supplied
IFS is providing a know-how roadmap that guarantees chip design prospects a few of the world’s main course of nodes just a few years from now.
“Intel 16 is basically between 14 nm and 22 nm, so it’s a mature node,” Thakur mentioned, utilizing the Intel nomenclature for course of nodes. “However Intel 18A is like 2 nm.”
IFS will provide Intel 18A within the second half of 2024. Intel has offered prospects its 0.9 model course of design equipment (PDK) for Intel 16, which means that the node is now manufacturable, in keeping with Thakur. By the tip of this yr, the 18A PDK might be at model 0.5 — in the course of growth, however past the exploratory part, he mentioned.
With the Tower acquisition, IFS will even present legacy nodes starting from 0.5 µ to 65 nm.
The DoD is thinking about utilizing Intel’s most superior know-how when it’s obtainable about two years from now.
“Our engagement is Intel 16, but in addition Intel 18A, which is gate-all-around,” Thakur mentioned. With GAA, Intel will begin making a brand new era of high-density 3D chips which are a migration from 2D silicon.
IFS plans to be a part of the DoD SHIP program, stitching collectively chiplets with Intel’s embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) and Foveros 3D wafer-stacking know-how.
Regardless of its home-court benefit within the U.S., Intel counts on Asia for its chip packaging and IC substrates. To cut back this provide chain vulnerability, IFS plans to maneuver a few of its packaging operations to its manufacturing website in Chandler, Arizona.
“We now have about six totally different packaging corporations in 18 totally different factories the place we’re producing substrates,” Thakur mentioned. “We personal the know-how, and we develop it, so we all know learn how to construct it. Below some circumstances, we may have this stuff achieved in Arizona.”
He didn’t disclose a timeframe for the transfer to Arizona.
New buyer corridors coming
At this level, IFS makes use of capability in numerous Intel fabs and different manufacturing operations for its foundry prospects.
IFS has created a manufacturing “hall” for MediaTek, the world’s largest designer of chips for smartphones.
“It’s a sure thousand wafers per week in that hall,” Thakur mentioned. Even when mum or dad Intel has a surge in orders, no person can contact the capability devoted to MediaTek, he added. IFS is establishing new capability corridors for patrons, in keeping with Jason Gorss, an IFS spokesperson.
Provide chain safety
Thakur famous the numerous provide chain points that foundry prospects face internationally, together with chips which are counterfeited and illegally repackaged.
Previous to becoming a member of Intel, he labored for reminiscence maker SanDisk, the place he was liable for worldwide know-how operations.
“We needed to get a few of the packaging achieved in China. One time, I went to Beijing with Eli Harari, the CEO of SanDisk on the time.”
Between conferences, they determined to go to the Nice Wall of China.
“I carried a digital camera. We used to make these SD playing cards for cameras. We mentioned, ‘We want an SD card,’ and we went out on the road, and there was SanDisk, SanDisk, SanDisk. The cardboard mentioned it might present you 256 MB, nevertheless it solely took three footage. We put a compliance and counterfeit lawyer on it, and it turned such an enormous problem.”
Intel additionally relies on Asian amenities, together with one Thakur talked about in Malaysia for packaging.
It’s safe, however going ahead for the protection enterprise, Chandler would be the new location for packaging, Thakur mentioned.
Regardless of the geopolitical competitors between China and the U.S. within the semiconductor business, IFS will pursue prospects in all places. Whereas the U.S. is anticipated to announce new purple strains on exports of chip know-how to China, Thakur factors out that the nation accounts for about 20% of mum or dad Intel’s enterprise.
“That’s how this stuff get sort of ugly. We function in an setting the place these sorts of geopolitical uncertainties have elevated.”
IFS should compete within the world foundry enterprise with the large gamers, Thakur mentioned.
The trick is to serve native markets as provide chains grow to be much less globalized and extra remoted.
“The shopper will be anyplace. Now the query turns into, when are you going to fabricate regionally to serve them regionally?”
IFS, as a latecomer to the foundry enterprise that’s dominated by TSMC and Samsung, should discover methods to distinguish itself, Thakur mentioned.
He touted Intel’s experience in architectures, together with x86, ARM, and RISC-V, in addition to packaging processes and even a chiplet studio that gives ready-made items for chip-design prospects.
