GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) and Soitec announced that they have signed multiple long-term supply agreements for 300mm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers to secure the high-volume supply to meet the growing demand from GF customers for its differentiated radio-frequency-silicon-on-insulator (RF-SOI), fully-depleted-silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) and silicon photonics technology platforms. The agreements, which take effect immediately, build on the existing close relationship between the companies to ensure state-of-the-art high-volume manufacturing for years to come.
Through industry leadership from both companies, RF-SOI solutions are used in 100 percent of smartphones manufactured today and FD-SOI has become the standard technology for cost-effective, low-power devices in high-volume consumer and IoT applications as well as for mission critical safety solutions in automotive proximity sensing. Silicon photonics technologies enable solutions to support the massive growth in communication infrastructure for data centers and next-generation 5G communication optical networks.
“GF is delivering and investing in highly differentiated industry-leading technologies required for 5G, IoT, Data Center and Automotive applications,” said Bami Bastani, senior vice president of business units at GF. “These long-term agreements with Soitec, a valued partner, represent our commitment to ensure a secure supply of ultra-lower power, high-performance SOI solutions and supply that meet customers fast growing needs and unprecedented demand in these attractive markets.”
“GF is leading the industry in providing differentiated SOI solutions, creating more demand for Soitec’s engineered substrates,” said Paul Boudre, CEO of Soitec.”These agreements reflect the strength of our long-term partnership as we build the required capacity to meet this growing SOI demand.”
