GlobalFoundries Fab 8: Jobs

GlobalFoundries was created by spinning out the manufacturing side of AMD’s semiconductor business. Initially the company was jointly owned by AMD and by the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) which is an investment arm of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. A couple of years ago ATIC bought out the remaining share from AMD, so GlobalFoundries just has a single shareholder, ATIC today.

In upstate New York AMD planned a new fab for 20nm. GlobalFoundries renamed it Fab 8 and continued to execute on the plans to build it, starting in July 2009, just 3 months after GlobalFoundries was created. It has a capacity of 60,000 300mm wafers per month which is 135,000 200mm equivalents, which is often the way fab capacity is measured. It is in Malta NY (which is in Saratoga County so sometimes you might hear about it being in Saratoga NY). It is a big investment, initially $6B although recently ATIC committed more money to GlobalFoundries and some will be for Fab 8. It is planned to run 28nm and below there.

There is also a new $2 billion Technology Development Center that GlobalFoundries is building next to its current chip factory, known as Fab 8.1. The College of Nanoscale Engineering and the eventual manufacturing for the G450C consortium working on making 450mm wafers practical is a half-hour drive away in Albany NY.

Supposedly (per Forbes magazine) GlobalFoundries and Samsung have been syncing GlobalFoundries Fab 8 with Samsung’s S2 in Austin. Rumors are that Samsung will offload some Apple production to GlobalFoundries. Perhaps Apple is just keeping its options completely open.

Since breaking ground on Fab 8 in 2009 GlobalFoundries has created approximately 2,000 new direct jobs and that number is expected to grow by approximately another 1,000 employees for a total of about 3,000 new jobs by the end of 2014. Here’s a summary of some of the current job openings in New York:

• EQUIPMENT ENGINEERS: Etch, Litho, Diffusion, Thin Films, Cleans, CMP/Plating, Metrology
• PROCESS ENGINEERS: Etch, Litho, Diffusion, Thin Films, Cleans, CMP/Plating, Metrology
• TECHNICIANS: All Levels supporting all modules listed above
• FACILITIES ENGINEERS AND TECHNICIANS: Chemical/Slurry, Ultra Pure Water/Waste Water, Gas
• MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS: All areas
• YIELD & DEFECT ENGINEERS: Failure Analysis (Physical, Chemical, Electrical), Defect Inspection Process and Equipment Engineers, Test Engineers (Integration, Parametric, Quality, Applications)
• PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
• CUSTOMER ENGINEERING
• PDK DEVELOPMENT ENGINEERING

So it seems that if you know how to do pretty much anything inside a modern fab then GlobalFoundries has openings.

There is also a GlobalFoundries job fair next week in Texas for the sole purpose of meeting the best semiconductor talent in the Dallas area. On March 4th there will an invitation only Meet the Team event with an executive speaker who will talk about GlobalFoundries’s plans, the location, the new Technology Development Center and so on. This will give the candidates an opportunity to learn more about the company and meet members of the team. On March 5th and 6th they will hold 1:1 interviews for current openings and predicted future positions. These interviews will also be by invitation only. To apply for an invitation to the job fair click here.

The GlobalFoundries job opening page for the US is here(there are also openings in Asiaand Europe).

More articles by Paul McLellan…