By John Compani 
Senior Member of the Technical Staff for Corporate EHS and Sustainability, GlobalFoundries 

Every year, GlobalFoundries (GF) experts develop and implement new projects to enhance the sustainable operations of the company’s advanced manufacturing sites across the globe. With a mix of innovation, clever engineering and incremental improvements, the teams enable important resource savings to further decrease GF’s impact on the environment and deliver on our sustainability commitments to our customers. 

There is no better time to share these accomplishments than in the midst of GF’s third annual Earth Week, which has the theme of “ONEGF, one planet, protect it together”. GF recognizes climate change is an unprecedented global challenge, and below are some of the ways we are taking meaningful action. 

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions  

This week GF announced an accelerated and more ambitious goal for reducing our total greenhouse gas emissions by 42% from 2021-2030, even as the company continues to expand its global semiconductor manufacturing capacity and capabilities. Read about this exciting news here. 

GF is on track to meet this more ambitious 42% reduction goal, which will be accomplished through a comprehensive mix of energy efficiency improvements, state-of-the-art emissions controls, expanded use of alternative chemistries, and use of lower-carbon power across all our fabs. 

In 2024, GF completed projects at our fabs with reoccurring benefits of approximately 100,000 MTCO₂e, which is equivalent to the amount of carbon sequestered by 30,000 acres of mature forest in one year.  

Saving water 

Semiconductor manufacturing requires large amounts of water. Despite our fabs not being located in high water stress geographies, GF takes water conservation seriously and we continue to drive new ways of reducing, recycling and reusing water at our facilities. More than 42% of GF’s total water use in 2024 was covered by reused or recycled water. 

In 2024 alone, our completed water conservation projects led to an annual savings of more than 224,000 m³ (59 million gallons) of water – about the amount used by 540 average U.S. households in one year. These new water-saving projects were related to identifying and seizing opportunities to reuse and recycle at various points throughout our chip manufacturing processes. 

Using less electricity  

Semiconductor manufacturing is an energy-intensive process. Not only do electricity conservation projects save money, but they can also reduce the GHG emissions generated as a byproduct of producing that electricity. 

In 2024, GF’s sustainability and efficiency initiatives resulted in annual savings of 33 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity – enough to power over 3,000 average U.S. households. These efforts led to both significant energy cost savings for GF as well as lower indirect GHG emissions. 

These savings were achieved through numerous projects across our global fabs, including efficiency improvements to our chilled water systems and HVAC optimization  

Managing chemicals and waste 

Across all of our manufacturing sites, GF has rigorous chemical review and pollution prevention programs in place to identify opportunities to reduce or eliminate chemical use and waste generation.  

For 2024, teams completed a variety of projects for a combined reduction of nearly 900 metric tons of hazardous waste and chemical use, equating to about $8 million in annual savings for our company.  

These projects include innovative new processes and systems, new efficiencies, and novel ways of reusing or recycling materials in our lithography, cleans, and other manufacturing tools.  

Keep an eye out for even more details on the above as well as many other resource conservation projects in GF’s forthcoming 2025 Sustainability Report, to be published in June. 

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John Compani is a Senior Member of Technical Staff with GF’s Corporate EHS & Sustainability Team. He is based in Malta, New York, with focus on GF’s Environmental Performance, Resource Conservation and Sustainability efforts. 

By Arvind Narayanan 
Director, RF Product Line 

In the late 1980s and the early 90s, from the least expected places on earth in New York and Vermont, a quiet revolution in semiconductors was taking shape. One can’t fault even the nerdiest of all semiconductor enthusiasts for not paying attention because Moore’s law and the shrinking of silicon (Si) CMOS transistors were grabbing all the news and headlines.  

A group of engineers quietly rode the innovation wave and put the germanium (Ge) in Si bipolar junction transistors to deliver greatly improved device characteristics resulting in a promise for supreme RF and high-speed analog transistor performance. Their pioneering work using graded-Ge SiGe base transistors set the foundation for the commercial success of SiGe BiCMOS technologies on 8-inch wafers for various RF/Wireless and mmWave communications applications – the kind of success and the broad adoption that is rivalled only by a handful of semiconductor technologies like bulk CMOS, Gallium-Arsenide (GaAs) and RF Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI).  

While GF has been at the forefront of SOI technology innovation over the last 15 years, the legacy and the responsibility of being the torchbearer for SiGe BiCMOS technology advancement has been with GF’s (previously, IBM Microelectronics) technology developers and engineers for over four decades. Let’s trace down the history a bit more, relive and see what’s next in the story of SiGe, which the forefathers rightfully called “a story of persistence” [1].  

GF SiGe History:  A story where the sum of its parts is greater than the whole 

“A not so humble beginning” 

The first part of any series is usually the one that leaves a lasting impression, and GF’s first commercially successful SiGe technology fits the bill. More than a decade ago, the 0.35um SiGe BiCMOS technology [2] called SiGe5PAe set the stage for the entry of SiGe in the Wi-Fi power amplifier (PA) space just as the smartphone era was kicking off its world domination. This technology helped PA designers deliver the best combination of technical figure-of-merits (FoM) such as high output power, linearity and efficiency at the lowest cost.  

As demand for Wi-Fi grew and new Wi-Fi standards pushed for ever more stringent performance requirements, GF continued to deliver improvements on the base platform with various flavors of SiGe5PAXe and SiGe5PA4, including the high-resistivity substrate options that enabled full front-end ICs that integrated RF switches and Low-noise amplifiers (LNA) with a PA. Each flavor pushed the boundaries of Wi-Fi PA performance further by delivering improved PA performance while enhancing PA reliability and ruggedness for advanced WiFi standards. Table-1 shows the key features in GF’s 350nm SiGe BiCMOS technologies enabling the different applications and segments. 

What began as a humble endeavor turned out to be a huge commercial success with GF’s 0.35um SiGe technologies delivering seamless Wi-Fi experiences on high-end smartphones and tablets. Today, these technologies continue to dominate the PAs used in Wi-Fi Front-end-modules (FEM) in smartphones and have gained traction in Wireless Infrastructure applications such as PA pre-drivers.  

“One giant leap in Space and beyond” 

Usually, sequels are rarely better than the original story or series. But there are exceptions, such as GF’s 130nm SiGe technologies which are proof points for enabling several products and applications in both wireless and wired communications space [3] [4]. The high-frequency and high-voltage handling nature of SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) in these technologies enables diverse applications such as mmWave and SATCOM PAs and LNAs, automotive radars, wireless backhaul and high-speed analog interface drivers.  Specifically, GF’s SiGe8WL, SiGe8HP and SiGe8XP technologies pioneered the integration of high performance NPN transistors with high-quality mmWave and distributed passives such as transmission lines and microstrips that enabled the aforementioned applications. 

“When conquering space is not enough”  

In 2014, GF’s pioneering SiGe innovation led to the introduction of world’s first 90nm SiGe BiCMOS technology in SiGe9HP [5] which was followed with another industry-leading NPN performance enhancement via SiGe9HP+ [6]. Today, both these technologies combine to form one of the most comprehensive and competitive SiGe technologies available in the market. With advanced CMOS integration and a host of features including low-loss metallization and high-voltage LDMOS, the technology enabled state-of-the-art datacenter applications, such as transimpedance amplifiers (TIA) and drivers for high-speed optical communications, and other high-performance analog applications such as high-bandwidth analog to digital converters (ADCs) and terahertz imaging and sensing. 

“There is no endgame to revolution” 

With the advent of generative AI there is no lack of appetite for higher bandwidth, data rates or longer range for communications. At GF, after four decades of consistent innovation, we are once again ready for the next revolution in SiGe technologies serving the modern communication requirements. Recently, GF published the industry’s highest performing SiGe HBT with 415/600 GHz ft/fmax on a 45nm SOI platform [7] and is actively engaging with early customers on industry’s first-ever high-performance complementary 130nm SiGe BiCMOStechnology in 130CBIC via the Globalshuttle Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) program. The key features of 130CBIC enabling a broad set of applications are shown in Table-4. 

Looking into the future, one vector of growth could be increasing the ft/fmax of HBTs further to satisfy the advanced optical transceivers requirements for datacenter optical networks and generative AI applications. However, as GenAI seeps into smartphones, there is a logical need to lower power consumption or increase RF performance (lower-noise and higher gain) at the existing power levels for RF Front-end modules or related components. Also, as broadband internet access continues its march to far reaching corners of the globe, SiGe HBT performance and cost can be optimized for consumer satellite ground terminal applications helping connect the next 4 billion users to the internet.  

While CMOS hits the wall on Moore’s Law, the true potential of SiGe can be unlocked further and realized in much larger economies of scale for applications that demand unforgiving RF / high-speed performance and capabilities. 

To find out more about how GF’s SiGe technologies can support your next-generation RF and high-performance applications, you can contact us anytime through gf.com.  

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Arvind Narayanan is the Director of Product Management with the RF Product Line at GlobalFoundries. He owns the SiGe and RF GaN strategic roadmap and manages the related portfolio of products.  He has been with GlobalFoundries for over six years in various customer-facing roles. 

References: 

[1] D. L. Harame, B. S. Meyerson, “The Early History of IBM’s SiGe Mixed Signal Technology,” in IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 48, No. 11, November 2001. 

[2] A. Joseph et al., “A 0.35 gm SiGe BiCMOS Technology for Power Amplifier Applications”, IEEE BCTM 2007. 

[3] B. A. Orner et al., “A 0.13 µm BiCMOS technology featuring a 200/280 GHz (fT/fmax) SiGe HBT,” in Proc. IEEE Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technol. Meeting,2003, pp. 203-206 

[4] P. Candra et al., “A 130nm sige bicmos technology for mm-wave applications featuring hbt with fT / fMAX of 260/320 ghz,” in IEEE RFIC Symposium, pp. 381–384, 2013 

[5] J. J. Pekarik et al., “A 90nm SiGe BiCMOS technology for mm-wave and high-performance analog applications,” 2014 IEEE Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting (BCTM), Coronado, CA, USA, 2014, pp. 92-95 

[6] U. S. Raghunathan et al., “Performance Improvements of SiGe HBTs in 90nm BiCMOS Process with fT/fmax of 340/410 GHz,” 2022 IEEE BiCMOS and Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits and Technology Symposium (BCICTS), Phoenix, AZ, USA, 2022, pp. 232-235 

[7] V. Jain et al., “415/610GHz fT/fMAX SiGe HBTs Integrated in a 45nm PDSOI BiCMOS process”, 2022 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), pp. 266-268  

By Kevin Soukup 
Senior Vice President, Silicon Photonics Product Line  

GlobalFoundries (GF) first introduced our revolutionary GF Fotonix™ platform in 2022 with a focus on optical interconnects. The platform was rated up to 100 gigabits per second per wavelength (100G/λ) via PAM4 signaling. With an extremely fast data rate and up to 10,000x improvement in system error rate, our first-generation GF Fotonix platform was an important step forward in enabling optical chiplets that deliver faster, more efficient data transmission.  

These achievements proved successful and have established GF as a leader in the silicon photonics space, but we didn’t stop there. Let’s take a look at some of the latest advancements that we’ve made on our GF Fotonix platform, including increased design flexibility, bandwidth upgrades and full turnkey support with the development of our newly announced Advanced Packaging and Photonics Center. 

Extreme flexibility 

The GF Fotonix platform has been developed to allow customers the extreme flexibility to address various application and market segment design requirements:  

• Process flexibility: The GF Fotonix process can be run as an integrated photonics + RF CMOS flow or a photonics-only flow as required by the customer’s application and system requirements. 
• Free Form Designs: The technology allows for free-form passive component design as long as the custom devices meet the design rules. Support for custom photonic device designs is provided natively in the process design kit (PDK) through the support of technology files for the industry’s leading device simulators. 
• “Slow and wide” vs. “Fast and narrow”: GF Fotonix offers design flexibility by supporting the implementation of both course wave (CWDM) and dense wave divisional multiplexing (DWDM) to optimize beachfront density (bandwidth density along the edge of the chip). Components needed for wave division multiplexing such as athermal muxs/de-muxs and banks of micro-ring and coupled ring resonators are available in the PDK. 

From high-traffic AI data centers to next-generation advanced driver assistance systems, we are continuously working with our customers across all end markets to understand their design requirements and add the features and advancements that will take their chips to the next level. 

Doubling the bandwidth 

The second generation of GF Fotonix supports 200G/λ, doubling the bandwidth speed from the previous generation to support “fast and narrow” architectures. We’ve also made upgrades to all the active photonic devices such as modulators (micro-ring, Mach Zehnder and Ring Assisted Mach Zehnder), photodiodes and transistors to support monolithic integration. Groundbreaking progress has been made on the yield of modulator banks to support multi-lambda “slow and wide” architectures. 

The IOSMF (v-groove based passive fiber couplers) have been upgraded in two meaningful ways. First, a decrease in pitch of the individual v-grooves from 250μm to 127μm will support higher optical beach front density by 2x. Second, we’ve added support for silicon nitride (SiN) spot-size converters to improve the power handling capacity by >4x. 

With a view of the co-packaged requirements, we have been working with several vendors on wafer-level and die-level detachable fiber attach solutions. Several demos of these solutions will be showcased at the 2025 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC) in San Francisco this April.

Finally, we have added support for thru-silicon vias (TSV) through the photonic IC (PIC). This feature allows for the 2.5D/3D stacking of the Electrical IC on top of the PIC. These TSVs can be used for high speed signaling, power delivery and heat sinking. 

Advanced Packaging and Photonics Center 

Earlier this year, GF announced a first-of-its-kind center for advanced packaging and testing at our manufacturing facility in New York. This new center will allow us to process, package and test the chips manufactured in our New York facility entirely onshore in the United States, helping us meet the growing demand for secure supply chains for our essential chips in critical end markets like automotive, communications infrastructure and aerospace and defense.  

Through this new center, GF is now able to provide a turnkey solution for our silicon photonics chips, with advanced packaging, assembly and testing services to transform chips into individual packages ready for end-product use. On the IP side, we continue to grow our GlobalSolutions ecosystem with verified and silicon-proven IP solutions from industry experts that can be easily integrated onto GF Fotonix to build your state-of-the-art, custom IC.  

To find out more about GF Fotonix and how our silicon photonics process technologies can support your next generation fiber-optic communication designs, we’ll be attending the OFC 2025 on April 1-3 in San Francisco. Join us at booth #3220 to speak with our technical representatives and view samples of packaged ICs built on GF Fotonix. We hope to see you there! 

Kevin Soukup is the senior vice president of GF’s silicon photonics product line, leading the company’s silicon photonics business that enables customers to transport enormous volumes of data through high-speed, power-efficient electro-optical systems.