Officials from the DOD, Department of Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives and local government support SkyWater’s initiative to reshore semiconductor manufacturing
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – October 23, 2020 – SkyWater Technology, the trusted technology realization partner, today announced that it hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony last week for its facility expansion that was enabled by a private-public partnership with the DOD. Recent global trade and supply chain dynamics have highlighted the need for domestic sourcing options to improve security for both commercial and national security interests. This SkyWater-DOD collaboration is an example that shows the tremendous potential these types of partnerships can harness to accelerate and enhance domestic manufacturing capabilities.
Over the past few decades, semiconductor manufacturing expertise has been developed and expanded into fabs outside of the U.S. As a result, while today most semiconductor innovation and product development still happen in the U.S., only 12% of the manufacturing is done domestically, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). These dynamics are driving federal legislation to facilitate national investment intended for the reshoring of semiconductor manufacturing. As the only solely U.S.-owned pure-play foundry, SkyWater is playing a significant role in leading the return of onshore advanced manufacturing capabilities.
Several government officials presented at SkyWater’s ribbon-cutting ceremony:
• Dr. Jeffrey Nadaner, Department of Defense deputy assistant secretary for industrial policy
• Ian Steff, Department of Commerce assistant secretary for global markets
• Dean Phillips, U.S. representative from Minnesota’s Third Congressional District
• Steve Grove, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development commissioner
• Tim Busse, mayor of Bloomington, Minnesota
SkyWater was also pleased to welcome Dr. Matt Kay from the Department of the Navy, who heads efforts targeting the DOD’s unique needs for microelectronics, and John Neuffer, president and chief executive officer of the SIA, an association which is playing a significant role in the development of legislation to enhance domestic manufacturing.
The DOD’s investment in SkyWater’s facility expansion was made under the Trusted and Assured Microelectronics program, which seeks to collaborate with industry and laboratory partners to provide sustainable, assured technology solutions for national security and defense. While this new portion of SkyWater’s facility was built to enhance microelectronics capabilities for the DOD and the Strategic Rad-Hard market, it will also provide complementary technologies for commercial applications in extreme environments such as space and medical imaging. In addition, the expansion enables SkyWater to add copper interconnect process technology for enhanced mixed-signal device performance and interposer offerings for advanced packaging.
“It’s very good to see industry, government and academia coming together to make events like today possible,” said Ian Steff, Department of Commerce assistant secretary for global markets. “This morning’s tour of the new fabrication facility, which I was very impressed by, is proof that large scale and advanced manufacturing continues to be possible in the United States of America. Our domestic capabilities up and down the supply chain must increase … and will increase. This continues to be enabled by industry-driven approaches with government partnership to improve the investment climate as demonstrated here today.”
“This is an incredibly exciting time for SkyWater and for the semiconductor industry. Now is the time to build advanced manufacturing technologies to make sure that the infrastructure needed to support the next wave of computing is developed domestically,” said Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater president and chief executive officer. “It is because of the vision and leadership of our partners in the Department of Defense that SkyWater and our investors are able to do our part to drive American innovation and grow the domestic high-tech sector.”
A video of SkyWater’s ribbon cutting ceremony is available on the company website’s events page. For more information on SkyWater, please contact: swfoundry@skywatertechnology.com.
About SkyWater Technology
SkyWater is the only U.S.-owned and U.S.-based pure play semiconductor foundry and is a DOD-accredited Trusted supplier, specializing in custom technology development services and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. Through its Technology Foundry model, SkyWater’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, power, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Advanced Technology Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. The company serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace and defense, automotive, biomedical, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, and IoT. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.
SkyWater Company Contact: Tara Luther | 952.851.5023 | tara.luther@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com