Press Releases

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – May 12, 2021 – SkyWater Technology (NASDAQ: SKYT) today announced that it intends to report first quarter fiscal 2021 financial results for the period ended April 4, 2021, following the close of the market on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. The following morning, management will host a webcast to discuss its business and financial results.

SkyWater Technology First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Earnings Webcast

When: Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Time: 9:00 a.m. CT (10:00 a.m. ET)
Live Webcast: https://ir.skywatertechnology.com

An archived webcast will be available on SkyWater Technology’s Investor Relations page, https://ir.skywatertechnology.com.

About SkyWater

SkyWater is a U.S.-owned and U.S.-based pure play semiconductor foundry and is a DOD-accredited Trusted supplier, specializing in custom technology development services, volume manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities. Through its Technology Foundry model, SkyWater’s world-class operations in Bloomington, Minnesota and Kissimmee, Florida provide unique processing capabilities to enable quality production and advanced packaging for 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 & defense, automotive, biomedical, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial and IoT. Please visit www.skywatertechnology.com/ for more information.

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SkyWater Investor Contact: Heather Davis | investor@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | media@skywatertechnology.com

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – April 23, 2021 – SkyWater Technology (NASDAQ: SKYT) today announced that it closed its initial public offering of 8,004,000 shares of its common stock, which includes 1,044,000 shares issued pursuant to the exercise by the underwriters of their over-allotment option at the initial public offering price. The offering was priced at $14.00 per share, resulting in gross proceeds of $112,056,000. The shares began trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market on April 21, 2021 under the symbol “SKYT.”

SkyWater intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which may include financing SkyWater’s growth and funding capital expenditures. SkyWater may use a portion of the proceeds from the offering for acquisitions or strategic investments in businesses or technologies, although SkyWater does not currently have any plans or commitments for any such acquisitions or investments.

Jefferies LLC and Cowen acted as joint lead book-running managers and Piper Sandler & Co. also acted as a book-running manager for the offering.

A registration statement relating to these securities was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and was declared effective on April 20, 2021. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction.

The offering was made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, from Jefferies LLC, Attn: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022, by phone at (877) 821-7388, or by email at Prospectus_Department@Jefferies.com; and Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Attn: Prospectus Department, by phone at (833) 297-2926, or by email at PostSaleManualRequests@broadridge.com. An electronic copy of the registration statement can be accessed by visiting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.

About SkyWater

SkyWater is a U.S.-owned and U.S.-based pure play semiconductor foundry and is a DOD-accredited Trusted supplier that specializes in custom technology development services, volume manufacturing, and advanced packaging capabilities.

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SkyWater Investor Contact: Heather Davis | investor@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | media@skywatertechnology.com

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – April 21, 2021 – SkyWater Technology (NASDAQ: SKYT) today announced the upsizing and pricing of its previously announced initial public offering. SkyWater will sell 6,960,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $14.00 per share. In addition, SkyWater has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,044,000 additional shares of common stock. The shares are expected to begin trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market on April 21, 2021 under the symbol “SKYT.”

SkyWater intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and other general corporate purposes, which may include financing SkyWater’s growth and funding capital expenditures. SkyWater may use a portion of the proceeds from the offering for acquisitions or strategic investments in businesses or technologies, although SkyWater does not currently have any plans or commitments for any such acquisitions or investments.

Jefferies LLC and Cowen are acting as joint lead book-running managers and Piper Sandler & Co. is also acting as a book-running manager for the offering.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and was declared effective on April 20, 2021. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction.

The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus related to the offering may be obtained, when available, from Jefferies LLC, Attn: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022, by phone at (877) 821-7388, or by email at Prospectus_Department@Jefferies.com; and Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Attn: Prospectus Department, by phone at (833) 297-2926, or by email at PostSaleManualRequests@broadridge.com. An electronic copy of the registration statement can be accessed by visiting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.

About SkyWater
SkyWater is a U.S.-owned and U.S.-based pure play semiconductor foundry and is a DOD-accredited Trusted supplier that specializes in custom technology development services, volume manufacturing, and advanced packaging capabilities.

SkyWater Investor Contact: Heather Davis | investor@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | media@skywatertechnology.com

Collaboration among SkyWater, Efabless and Google enables industry’s first open source ASICs

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. and SAN JOSE, Calif. – April 6, 2021 – SkyWater Technology, the trusted technology realization partner, and Efabless, a crowdsourcing design platform for custom silicon, today announced the first tapeout in a series of Google-sponsored open source multi-project wafer (MPW) shuttles, managed by Efabless and manufactured at SkyWater. In this partnership, open source designs were selected to be fabricated at no cost to designers. The design submission process was open for 30 days, generating 1700 downloads in the first two weeks and filling all 40 available slots. Additional designs will be accommodated starting in the next MPW shuttle run which is anticipated in mid-2021. The designs utilize SkyWater’s 130 nm open process design kit which has been made publicly available.

The program illustrates the potential of applying open source to all levels of IC design to improve access to resources such as design tools, IP, and foundry process design kits (PDKs) that can be shared by a larger pool of individuals with specialized skill sets. To enable wider engagement from the community, Efabless has developed Caravel,  a carrier RISC-V based System on Chip that includes all the housekeeping functions that support users’ designs and acts as a standard test harness. This further reduces barriers to design, prototyping and verification. Every project owner will receive four development boards with their design plus additional parts for other uses.

The Open MPW Shuttle Program attracted designers from both academia and commercial organizations. Approximately 60% of the designs were submitted by software, FPGA and hardware developers (non-IC experts) — demonstrating a significant untapped underlying interest generated by putting IC design in the hands of users. By enabling open source design, the program also illustrates the diversity and creativity of designs that could be generated. Examples of submitted designs include:
• OpenPOWER SoC
• 5 RISC-V SoCs
• Crypto-currency Miner
• Robotic App Processor
• Amateur Satellite Radio Transceiver
• Analog/RF
• 4 eFPGAs

Generated IP will be accessible by all open source designers going forward on the 130 nm mixed-signal process (SKY130) at SkyWater. Designers will be able to utilize the Efabless platform to prototype these designs, derivatives of these designs, and new designs that combine the open source designs with proprietary IP from traditional providers.

The SKY130 process, mixed-signal CMOS technology, offers many normally optional features as standard —features like the local interconnect, SONOS non-volatile memory functionality, MiM capacitors and more. This provides the designer with a wide range of flexibility in design choices. Professors from several universities including Stanford, UC Berkeley, Purdue University, and the American University in Cairo have used the SKY130 process as a base technology for academic projects.

John Kent, SkyWater executive vice president of technology development and design enablement said, “With design tools and open source design IP, engineers from around the world are collaborating and creating new content while accessing design and fabrication resources in a revolutionary way. Engineers are refining and adding content to the body of knowledge on a continuous basis. This is both an industry first and a significant step forward in design enablement.”

“We have seen fantastic community engagement with almost 1100 members,” said Mohamed Kassem, Efabless chief technology officer and co-founder. “On this first MPW, this project empowered and enabled dozens of new designers to bring their ideas to silicon. This was achieved by focusing on their new designs which were later integrated in our standard harness SoC, Caravel. We just taped-out the first shuttle and we are looking forward to silicon validation.”

About the Google-sponsored MPW Shuttle Program
The open source foundry PDK is accessible at https://github.com/google/skywater-pdk. The window for submitting designs for the next shuttle in this series is planned for mid-2021. More details about the design submission process and requirements can be found by visiting: 

• https://efabless.com/open_mpw_shuttle_project_mpw_one 
• https://www.skywatertechnology.com/mpw/open-source-mpw-program/ 

To learn more about the SKY130 PDK open source foundry offering, please visit https://skywater-pdk.slack.com/ or contact swfoundry@skywatertechnology.com.

About Efabless Corporation

Efabless.com offers platform and marketplace that uses open source and community models to make the design and commercialization of ICs simple, inexpensive and accessible to everyone.  Efabless accelerates the development of new products and initial proof of concepts through a novel solution based on configurable open source SoC design templates and automated design generation. Product developers use this solution to rapidly, cost-effectively and reliably create custom silicon. Chip developers use the solution to dramatically reduce cost and time to market for proof of concept of new and exciting ICs. The Efabless model is extendible to advanced packaging, software, subsystems and full systems. Efabless is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information, visit www.efabless.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, volume manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities. 

 

Efabless Company Contact: Jeff DiCorpo | 408.896.2078 | jeffdi@efabless.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

Spicer to build SkyWater’s integrated value chain for Minnesota and Florida operations

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – March 23, 2021 – SkyWater Technology, the trusted technology realization partner, today announced the appointment of John Spicer as executive vice president of operations, bringing a proven track record of operations excellence to the company. He will focus on delivering world-class levels of performance at SkyWater’s Minnesota and Florida wafer fabs, establishing an integrated value chain across both facilities that brings maximum value to the company’s customers.

Mr. Spicer brings decades of semiconductor manufacturing experience to SkyWater, most recently serving as ON Semiconductor’s vice president of global fab operations. In this role, he managed six factories worldwide driving a significant increase in overall wafer fabrication capacity including the successful integration of two acquired fab operations (AMI and Fairchild). Prior to this, he served as the general manager of ON Semiconductor’s Pocatello, Idaho 200 mm wafer fabrication facility where he was responsible for directing operations and leading the site’s support functions. Previously, he served in various operations roles at both AMI Semiconductor and Advanced Micro Devices.

Mr. Spicer will play a vital role in the execution of SkyWater’s unique Technology as a Service (TaaS) business model. TaaS provides both innovation engineering and scaled manufacturing solutions for the company’s customers, accelerating the realization of next-wave computing technologies. The SkyWater approach allows technology development to occur in a high-quality production environment. This means chip designers and process engineers can co-create innovative solutions that are highly manufacturable from the onset of production – resulting in high yields, predictable cycle times and zero-defect quality levels. With SkyWater’s differentiated TaaS methodology, customers see an accelerated time to market advantage. TaaS eliminates the cost of transfer since products are developed and manufactured in the same operational environment.

“SkyWater’s disruptive customer driven technology realization model is serving a unique need in the industry providing a product path that can simultaneously leverage new materials, new device architectures and comprehensive heterogenous integration solutions,” said Spicer. “I’m very excited to lead the company’s operations team as we work together to drive world-class performance and efficiency in support of our customers’ strategic growth objectives.”

“John brings a wealth of operations experience to SkyWater with a deep understanding of the critical needs for consistently delivering the best customer experience,” said Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater president and CEO. “His leadership will be key for the company as we continue to redefine how domestically sourced solutions are delivered across the semiconductor value chain.”

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, volume manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities. Through its Technology Foundry model, SkyWater’s world-class operations in Bloomington, Minnesota and Kissimmee, Florida provide unique processing capabilities to enable quality production and advanced packaging for 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 & 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

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – March 22, 2021 – SkyWater Technology announced today that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. SkyWater Technology has applied to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “SKYT.” The initial public offering is expected to commence after the SEC completes its review, subject to market and other conditions. There is no assurance that the proposed offering will be completed.

Jefferies LLC and Cowen are acting as joint lead book-running managers and Piper Sandler & Co is also acting as a book-running manager for the proposed offering.

The proposed offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to this offering, when available, may be obtained from: Jefferies LLC, Attn: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022, by phone at (877) 821-7388, or by email at Prospectus_Department@Jeffries.com; and Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, Attn: Prospectus Department, by phone at (833) 297-2926, or by email at PostSaleManualRequests@broadridge.com.

A registration statement on Form S-1 relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Any offers, solicitations or offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

About SkyWater Technology

SkyWater is a U.S.-owned and U.S.-based pure play semiconductor foundry and is a DOD-accredited Trusted supplier that specializes in custom technology development services, volume manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities.

 

SkyWater Investor Contact: Heather Davis | investor@skywatertechnology.com

SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

Dr. Brad Ferguson to Lead SkyWater’s Advanced Packaging Facility and Serve as Chief Government Affairs Officer to Drive Public-Private Partnerships

Leadership team expansion reinforces SkyWater’s support of domestic semiconductor technology and supply chain

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – March 9, 2021 – SkyWater Technology, the trusted technology realization partner, today announced the appointment of Dr. Steven Kosier as the company’s chief technology officer (CTO) and Dr. Brad Ferguson as chief government affairs officer and senior vice president and general manager of SkyWater’s advanced packaging facility in Florida. Dr. Kosier brings over 25 years of experience as a technologist and in various roles as a business, operations, engineering, and marketing leader. During the past two years, Dr. Ferguson served in the role of CTO, creating a strong foundation for this critical function. Moving forward, Dr. Kosier will drive SkyWater’s efforts in developing the company’s technology roadmaps, strategic alliances, and IP strategies.

Dr. Kosier joins SkyWater with extensive experience in power management IC and radiation-hardened technology, having served as vice president of R&D at Polar Semiconductor and adjoint professor of electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University. He also brings extensive business credentials, most recently serving as president at Kanomax FMT, a nanoparticle measurement solutions company where he was responsible for all aspects of the business. His strong background will provide immediate benefits for SkyWater as the company continues to revolutionize technology realization in the semiconductor industry. In addition to driving technology strategy, Dr. Kosier will lead SkyWater’s groundbreaking efforts in creating a robust open source chip design ecosystem through collaboration with Google and Efabless, supporting open source design methods, tools and IP.

“I’m very excited to join SkyWater at this unique and unprecedented time in the semiconductor and advanced technology manufacturing industries,” said Kosier. “The company addresses many exciting application markets and opportunities with its pioneering technology foundry business model, and I believe my experience leading successful strategic and technological initiatives will help drive SkyWater’s path forward to realizing its technology and business objectives.”

“We are pleased to have Steve join the SkyWater executive team. His strong background as a technologist and business leader will be instrumental as we continue to build out our differentiated technology infrastructure,” said Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater president and chief executive officer. “Complemented with Brad’s extensive government experience, these organizational changes enable us to focus on opportunities to bring advanced technology and production of semiconductors, critical to national security, back to the U.S.”

In Dr. Ferguson’s new role, he will focus on accelerating the growth of SkyWater’s advanced packaging service, expanding the company’s value chain offerings, and strengthening strategic government relationships. His background includes spearheading the original development of the custom foundry business at Cypress Semiconductor and driving significant growth at SkyWater since its spin-off in March 2017. He also drove the accreditation process to achieve Trusted Foundry status, marking the company’s entry into the aerospace and defense market, a pillar of SkyWater’s market strategy.

According to Dr. Ferguson: “I’m confident that Steve’s background and abilities will serve SkyWater well as he takes over the role of CTO. I look forward to establishing and growing SkyWater Florida’s advanced packaging capabilities while strengthening our support of the U.S. government’s efforts to reshore the semiconductor supply chain.”

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, volume manufacturing, and advanced packaging capabilities. Through its Technology Foundry model, SkyWater’s world-class operations in Bloomington, Minnesota and Kissimmee, Florida provide unique processing capabilities to enable quality production and advanced packaging for 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 & 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

Brings extensive legal, governance and compliance leadership expertise to enable and support SkyWater’s strategic growth initiatives

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – February 1, 2021 – SkyWater Technology, the trusted technology realization partner, today announced that Jason Stokes has been appointed as chief legal officer and general counsel. Mr. Stokes brings over 20 years of corporate law, governance, transactional and compliance expertise, and will focus on leading SkyWater’s legal and compliance function.

“We’re excited to have Jason join our team. As we continue to grow and scale SkyWater as the only U.S.-owned and operated semiconductor foundry, it is critical that we continue to mature our legal and compliance competencies,” said Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater president and chief executive officer. His broad experience will be an immediate asset to SkyWater and its Board and leadership team as we aggressively continue to pursue our strategies to bring new technologies and services to market. We are honored to employ veterans in a variety of positions and Jason’s background will lend itself well to SkyWater as ‘America’s trusted foundry.’”

Mr. Stokes began his career as an active duty U.S. Navy officer with the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, negotiating and managing all aspects of shipbuilding contracts for the Navy’s nuclear-powered fleet. He launched his legal career as an attorney at Lindquist & Vennum (n/k/a Ballard Spahr), a prestigious Minneapolis-based law firm, and has served in a variety of in-house positions for many years as a corporate generalist with expertise across the legal and compliance spectrum. Most recently, Mr. Stokes was vice president, corporate law and chief compliance officer at Pentair plc, a $3B global diversified industrial manufacturer, where he spent several years leading global legal and compliance operations. His education includes a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center.

Stokes stated, “SkyWater is a great company dedicated to domestic sourcing of semiconductor manufacturing solutions and this is an exciting time to join the team as the company is poised to achieve its ambitious growth goals. I look forward to this exceptional opportunity and believe my leadership experience in complex enterprises and high-growth environments will be a valuable asset to the company’s long-term success.”

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 & 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

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – January 26, 2021 – SkyWater Technology, the only U.S.-owned and operated pure play Trusted foundry, today announced a public-private partnership with Osceola County, Florida and BRIDG to accelerate access to domestic development and manufacturing services for microelectronics advanced packaging. SkyWater has established a subsidiary, SkyWater Florida, to assume operation of the Center for NeoVation, a state-of-the-art 200 mm semiconductor manufacturing facility that will become the foundation for the company’s leading-edge advanced packaging technology services. SkyWater will utilize the 109,000 square foot facility, with approximately 36,000 square feet of cleanroom space, to rapidly address emerging commercial and government agency needs for U.S.-sourced electronics.

SkyWater Florida will take over operation of the Center for NeoVation and will partner with BRIDG, a non-profit organization created to focus on advanced research, development, and manufacturing for next generation microelectronics. SkyWater will support BRIDG with multiple Department of Defense contracts, illustrating how U.S.-based public-private partnerships can play a significant role in securing the nation’s semiconductor supply chain. A signing ceremony between SkyWater, the County of Osceola, and BRIDG took place on January 25, 2021 at the Center for NeoVation.

Through this new endeavor, SkyWater is further expanding its growing portfolio of leading-edge manufacturing capabilities and value chain services for its customers. This synergistic combination of process R&D, wafer fabrication and advanced packaging technology services provides SkyWater’s customers with powerful competitive advantages including supply chain transparency, robust IP protection and an accelerated time to market.

The U.S. Congress has acknowledged the importance of advanced packaging for microelectronics through the recently enacted, bi-partisan National Defense Authorization Act of 2021 which proposes billions of dollars of financial incentives in support of domestic semiconductor development and manufacturing. According to Dr. Brad Ferguson, SkyWater’s chief technology officer and senior government relations executive, “Through the partnership of SkyWater and BRIDG, the Center for NeoVation will immediately serve as an epicenter for reshoring advanced packaging capabilities while also driving the realization of state of the art heterogenous integration solutions.”

The ability to create higher-performance and ever-smaller electronic devices is enhanced by many technologies outside of the traditional Moore’s Law scaling paradigm, particularly the way integrated circuits (ICs) are packaged together. Unlike the more conventional method of dicing a wafer into individual circuits and then packaging the discrete chips, advanced packaging, i.e., 2.5D and 3D system-in-package (SiP), refers to a variety of advanced packaging methods including multi-chip integration, various wafer or die level bonding and unique interconnect concepts, including interposers. These approaches offer numerous advantages that result in lower power consumption, increased I/O density, reduced form factors, and improved electrical and mechanical performance.

“We see demand for domestic advanced packaging capabilities firsthand from our customers as we co-create emerging disruptive technologies. Our vision is to establish another SkyWater center of excellence in the U.S. that will broaden the company’s ability to serve as a ‘one-stop shop’ for process innovation, wafer fabrication and advanced packaging,” said Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater’s president and chief executive officer. “We are investing in these new capabilities today because they are critical to our customers’ product roadmaps and ultimately, to their continued success.”

“SkyWater’s strong government agency relationships and clear commitment to public-private partnerships will provide unparalleled support for the Center for NeoVation’s government programs and enable seamless continuation of existing contracts with the Department of Defense,” said Osceola Commission Chairman Brandon Arrington. “We are very pleased to have SkyWater assume operation of the facility and help advance the County’s objectives and investment in establishing a high-tech economy. With SkyWater’s leadership and expertise, we are confident in the future success of the Center for NeoVation.”

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 & defense, automotive, biomedical, cloud & computing, consumer, industrialand 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

First RH90 MPW shuttle launching for early customer IP development

SkyWater to present webinar on RH90 process platform at NSREC Virtual Conference

BLOOMINGTON and BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. – December 2, 2020 – SkyWater Technology, the trusted technology realization partner, today announced it has released its initial process design kit (PDK) and is preparing to launch the first multi-project wafer (MPW) shuttles in the first part of 2021 for early customer intellectual property (IP) development for its 90 nanometer (nm) Strategic Rad-Hard by Process (RH90) platform. This provides customers participating in SkyWater’s Early Access Partner Program an opportunity to evaluate the increased circuit density and improved speed, power, and performance capabilities of this next generation technology. To create the RH90 design kit, SkyWater partnered with Trusted Semiconductor Solutions, experts in radiation hardened (rad-hard) microelectronics and advanced system-on-chip and system-in-package solutions for military, space and industrial markets, to develop IP based on the PDK and the RH90 process.

SkyWater will present a webinar on its RH90 platform at the Nuclear & Space Radiation Effects (NSREC) Virtual Conference, on December 4, 2020 from 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EST. RH90 is a fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process specifically developed to produce electronics which can withstand harsh radiation environments. SkyWater licensed this key FDSOI technology from MIT Lincoln Laboratory to accelerate the availability of its offering to address both government and non-defense related opportunities for rad-hard electronics.

The RH90 design kit includes a PDK, a rad-hard standard cell library and core IP blocks that build the foundation for supporting customers on this technology platform. The joint design kit enablement efforts include improving the Design Reference Manual (DRM) for SkyWater’s copper back end of line (BEOL), creating new models and PCells for 1.2 V, 1.8 V, and 3.3 V transistors, MIM Capacitors (MIMCap), Zener diodes, and poly and silicide resistors as well as adding new physical verification rules, among other enhancements to meet SkyWater design rules. The rad-hard digital library enables ASIC design and includes I/O cells, a phase-locked loop (PLL) and single and dual port memories.

Because rad-hard applications demand high-reliability microelectronics that perform in the harshest environments, special attention needs to be paid to the design, layout, manufacturing processes and assembly of these ICs. The demand for higher integration, smaller size, and better power efficiency is furthering the challenges in rad-hard IC development. SkyWater’s RH90 process is anticipated to double the performance for some applications due to increased density compared to industry standard offerings currently available for strategic aerospace and defense applications. Development of this advanced process was enabled by the previously announced investment by the DOD and the recent completion of SkyWater’s facility expansion. The first MPW shuttle will leverage the existing aluminum interconnect technology at SkyWater with an expectation to bring copper (Cu) interconnect process technology online in 2021 as part of the standard process flow.

“We were impressed by how quickly SkyWater was able to complete its facility expansion which enhances microelectronics capabilities for the DOD and the Strategic Rad-Hard market,” said Allan Hurst Jr., president and CEO at Trusted Semiconductor Solutions. “As a commercial foundry, SkyWater provides a manufacturing environment that is more conducive to high fab utilization with higher quality and greater yield. We look forward to working together to benefit the aerospace and defense community, and our commercial customers.”

“Trusted Semiconductor Solutions was instrumental in the development of the RH90 PDK and IP libraries,” said John Kent, SkyWater executive vice president, technology development and design enablement. “The launch of our Early Access Partner Program and first MPW shuttle is a significant milestone in the evolution of our RH90 process as we move toward customer engagement. As part of the MPW shuttle run, customers will have the opportunity to test and validate their own IP as well as evaluate the RH90 PDK, IP blocks and design features prior to technology qualification.”

To register for the NSREC webinar on SkyWater’s 90 nm Strategic Rad-Hard by Process platform, please visit: www.nsrec.com.

Availability

SkyWater’s Early Access Partner Program is available now by signing up at: www.skywatertechnology.com/rad-hard-eap. For more information on the company’s rad-hard manufacturing capabilities, contact swfoundry@skywatertechnology.com.

MPW shuttle runs will begin in early 2021, launching throughout the year, and planned to ramp to production by the end of 2021.

Trusted Semiconductor Solutions

Trusted Semiconductor Solutions provides integrated circuit development services from concept to qualified part delivery leveraging the best-in-class on-shore manufacturing capabilities. TSS specializes in IC design and high-density package solutions with expertise in radiation hardening for space and strategic applications. Trusted Semi is a Trusted accredited supplier and a non-traditional defense contractor. For more information, please visit: www.trustedsemi.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 & defense, automotive, biomedical, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial and IoT. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

Trusted Semiconductor Solutions Company Contact: Stephanie Pusch | 612.618.2115 | stephanie.pusch@trustedsemi.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