Press Releases

SkyWater recognized as a valued business partner, enhancing the success of L3Harris programs and the customers they serve

 BLOOMINGTON, MN, August 6, 2019 – SkyWater Technology Foundry, the trusted innovation partner for tomorrow’s most advanced technology solutions, today announced it has received a Small Business Supplier of the Year award for Program Execution Excellence from L3Harris Technologies, a leading global aerospace and defense technology innovator. Skywater has been recognized as a best-in-class supplier that represents L3Harris’ Core Values and a partner which is dedicated to driving business growth. The company received high ratings and multiple maximum scores across all five performance areas including cost, technical, quality, schedule and business assessment. SkyWater excelled in technical contributions and maintained rapid response times to RFQs, change orders, forecast updates and invoice submissions.

SkyWater’s Technology Foundry model combines manufacturing of advanced technologies with an agile development environment in the same U.S.-based facility. This unique capability provides L3Harris with quick responsiveness to meet its product requirements and a seamless transition and fast ramp from development to production.

According to L3Harris Technologies, “SkyWater’s beyond state of the art technology and groundbreaking contributions to the advancement of microelectronics fabrication enabled innovative wafer processing solutions to  deliver a unique product which impressed our customer. The team at SkyWater collaborated extremely well with the L3Harris team, maximizing program success and exceeding our customer’s expectations.”

“We are honored to be recognized by an innovation leader such as L3Harris Technologies,” said Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater President.  “We are continually focused on driving operational excellence to improve our customer’s outcomes and in turn, enhance the relationships they have with the customers they serve. We look forward to continuing to grow our relationship as a trusted supplier for L3Harris.”

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is a solely U.S.-based and owned, DMEA-accredited Technology Foundry, providing custom design and development services, exclusive design IP, and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. The Company’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. SkyWater serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, IoT and medical. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

Progress moves technology closer to availability of a standard foundry process designed to greatly increase compute performance and energy efficiency

BLOOMINGTON, MN, July 25, 2019 – SkyWater Technology Foundry, the trusted innovation partner for tomorrow’s most advanced technology solutions, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced an update at the 2019 ERI Summit on the DARPA sponsored 3DSoC program, the largest of the ERI programs. The program is being led by MIT and supported by Stanford University and SkyWater; the team has achieved progress in transferring the carbon nanotube (CNT) Field Effect Transistors (FET)-based 3DSoC technology into SkyWater’s 200mm production facility after years of development work and successful concept demonstration at MIT. The benefits of such breakthrough technology will set a new benchmark for compute performance and energy efficiency and is a pivotal move towards bringing back cutting-edge manufacturing to the U.S.

The technology supports monolithic integration of stackable tiers of CNT-based logic and RRAM to realize a high-density SoC architecture. To fabricate the 3DSoC, SkyWater is using a 90nm process which is predicted to deliver power/compute performance exceeding that of conventional 2D architectures fabricated with 7nm process flows. Though this demonstration is using 90nm geometry, the technology is compatible with node scaling for further performance gains. While observers note the program’s ambitious objectives and potential challenges, the initiative is tracking to plan as the first year concludes.

To date, the new SkyTech Center has been commissioned within SkyWater, which includes all the capital equipment required to support the program. Unit process steps as well as a complete process flow from MIT have been transferred successfully to SkyWater’s 200mm processing facility and the program is currently running a wide variety of test chips to continue to jointly develop the technology and demonstrate its potential.

“I am thrilled to see the progress and many steps taken on this road in transitioning our work from our academic lab at MIT into the real world through SkyWater’s volume manufacturing facility,” said Dr. Max Shulaker, MIT Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The close collaboration between MIT, Stanford, and SkyWater has proved critical in progressing these nanotechnologies toward widespread adoption.”

“SkyWater has been focused on breaking the mold of Moore’s Law scaling from our start. This technology holds great promise for doing exactly that, by not only putting the industry on a new compute/performance scaling path, but by shining light on new paths to enable the next wave of artificial intelligence and machine learning,” said Dr. Brad Ferguson, SkyWater Chief Technology Officer. “Max and the team at MIT are making an enormous contribution to the industry and we greatly value the opportunity to play a role in bringing this new IC architecture to market.”

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is a solely U.S.-based and owned, DMEA-accredited Technology Foundry, providing custom design and development services, exclusive design IP, and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. The Company’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. SkyWater serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, IoT and medical. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

Partnership also extends IP portfolio at SkyWater for key power management and mixed-signal solutions in IoT applications across various vertical markets

BLOOMINGTON, MN and TALLMADGE, OH, June 4, 2019 – SkyWater Technology Foundry, the trusted innovation partner for tomorrow’s most advanced technology solutions, today  announced a collaboration with Linear ASICs Inc., a fabless analog and mixed-signal semiconductor company, expanding its volume customer base with the addition of multiple new engagements to design and manufacture power and mixed-signal IoT applications in aerospace and defense, automotive, consumer, industrial and medical markets. SkyWater’s decades of advanced manufacturing heritage and Linear ASICs’ complementary 20+ years of semiconductor design expertise creates a synergistic partnership that accelerates customers’ time to market with a streamlined design, development and production process.

SkyWater and Linear ASICs’ collaboration has already produced a silicon-proven, rich set of unique IP blocks which serve as a strong foundation for high-reliability and optimized designs in diverse applications such as: medical instrumentation, RFID chips, power MOSFETs, power management ICs (PMICs), transient-voltage-suppression (TVS) diodes, and other mixed-signal ASICs. These devices will enable solutions for battery and energy management systems, wireless charging, IoT, sensor integration, near-field communication (NFC), and other advanced applications.

“The partnership with SkyWater enables end-to-end solutions and streamlines product cycles for our customers in an IP-secured U.S. fab,” said Mike Ward, CEO, Linear ASICs. “SkyWater offers some of the more advanced mixed-signal nodes with embedded non-volatile memory, providing the technology and support our customers need to rapidly develop custom ASICs and SoCs.” Ward added that customers will have access to SkyWater’s net-zero cost recurring MPW FastShuttle Program.

“The team of product specialists at Linear ASICs has a history of successfully taking customers from raw concepts through product design and qualification into manufacturing,” said Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater President. “This partnership is significant for SkyWater as it increases the diversity and size of our customer base and has already resulted in multiple projects that will ramp to volume production in early 2020.”

Engagement information for new ASIC design and production is available by contacting Linear ASICs Inc. info@linearasics.com. For more information on SkyWater’s ASIC or custom foundry services, please contact: swfoundry@skywatertechnology.com.

About Linear ASICs Inc.

Linear ASICs Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and markets linear and mixed-signal integrated circuits and custom ASICs for a variety of applications including IoT, Wireless Power, Military and Aerospace, and Consumer portable and non-portable electronics.  Its focus is custom and semi-custom ICs for emerging markets and applications requiring advanced designs and processes. The Linear ASICs team has been designing and developing integrated circuits since 1997 and has established enabling IP and know-how. The wealth of its library of proven silicon blocks affords its customers a time and risk mitigated path to production, with optimally integrated devices. Its core group of designers and engineers have developed many high volume ICs,  MCMs, and hybrid modules in the market today. Linear ASICs has design and development locations in San Diego and Ventura, CA; Dallas, TX; and Tallmadge, OH; and is headquartered in Tallmadge OH.  For more information visit www.linearasics.com.

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is a solely U.S.-based and owned, DMEA-accredited Technology Foundry, providing custom design and development services, exclusive design IP, and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. The Company’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. SkyWater serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, IoT and medical. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

Linear ASICs Contact: Mike Ward | 330.474.3920 | mike.ward@linearasics.com

SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com

SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

SkyTech Center enables specialized processing capabilities required for carbon nanotubes, silicon photonics, superconducting ICs and MEMS

BLOOMINGTON, MN, May 28, 2019 – SkyWater Technology Foundry, the trusted innovation partner for tomorrow’s most advanced technology solutions, today announced its new SkyTech Center as an expansion of its operations to enhance advanced processing capabilities at its U.S.-based and U.S.-owned manufacturing facility. SkyWater has recognized a growing industry need for custom process development and has made a strategic investment to repurpose clean-room space previously used for testing to lay the ground for further company growth and new customer engagement. The SkyTech Center will also serve as the environment where critical tasks supporting DARPA’s 3DSoC ERI program will be performed, including carbon nanotube (CNT) deposition and lift-off metallization.

SkyWater’s pioneering Technology Foundry model is filling an industry need for new device topologies which are capable of being produced at scale and are not available in traditional foundry manufacturing facilities. The new SkyTech Center allows customers to develop in a quality-focused fab environment which enables faster processing and ramp to volume production. The SkyTech Center also accommodates customers who want to place their own dedicated tools in SkyWater’s facility, allowing them development embedded in a fab ecosystem, co-located with other capabilities they need to streamline commercialization.

“Seeing the SkyTech Center firsthand was an eyeopener to the company’s commitment to become the preferred foundry for disruptive technologies,” said Dan Hutcheson, VLSI Market Research. “The unique aspects of this investment, coupled with SkyWater’s 200mm manufacturing infrastructure, provides an ideal environment to enable emerging novel technologies to quickly transition to manufacturable products at the right scale.”

“Our Custom Foundry business grew approximately 50% in 2018 and is tracking at that same rate for 2019, reinforcing the trend we see in the market for advanced process development activities for an increasingly diverse field of high technology devices,” said Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater President. “The addition of the SkyTech Center is an example of investments we are making to enable capabilities in which we see a growing demand as the industry transitions to a new era of hybrid architectures.”

For more information on SkyWater and its advanced process technologies, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com.

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is a solely U.S.-based and owned, DMEA-accredited Technology Foundry, providing custom design and development services, exclusive design IP, and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. The Company’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. SkyWater serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, IoT and medical. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

Dr. Ferguson spearheaded development of custom foundry business at Cypress and has driven significant growth at SkyWater since spin-off

BLOOMINGTON, MN, May 13, 2019 – SkyWater Technology Foundry, the trusted innovation partner for tomorrow’s most advanced technology solutions, today announced that Dr. Brad Ferguson has been appointed as SkyWater’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In this new role he will focus on further developing the company’s technology roadmap and IP strategy by identifying high growth markets for SkyWater’s Technology Foundry business along with continuing to lead SkyWater’s government relations efforts.

According to Thomas Sonderman, SkyWater President, “Brad is a natural choice to lead our technology strategy. He brings a unique mix of fab process and technology development, combined with business acumen and government relations experience. Since joining SkyWater, I have recognized his technical leadership, strategic thinking ability, and impressive management, communications and relationship skills.”

Dr. Ferguson most recently served as SkyWater’s Senior Director of Sales, responsible for government relations strategy and sales in the custom foundry line of business at SkyWater. He started his career in photolithography process development at Cypress Semiconductor. In 2008, he stood up the Cypress Foundry Solutions business to provide differentiated technology to high-tech innovators which has grown into nearly 40% of SkyWater’s revenue. Dr. Ferguson also drove the accreditation process to achieve Trusted Foundry status from DMEA which marked the company’s entry into the aerospace and defense market, a pillar of SkyWater’s market strategy.

“Notably, Brad developed the custom foundry line of business at Cypress prior to the spin-off of SkyWater and shaped it over a number of years into a growth engine for the fab. I believe his leadership skills in this new role as CTO will direct the organization’s focus on the necessary technologies, customers and markets to accelerate SkyWater’s pace of growth and further its success,” said Dana Nazarian, Executive Vice President, Operations & Technology, Cypress Semiconductor and member of SkyWater’s Board of Directors.

“I’m very pleased with how the custom foundry business has grown over the last 11 years and I’m excited to now take on this new leadership role. At a time when the tech landscape is growing increasingly diverse and the pace of disruptive innovation is accelerating, I look forward to leading our technology and IP roadmaps to continue development of offerings innovators need to bring their ideas to market for the next wave of hybrid technologies,” said Dr. Brad Ferguson, SkyWater Chief Technology Officer.

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is a solely U.S.-based and owned, DMEA-accredited Technology Foundry, providing custom design and development services, exclusive design IP, and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. The Company’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. SkyWater serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, IoT and medical. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

Accelerates customers’ migration to production in the fast-growing biochip market

BLOOMINGTON, MN April 18, 2019 – SkyWater Technology Foundry, the trusted innovation partner for tomorrow’s most advanced technology solutions, today announced its certification to the ISO 13485 standard which specifies requirements for a comprehensive quality management system that supports the design and manufacture of medical devices. The ISO 13485 standard outlines business process requirements for manufacturers supplying solutions into medical applications and serves to verify compliance with quality standards which minimize risks potentially affecting patient health or safety that stem from manufacturing quality issues. By achieving this standard, SkyWater is well-positioned to meet the increasing demand for semiconductor content in this rapidly accelerating market. In addition, SkyWater’s geographic location in the Twin Cities, known as a healthcare technology hub, provides direct access to several leaders in this field.

The ISO 13485 certification provides confirmation of quality processes SkyWater has developed in-house to support its focus on medical device fabrication such as DNA sequencing and other applications in the design and development stage. The new certification will streamline customers’ development cycles and accelerate their migration to production for a wide range of emerging biomedical market segments including implantable, wearable and rapid medical diagnostic devices. According to Inkwood Research, the global biochips market is estimated to generate net revenue of approximately $62.82 billion by 2027 growing at a CAGR of 20.63% during the forecast period 2019-2027.

“Obtaining ISO 13485 compliance certification marks an additional commitment to our growing customer base. The certification was quickly achieved by leveraging many processes already in place which support our existing quality management certifications including those critical to servicing the automotive industry,” said Thomas Sonderman, President, SkyWater Technology Foundry. “Our business is focused on streamlining the product development process for customers across our business units. Adding this qualification strengthens our ability to extend more of our innovation services into medical markets.”

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is a solely U.S.-based and owned, DMEA-accredited Technology Foundry, providing custom design and development services, exclusive design IP, and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. The Company’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. SkyWater serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, IoT and medical. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

Veeco’s best in class precision surface processing platform supports SkyWater’s collaborative work with Massachusetts Institute of Technology to maximize electronic device performance

PLAINVIEW, N.Y. and BLOOMINGTON, MN, April 3, 2019—Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) today announced that SkyWater Technology Foundry has taken delivery of the WaferStorm^® single wafer wet process system to support advanced development work for the design and fabrication of next-generation 3D monolithic System-on-a-Chip (3DSoC) technology. The most advanced U.S.-based and solely U.S.-owned Technology Foundry, SkyWater is leveraging the process performance and production capabilities of WaferStorm to create densely integrated logic and memory products. Using breakthrough 3DSoC technology, SkyWater is collaborating with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to set a new threshold for device performance and energy efficiency.

“Our selection of the WaferStorm system was based on Veeco’s reputation of delivering best-in-class technology for wet processing that enables many leading-edge applications,” stated Gregg Damminga, Vice President of Technology Development, SkyWater. “The solvent-based platform offers a precise level of control during wafer processing which is essential to the innovations we are working on with MIT to develop technology that drives better performing devices at lower cost.”

WaferStorm’s unique ImmJET^™ solvent technology provides customers with the best overall process performance, flexibility and production capability in its class compared to conventional batch or spray-only approaches. WaferStorm offers proven, reliable solutions for metal lift-off (MLO), photoresist strip, dry film resist strip, via cleans, flux removal and other advanced packaging processes. WaferStorm is also the production tool of record for MLO at several leading vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) manufacturers today.

“SkyWater’s selection of WaferStorm further showcases Veeco’s leadership in advanced wet processing technology and we’re pleased to be working with the foundry driving true innovation in the 3DSoC space,” said Scott Kroeger, general manager of Veeco’s Precision Surface Processing business unit. “Our full suite of solvent, clean and etch technologies is ideally suited to help create a new class of microelectronic devices and systems that extends beyond previous thresholds for performance and efficiency.”

As reported by IEEE, advances in monolithic 3D integration lay the foundation for highly efficient next-generation computing systems. With the emergence of artificial intelligence, edge computing and deep learning driving innovation in memory access as a key enabler for future systems design, the use of 3DSoC represents a paradigm shift for the computer industry and high-tech world. As the industry reaches the next-generation of 3DSoC technology, WaferStorm delivers excellent process results at the lowest cost of ownership, enabling innovators like SkyWater and MIT to advance research and enhance device performance.

About Veeco

Veeco (NASDAQ: VECO) is a leading manufacturer of innovative semiconductor process equipment. Our proven MOCVD, lithography, laser annealing, ion beam and single wafer solvent etch & clean technologies play an integral role in producing LEDs for solid-state lighting and displays, and in the fabrication of advanced semiconductor devices. With equipment designed to maximize performance, yield and cost of ownership, Veeco holds technology leadership positions in all these served markets. To learn more about Veeco’s innovative equipment and services, visit www.veeco.com.

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is the only U.S.-based and U.S.-owned, DMEA-accredited pure-play Technology Foundry, specializing in advanced Innovation Engineering Services to develop and quickly scale next wave technologies. Serving as both an ASIC and custom foundry, SkyWater manufactures a wide variety of differentiated integrated circuits in markets including: consumer, industrial, medical, aerospace and defense, automotive, and the IoT, among others. SkyWater tailors its business and technical services according to individual project and customer needs. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

Veeco Media Contact: David Pinto | 408.325.6157 | dpinto@veeco.com
SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

Intrinsix leverages 30-year heritage as a leading design services firm to provide solutions for markets including aerospace & defense, rad-hard, biomedical, and IoT

BLOOMINGTON, MN and MARLBOROUGH, MA, March 19, 2019 – SkyWater Technology Foundry, the trusted innovation partner for tomorrow’s most advanced technology solutions, and Intrinsix Corp., an advanced semiconductor design services firm, today announced a partnership to offer SkyWater customers a wider breadth of design solutions, addressing a broad range of high performance mixed-signal and other microelectronic device applications. In addition, the engagement will provide design support for emerging carbon nanotube-based 3DSoC and related integrated circuit architectures.

Intrinsix offers semiconductor design services to customers who need Trusted solutions at the leading edge of technology. These services start at product concept and finish at working systems. Along the way, customer innovation is melded with the latest design techniques and solutions in a way that optimizes outcome and lowers risk – state of the art meets state of the practice for aggressive mixed-signal SoCs.

“It’s a natural fit for us to add SkyWater to our foundry partnership network. Both companies are focused on enabling design of new products that have the potential to disrupt or drive markets,” said Jim Gobes, CEO, Intrinsix Corp. “In an increasingly diverse landscape, we see an exploding need for advanced development and flexible volume foundry services. SkyWater is addressing this need and we look forward to working with them to enable customers with first time success.”

“By partnering with Intrinsix, we strengthen our design enablement ecosystem, offering silicon-proven services and IP which provide a wider range of complete solutions to our customers in several of today’s emerging markets. Additionally, their long track record and DMEA Trusted Accreditation aligns well with our focus on supporting mil/aero programs and customers designing in IP sensitive industries,” said Rick Harding, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, SkyWater Technology Foundry.

Intrinsix is thoroughly familiar with SkyWater’s process design kits (PDKs) and contributes to SkyWater’s Multi Project Wafer (MPW) FastShuttle Program for 90nm and 130nm process flows, offering a low-cost way for designers to verify IP and concepts through the Intrinsix ecosystem or directly through SkyWater: www.skywatertechnology.com/mpw-fastshuttle/. The Intrinsix-SkyWater relationship is also expanding its scope to develop PDKs for a carbon nanotube based 3DSoC technology platform.

SkyWater and Intrinsix are both exhibiting at the GOMAC conference on March 25-28, 2019 in Albuquerque, NM at booth numbers 511 and 604 respectively.

About Intrinsix Corp.

Intrinsix Corp., headquartered in Marlborough, MA USA, is a design services company for advanced semiconductors with clients around the globe. The company has been servicing the needs of electronic product and semiconductor companies for more than 30 years. Intrinsix has the platforms, process and people to ensure first-turn success for industry-leading semiconductors. For more information, please visit: www.intrinsix.com/.

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is a solely U.S.-based and owned, DMEA-accredited Technology Foundry, providing custom design and development services, exclusive design IP, and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. The Company’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, rad-hard and ROIC solutions for IoT and defense applications. SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. SkyWater serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, and medical. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

Intrinsix Company Contact: Jim Gobes | 508.658.7658 | jgobes@intrinsix.com
SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

The relationship increases in-region access to SkyWater and extends representation to support co-creation of optimized designs and custom technology solutions

BLOOMINGTON and MENDOTA HEIGHTS, MN, February 14, 2019 – SkyWater Technology Foundry, the trusted innovation partner for tomorrow’s most advanced technology solutions, is pleased to announce Ferrian Sales & Associates Inc. as its sales representative in Arizona, Minnesota and New Mexico. Ferrian’s industry expertise and proven reputation in advising customers on effective business strategies and technology roadmaps will include offering SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services and advanced manufacturing solutions. Ferrian’s split region access in Minnesota and the Southwest is unique for servicing mil/aero and biomedical target markets in which both SkyWater and Ferrian have substantial activities.

Commenting on the partnership, Rick Harding, Vice President of Sales & Marketing of SkyWater said, “This new addition to the SkyWater network of market partners is another milestone in our transformation from a captive foundry operation to a diversified customer facing organization. Ferrian brings decades of industry expertise and is well-aligned with our key focus areas to represent both our high performance mixed-signal process offerings as well as our innovation services that are pushing forward next wave technologies in multiple markets.”

“We are very pleased to represent SkyWater, increasing access to their advanced engineering and manufacturing services for customers who are true innovators in various technology segments,” said Greg Ferrian, President, Ferrian Sales & Associates. “We look forward to working closely with customers to support design optimization utilizing SkyWater’s wide-ranging solutions which will provide them with customized technologies for their unique applications.”

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is the only U.S.-based and U.S.-owned, DMEA accredited pure play Technology Foundry, specializing in advanced Innovation Engineering Services and manufacturing of a wide variety of differentiated integrated circuits in various markets including: consumer, industrial, aerospace and defense, automotive, and the IoT, among others. With decades of site heritage as an innovation service provider, SkyWater helps customers efficiently develop and quickly scale next-generation products. Serving as both an ASIC and custom foundry, SkyWater provides advanced development capabilities to tailor business and technical services according to individual project and customer partner needs. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

About Ferrian Sales & Associates, Incorporated:

Ferrian Sales represents a variety of complementary technologies for the material and service needs of the advanced technology electronics market in the Upper Midwest United States. Greg Ferrian, President, has thirty years’ experience providing customized solutions for the military, industrial, avionics, and medical microelectronics industry. The sales team of Greg Ferrian, Sean Ferrian and Jacob Riley, provide quality solutions leveraging their design and material expertise and the unique component and service offerings of the world’s leaders in innovative microelectronic solutions.

Ferrian Company Contact: Greg Ferrian | 651.686.4704 | greg@ferrian.com
SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com

Syracuse, NY and Bloomington, MN, January 28, 2019 — SkyWater Technology Foundry, the industry’s most advanced U.S.-based and solely U.S.-owned Trusted Foundry, has selected INFICON, a leading provider of Smart Manufacturing and process monitoring solutions to the global semiconductor industry, to provide factory performance visualization and work-in-process (WIP) scheduling and move optimization using its Final Phase Systems (FPS) suite of applications. The software systems provided by INFICON enable factories to increase productivity and/or capacity with existing capital and human resources.

By adopting Smart manufacturing practices, companies such as SkyWater can move beyond traditional factory dispatching by using intelligent scheduling and delivery methods to optimize WIP flow throughout the factory. With the INFICON FPS productivity products, SkyWater will be able to increase overall tool utilization and drive down cycle time, maximizing the ROI of its existing infrastructure.

“Our Technology Foundry operation is complex and encompasses a high mix production flow and wide-ranging R&D activities. We are investing in INFICON’s FPS software solution to enhance our manufacturing monitoring capabilities and improve operational efficiency which help ensure premium quality and on time delivery for our customers,” said Tom Legere, Senior Vice President of Operations.

“Our Advanced Scheduling and Next Move Software Solutions are ideal for companies like SkyWater that have a dynamic manufacturing environment. By providing real-time operational visibility and a fab-wide optimized WIP schedule, we improve manufacturing efficiencies such as tool utilization and cycle time,” said John Behnke, General Manager of INFICON’s FPS product line.

For more information, contact INFICON, Two Technology Place, East Syracuse, NY 13057-9714, 315.434.1100, email: reachus@inficon.com, www.inficon.com.

About SkyWater Technology Foundry

SkyWater is a U.S.-based and U.S.-owned, DMEA accredited Technology Foundry, specializing in the development and manufacturing of a wide variety of differentiated integrated circuits in various markets including: consumer, industrial, aerospace and defense, automotive, and the IoT, among others. With decades of site heritage as an innovation service provider, SkyWater recognizes a growing need for enhanced services to help customers efficiently develop and rapidly bring new technologies and products to market. The company’s world-class team is experienced tailoring business and technical services according to individual project and customer partner needs. SkyWater serves as both an ASIC and custom foundry, providing advanced development capabilities alongside volume production, enabling customers with unique technology solutions to innovate and scale next-generation products. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.

About INFICON

INFICON is a leading provider of innovative instrumentation, critical sensor technologies, and advanced process control software that enhance productivity and quality in sophisticated industrial vacuum processes. These analyses, measurement and control products are essential for gas leak detection in air conditioning/refrigeration and automotive manufacturing. They are vital to equipment manufacturers and end-users in the complex fabrication of semiconductors and thin film coatings for optics, flat panel displays, solar cells and industrial vacuum coating applications. Other users of our vacuum-based processes include the life sciences, research, aerospace, packaging, heat treatment, laser cutting and many other industrial processes. We also leverage our expertise in vacuum technology to provide unique, toxic chemical analysis products for emergency response, security, and environmental monitoring. INFICON is headquartered in Switzerland and has world-class manufacturing facilities in Europe, the United States and China, as well as subsidiaries in China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. INFICON registered shares (IFCN) are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. For more information about INFICON and its products, please visit www.inficon.com.

INFICON Company Contact: John Benke | 512.751.7377 | john.behnke@inficon.com
INFICON Media Contact: Naomi Kissel-Johns | 315.434.1234 | naomi.kisseljohns@inficon.com

SkyWater Company Contact: Ross Miller | 952.851.5063 | ross.miller@skywatertechnology.com
SkyWater Media Contact: Lauri Julian | 949.280.5602 | lauri.julian@skywatertechnology.com