Analog Devices, Coherent mop up last of CHIPs Act cash

The US Department of Commerce has signed four CHIPS Act deals for semiconductor projects in the last days of the Biden administration.

The proposed CHIPS Investments in Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Texas come from Analog Devices, Coherent, Intelligent Epitaxy and Sumika Semiconductor Materials.

The proposed $105m investment in ADI would support the expansion and modernization of two advanced research & development (R&D) and Radio Frequency (RF) Microwave (MW) systems manufacturing facilities in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, to increase module production for commercial, space, and defence applications as well as new commercial phased array antenna and sensor solutions.

The funding would also be used in the current $1bn project to modernize two fabs in Beaverton, Oregon and Camas, Washington, with a 70% increase in production and bringing 180nm and 350nm process nodes back to the US. This would reduce the use of solvents to make the fabs more environmentally friendly.

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“ADI is at the forefront of innovation in the expansion of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing,” said Vincent Roche, CEO and Chair at Analog Devices. “Our focus on enabling innovation at the Intelligent Edge is driving advancements in process technologies that are critical to our global customer base. This investment will help us strengthen our workforce training and community partnerships, as well as expand our efforts to manage our environmental footprint.”

As part of the Oregon and Washington project, ADI has launched the Semiconductor Advanced Manufacturing Upskilling (SAMU) technician training facility, which will offer programs to support manufacturers and collaborators in what it is calling the ‘Silicon Forest’.

The proposed $79m investment for Coherent would support the expansion of its existing silicon carbide (SiC) manufacturing facility in Easton, Pennsylvania. This would increase production capacity of 150mm and 200mm silicon carbide (SiC) substrates by 750,000 wafers and double SiC epitaxial wafer manufacturing capacity, back-end of line processing, electronic performance, and reliability testing capabilities.

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Both ADI and Coherent have indicated they plan to claim the Department of the Treasury’s Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit (CHIPS ITC), which is 25% of qualified capital expenditures.

The proposed $52m investment in Sumika would support the construction of a greenfield factory in Baytown, Texas to manufacture ultra-high purity (UHP) isopropyl alcohol (IPA) used in advanced logic and memory chip production.

The proposed CHIPS Act $10m investment in IntelliEPI would support the expansion and modernization of its existing manufacturing facility in Allen, Texas to increase production of epitaxial wafers for Indium Phosphide (InP), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Gallium Antimonide (GaSb), and Gallium Nitride (GaN) using Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) technology.