GlobalFoundries reenters advanced-node push with FDX Fusion

GlobalFoundries is returning to a point it left behind in 2018, when it halted its 7 nm node development indefinitely as advanced manufacturing became more expensive and difficult. At the time, TSMC, Samsung and GlobalFoundries were the main contract manufacturers pursuing leading-edge nodes, while Intel did not accept external clients.

The company’s new approach, FDX Fusion, is based on fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator technology rather than conventional CMOS scaling alone. GlobalFoundries creates a fully insulating layer beneath the channel, extending substrate isolation and enabling capabilities aimed at specialized chip designs.

FDX Fusion is designed to support ultra-low-power in-memory computing, integration of embedded non-volatile memory such as eMRAM, and dense logic designs. GlobalFoundries claims the platform offers 7 nm-class node characteristics in size and twice the transistor density of its first-generation 22FDX node, which was described as a 22 nm-class design.