New York announced on July 16 that it will partner with over 100 private companies, led by SEMATECH and IBM, to launch the New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium.
The Consortium will invest over $500 million and create thousands of high-skilled, high-paying jobs in Upstate New York over the next five years focusing on the development and manufacture of the next generation of materials used on semiconductors.
“This partnership in Rochester will continue the success of the nanotechnology industry which has put the Upstate economy on a much different trajectory and is making a real difference in our communities,” Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said. “Nanotechnology is no longer just a child of the Capital Region—the revolution has spread all across New York, advancing our capacity to compete on an international scale and bring jobs and investment to this state.”
The New York Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium (NY-PEMC) is a public-private partnership that will help develop the next generation of materials used on semiconductors at State-owned R&D facilities. Managed through the newly merged SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE)/SUNY Institute of Technology (SUNYIT), this next generation of semiconductors will enable power devices to get smaller, faster and more efficient as the current material, silicon, has reached its entitlement.
The site will act as a global “open-innovation” user-shared facility, which will enable the expansion and growth of major corporate partners, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) with a particular emphasis on MWBE firms and enterprises.
SEMATECH and IBM will be the lead partners in the Rochester fab, which will research and develop next generation technology for gallium nitride (GaN) devices. This is in addition to the Governor' announcement on July 15 that GE will lead the Albany facility in developing and producing low cost, high performance 6” silicon carbide (SiC) wafers.
Both the GaN based devices that will be developed in Rochester and the SiC devices in Albany outperform pure silicon (Si) in areas including power density, performance, reliability and efficiency. There are countless applications for GaN, including climate control and management of high value infrastructure (such as data centers and automated manufacturing plants), backup and support of mission critical facilities (hospitals, fire departments, governmental buildings, etc.), green energy development, electric vehicles, passenger rail, commercial and military aircraft and ships, and smart power grid design.
The partnership is enabled by the START-UP NY tax free initiative, in addition to $135 million in New York State funds provided to CNSE for the establishment of the NY-PEMC facilities, which will attract $365 million in private funds and know-how to support personnel, equipment and process flow, tool installation, facilities and materials for a total 5-year investment of $500 million.
