Intel opens it's $3 billion factory expansion in Oregon
The US chipmaker has officially opened “Mod3” – a more than USD 3 billion investment to expand Intel’s D1X development factory in Hillsboro, Oregon.
During the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Intel also announced that it would rename the nearly 500-acre campus, in honor of the company's co-founder Gordon Moore, to Gordon Moore Park at Ronler Acres.
“Since its founding, Intel has been devoted to relentlessly advancing Moore’s Law. This new factory space will bolster our ability to deliver the accelerated process roadmap required to support our bold IDM 2.0 strategy,” says Intel CEO, Pat Gelsinger, in a press release.
He continued to state that Oregon is the longtime ”heart” of the company's global semiconductor R&D, and that renaming this specific campus is the best way of honouring Gordon Moore’s legacy.
The campus is the headquarters of the company's global technology development organisation – which is responsible for advancing Moore’s Law by creating new transistor architectures, wafer processes and packaging technologies.
During the campus’s 25-year history, engineers and scientists there have continually worked to overcome the challenges posed by physics when the features on a chip shrink to the size of atoms. Think of technology such as high-k metal gate technology, tri-gate 3D transistors and strained silicon – they all originated in Oregon.
“With the new expansion of our D1X factory, Oregon is well-positioned to deliver the next generation of leading-edge technologies,” says Ann Kelleher, executive vice president and general manager of Technology Development, in the press release.
She also hammered down on the fact that semiconductors are fundamental to U.S. technology leadership, the economy, and supply chain resilience.
With “Mod3” – Intel engineers now have an additional 270,000 square feet of clean room space to develop these next-generation silicon process technologies.
