Additional DoD funding reaches SkyWater
US semiconductor foundry SkyWater Technology says that the Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded the company up to USD 99 million as a continuation of the previous initiative to advance onshore production capabilities for strategic radiation-hardened (rad-hard) electronics.
The DoD recently determined that SkyWater has successfully completed the base prototype project for its 90 nm rad-hard process (RH90), part of a previously announced USD 170 million investment. This additional award enables the move to productization and qualification – which is already underway.
During the RH90 base program phase, SkyWater worked with partners to establish components of the RH90 ecosystem, including an initial PDK, the multi-project wafer (MPW) shuttle program coupled with an Early Access Partner Program. The next step is qualification – which includes radiation and reliability testing.
“This is one more milestone in our RH90 technology roadmap and speaks to the viability of our Technology as a Service business model and the open ecosystem we are creating with our unique technology foundry offering. SkyWater’s mix of defense and commercial business provides viability to meet long-term system procurement timeframes,” says SkyWater President and CEO, Thomas Sonderman, in a press release.
SkyWater’s RH90 process is expected to be qualified by the end of 2024 and added to DoD’s Defense Logistics Agency’s (DLA’s) qualified manufacturers’ list, with a classification V designation (QML-V).
