Globalfoundries, a leading contract maker of semiconductors, on Tuesday said that its newest manufacturing facilities in Dresden, Germany, and Saratoga, New York, have reached “ready for equipment” status, which means that the construction works are essentially done and actual tools that are used to make chips can now be installed.

At Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany, Globalfoundries has completed construction of an additional wafer manufacturing facility designed to add capacity at 45nm and below, which has the potential to increase the overall output of the Fab 1 campus to 80 thousand wafers per month once fully ramped. The expansion project will add more than 110 thousand square feet of cleanroom space to the site and will allow Fab 1 to operate as one integrated cleanroom. This extension will make Dresden the largest wafer fab in Europe for leading-edge technology.

At Fab 8, Globalfoundries’ newest semiconductor manufacturing facility under construction at the Luther Forest Technology Campus in Saratoga County, NewYork, the RFE date was moved up by nearly two months to meet heavy customer demands. Last week, Globalfoundries moved into the facility’s admin 1 office building and broke ground on the admin 2 building.

Once completed, Fab 8 will stand as the most technologically advanced wafer fab in the world and the argest leading-edge semiconductor foundry in the United States, the company hopes. When fully built-out and ramped, the total available cleanroom space will be approximately 300 thousand square feet and will be capable of a total output of approximately 60 000 wafers per month. The total facility, including cleanroom support infrastructure and office space, includes approximately 1.9 million square feet of space and is expected to come online in 2012 with volume production targeted for early 2013. Fab 8 will focus on leading-edge manufacturing at 28nm and below.

“At Globalfoundries, we continue to invest aggressively in driving sustained growth on advanced technologies. The build-out of our 300mm manufacturing campuses in New York and Dresden is supporting growing customer demand for advanced technologies, while creating hundreds of jobs and providing a significant boost to the economies in the surrounding regions. By completing these massive construction projects on schedule and on budget, we are continuing to deliver on our commitment to being the only truly global foundry,” said Ajit Manocha, chief executive officer of Globalfoundries.

Tags: Globalfoundries, Semiconductor, fab 8, Fab 1, 300mm, 28nm, 22nm, 20nm, 45nm, 32nm