Intel opens fab in New Mexico for advanced 3D packaging

Intel has opened a fab in the US state of New Mexico where it will work on 3D packaging technology. This allows the company to put together various previously produced chipdies using techniques such as Foveros.

Intel will use Foveros, the company’s new, advanced 3D packaging technology, in Fab 9. This technology allows processors to be built with vertically stacked computer tiles instead of next to each other. This should make it possible to combine different dies into a single chip. Intel uses Foveros in its most recent Meteor Lake processors for laptops, among other things.

Foveros, says Intel, is one of the techniques that will ultimately allow it to build chips with more than a trillion transistors. The company says it wants to ‘extend Moore’s Law beyond 2030’. For comparison, the M3 Max, Apple’s most powerful chip, has 92 billion transistors.

The new factory is part of Intel’s plans to increase its chip production capacity. The company is building new factories as part of its IDM 2.0 business strategy. It will also produce chips for other companies, just like TSMC and Samsung do. Previously, Intel only produced chips for itself. In October 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Chips and Science Act, a package of laws that will release $52.7 billion in subsidies for the chip sector. This should make the United States less dependent on chips from China and Taiwan.

In response to the legislation, Intel said it would be in the coming years more than 100 billion dollars will invest to scale up US chip production. In addition to the $3.5 billion investment in New Mexico, the company is also working on projects in Oregon, Arizona and Ohio.