SkyWater Technology is an American semiconductor engineering and fabrication foundry, based in

Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, on the north bank of the Minnesota River, above its confluence with the Mississippi River, south of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 89,987, ma ...

. It is the only US-owned

pure-play A pure play company focuses solely on a particular product or activity. Investing in a pure play company can be considered as investing in a particular commodity or product of a company. Pure play firms either specialize in a specific niche, or hav ...

silicon foundry.

History

The company was formed in 2017, when private equity firm Oxbow Industries acquired Cypress Foundry Solutions, a microelectronics fabricator that was previously a subsidiary of California-based Cypress Semiconductor Corp. In early 2021, SkyWater acquired an additional chip factory in

Osceola, Florida Osceola County (, ) is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 388,656. Its county seat is Kissimmee. Osceola County is included in the Orlando–Kissimmee– Sanford, F ...

, repurposing the University of Central Florida NeoCity fabrication facility into a second fabrication site. It expanded its facility and add 100 new jobs in 2021, partially due to funding from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Initial public offering

SkyWater Technology filed an initial public offering with the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

in March 2021.

U.S. infrastructure investment

SkyWater has been cited as an example of the infrastructure the Biden administration is investing in. On April 12, 2021, President Joe Biden held up a silicon wafer created by SkyWater as he explained that chips represents a form of infrastructure. On July 20, 2022, Skywater announces plans to invest 1.8 billion dollars into a manufacturing facility in

West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister ci ...

. The facility is within

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

's Discovery Park District.

Technology

SkyWater produces semiconductor chips using 90-nanometer process technology on equipment designed to handle 200-millimeter wafers of silicon. SkyWater works in the consumer, industrial, military & defense, and automotive industries. SkyWater is a

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

-accredited Trusted supplier, part of the DOD's efforts to secure a supply chain within the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. SkyWater has collaborated with Efabless and

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

to create the first

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

chip manufacturing program. On August 21, 2021, SkyWater announced an expanded partnership with

Rockley Photonics Holdings Rockley may refer to: People *Baron Rockley, a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom *Alicia Margaret Amherst Cecil Rockley (1865–1941), English botanist and horticulturalist *Ann Rockley, Canadian technical communicator *Joseph Rockley Mer ...

, focused on Rockley's health monitoring solution.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.skywatertechnology.com/ Semiconductor companies of the United States Companies based in Minnesota