Officials continue to push for chip fab manufacturer

There still is no decision from the Army Corps of Engineers about key preparations for land being marketed to nanotechnology companies as a chip fabrication site.

But local economic development officials say the process has become a race against time, as the multi-billion dollar industry ramps up for a shift in the way chips are produced.

We think the next site selection will be in 2013 and 2014, said Mohawk Valley EDGE economic development agency President Steve DiMeo. The major players and some of the support industry (are) talking about timelines for actually building and having output from a 450 mm plant.

DiMeo was referring to the new generation of nanotechnology chips, which will be made in a new 450 mm format.

Currently, most of the chips, which can be found in everything from cell phones to medical devices, are made many at a time on 300 mm wafers. Companies now want to make them on 450 mm wafers, so more of the tiny chips can be manufactured at once.

In September 2011, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced $4.4 billion in private investment in nanotechnology initiatives in New York state.

That was in addition to the 2009 announcement that $45 million in state funds would be spent at SUNYIT to create a state of the art nanotechnology research and development compound.

Those investments are hoped to up the appeal of the Marcy site, which has been on the market for more than a decade. So far, about $16 million has been spent to prepare the site. A total of $39 million in work is planned.

Long time coming

The tussle with the Army Corps has been going on almost as long as the SUNYIT-owned site has been marketed to the nanotechnology industry.

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Officials continue to push for chip fab manufacturer