Planned Intel building could point to future Oregon factory expansion

The new building will attach directly to Intel's D1X research factory in Hillsboro (above). Dave Killen/The Oregonian
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Intel plans to build a new, modestly sized manufacturing support building on its main Oregon manufacturing campus. The chipmaker says will enable new production technologies and future growth at its Hillsboro research factory, called D1X.

“This planned building will support the existing D1X operations and ensures we are ready for potential future expansion and enabling new manufacturing process technology in support of Intel’s ongoing research and development and manufacturing activities in Oregon,” spokesperson Eleonora Akopyan wrote in an email.

Intel didn’t say how much the new building will cost or how big it will be. Planning documents filed with Hillsboro suggest it’s about 50,000 square feet. That’s small relative to other buildings on the site campus – the third phase of D1X, which Intel opened last year, cost $3 billion and is 270,000 square feet.

The whole campus – known as Gordon Moore Park at Ronler Acres – has 4.9 million square feet of buildings. It’s where Intel creates each new generation of its microprocessors.

Intel hasn’t set a timetable for future expansion at the Hillsboro site, but CEO Pat Gelsinger has said the company expects to build a fourth phase at D1X eventually. It’s currently building new factories in Arizona and Ohio.

Intel didn’t specify what new technologies its planned building enables, but the company is investing heavily in a new generation of manufacturing technology known as extreme ultraviolet lithography. EUV machines, made by a Dutch company called ASML, enable chipmakers to imprint smaller patterns onto silicon wafers, creating a path to more advanced computer chips.

EUV machines are huge, cost well over $100 million apiece and require specialized support systems to run. It could be that Intel’s new building will enable more EUV tools or other new production systems.

Intel said it plans to start production on the new building, called MSB2, later this year, connecting it by an overhead walkway to D1X on the southwest side of its campus near Hillsboro Stadium.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | 503-294-7699

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