Work Resumes on $35 Million SUNY Poly/GE Project

Work has resumed on SUNY Polytechnic Institute's $35 million silicon carbide chip wafer manufacturing line at its Albany campus on Fuller Road after a long delay in state payments to The Pike Co., the main contractor at the site.

Pike, of Rochester, stopped work on July 26 after failing to be reimbursed by the state for roughly $8 million in work on the project, a joint venture between SUNY Poly and General Electric Co.

The state's Dormitory Authority, which has provided funding to many of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's economic development projects, had withheld the money from SUNY Poly over issues with invoices and other paperwork for work dating back to February.

However, SUNY Poly officials, as well as others in state government, privately confirmed on Friday that Pike is once again back on the job after the payment issue was cleared up. Pike officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

But GE officials were pleased that work had resumed.

"We understand that work has resumed at SUNY Poly, and plans are moving forward with the silicon carbide project," said GE spokesman Todd Alhart. "We're very pleased with the progress that has been made in recent weeks."

The payment issue has been a nagging yet sensitive one for SUNY Poly and the governor's office, which have become embroiled in an investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara into potential political patronage involving Cuomo's economic development projects across upstate.

Since the investigation came to light, hundreds of millions of dollars in payments for SUNY Poly projects from Buffalo to Albany have been delayed, angering contractors. Cuomo's economic development chief, Howard Zemsky, has said the delays have been the result of more stringent accounting on behalf of state agencies that approve the payments.

The $35 million silicon carbide chip project is the centerpiece of the New York State Power Electronics Manufacturing Consortium, a $500 million partnership between GE and SUNY Poly to develop next-generation power electronics chips used in everything from data centers and medical imaging to airplanes and solar power systems.

Cuomo appeared with GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt in July 2014 to announce the research and manufacturing program, which aims to use silicon carbide instead of just silicon, for specialty chips that handle electricity in devices like batteries and inverters. Silicon carbide is one of the most durable of materials and can help the industry shrink such chips while making their tolerances for heat and electricity much higher. The silicon carbide material also reduces power losses in the chips by 50 percent.

The tiny power chips will be made on six-inch silicon carbide wafers using the same manufacturing technique used to make other types of computer chips. The line, which will include five dozen pieces of manufacturing equipment known as tools, is being set up in SUNY Poly's NanoFab North building, which sits across from SUNY Poly's new ZEN building and its NanoFab eXtension building.

GE had developed the process to make the silicon carbide power chips at its global research lab in Niskayuna but did not have the manufacturing capability, the reason that it partnered with SUNY Poly on the project.

At the time when Pike stepped away from the job in July, about 30 SUNY Poly and GE engineers were working on the project, and about half of 63 tools had already been installed. The plan is to have the production line up and running by next year, processing between 10,000 and 15,000 wafers a year.