austriamicrosystems'
(SWX:AMS) business unit Full Service Foundry expands its cost-efficient and
speedy ASIC prototyping service, known as Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) or shuttle
run, in 2009 with a more extensive schedule. The service which combines several
designs from different customers onto one wafer offers significant cost advantages
for foundry customers as the costs for wafer and masks are shared among a number
of different shuttle participants.
austriamicrosystems' industry-recognized MPW service includes the whole
range of 0.18um and 0.35um specialty processes. As part of the commitment to
provide best-in-class analog semiconductor process technology, manufacturing
and services, austriamicrosystems now offers three prototyping runs for its
advanced 0.18µm High-Voltage CMOS technology H18, a joint development
with IBM. The H18 process technology is based on IBM's industry proven
0.18um CMOS process CMOS7RF and is perfectly suited for smart power management
ICs in handsets, PDAs, portable media players and other mobile devices. In addition,
four MPW runs for foundry customers are available in the CMOS7RF base technology.
For the 0.35um processes which are based on the 0.35um CMOS process transferred
from TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) a total of sixteen runs
are offered in 2009. The CMOS compatible 0.35um Silicon-Germanium BiCMOS technology
enables RF circuit designs with an operating frequency of up to 10 GHz combined
with high-density digital parts on one single ASIC. The 0.35um High-Voltage
CMOS process family with a 20V CMOS option, ideally suited for power management
products and display drivers, a 50V CMOS process, optimized for automotive and
industrial applications, and a 120V module optimized for sensor and sensor interface
chips serve customers' demand for high-voltage applications and products.
The advanced High-Voltage CMOS process with Embedded Flash functionality adds
to austriamicrosystems' MPW service portfolio.
In 2009, austriamicrosystems will offer more than 150 MPW start dates, enabled
through long lasting co-operations with organizations like CMP-TIMA, Europractice,
Fraunhofer IIS and Mosis. The complete schedule for 2009 has now been released
and detailed start dates per process are available on the web at http://asic.austriamicrosystems.com/cot
To take advantage of the MPW service, austriamicrosystems' foundry customers
deliver their completed GDSII-data at specific dates and receive untested packaged
samples or dies within a short lead-time of typically 8 weeks for CMOS and 10
weeks for 0.35um High-Voltage CMOS, SiGe-BiCMOS and Embedded Flash processes.
All 0.35um MPW runs will be produced at austriamicrosystems' state-of-the-art
8 inch wafer fab in Austria.
All process technologies are supported by the well-known HIT-Kit, an advanced
process design kit based on Cadence, Mentor Graphics or Agilent ADS design environments.
The HIT-Kit comes complete with fully silicon-qualified standard cells, periphery
cells and general purpose analog cells such as comparators, operational amplifiers,
low power A/D and D/A converters. Custom analog and RF devices, physical verification
rule sets for Assura and Calibre as well as excellently characterized circuit
simulation models enable rapid design starts of complex high performance mixed-signal
ICs. In addition to standard prototype services, austriamicrosystems also offers
analog IP blocks, a memory (RAM/ROM) generation service and packaging services
in ceramic or plastic.