TSMC and Renesas Electronics have extended their partnership on microcontroller (MCU) technology to 40 nm embedded flash (eFlash) process technology to produce MCU products for advanced consumer and automotive applications.
Renesas had already signed an agreement with TSMC to outsource MCU production at 90 nm eFlash process technology. With this latest partnership deal between the two companies, Renesas will outsource MCU products to TSMC utilizing 40 nm and advanced technologies.
TSMC and Renesas will work together in advanced MCU platform and manufacturing technologies by integrating Renesas’ metal-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (MONOS) technology providing high speed, high consistency and superior quality technical support with TSMC’s sophisticated CMOS process techniques and flexible manufacturing capacity.
Moreover, TSMC and Renesas plans to establish an environment to expand their customer base by enabling accessibility for the MONOS process platform to other global semiconductor suppliers, which include IDMs and fabless companies. Using TSMC’s process capabilities, Renesas will get a high-consistency, cost-efficient solution to couple flash onto an individual microcontroller. The 40 nm process technology can manufacture MCU products with reduced power consumption, better speed, and over 50% smaller die size than existing 90 nm node. These qualities are especially critical for integrated MCU designs, in which memory, logic and other system parts are packed within a tiny area.
Renesas Electronics’ Senior Vice President, Shinichi Iwamoto stated that following the negative impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the company is building up a fab network as an element of its business continuity plan. Through the integration of the advanced technologies of TSMC and Renesas, the company will develop a supply structure to ensure reliability in supply for customers.
Source: http://sg.renesas.com