By: Dave Lammers

Competitors in the Internet of Things space are set to describe their chip designs at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC 2018) in Barcelona, Spain, including several startups using GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 22FDX® process.

Anup Savla, chief technology officer at Nanotel Technology, said his young company is designing several chips for use in the narrow band (NB) IoT space. Savla, who spent 11 years designing wireless ICs at Qualcomm after a three-year stint at Intel, said Nanotel chose to use the 22FDX process to reduce power consumption for its mixed-signal NB-IoT modem.

“We have a digital engine, a processor, designed around IoT applications, where the emphasis is on low power and low leakage. With 22FDX there are knobs that are available to turn down the power and leakage. The opportunities to do that are unparalleled, and you just don’t get that kind of opportunity from bulk CMOS,” he said.

The Nanotel transceiver design started before the first 22FDX design kits were officially released, using a 0.5 PDK, but with libraries targeted to the 0.4 V operating voltage. “From the beginning we were definitely targeting the .4 V library. The reason is that at the .8 V level you are not differentiating on power enough, relative to a bulk CMOS process. It is at .4 Volts where you are really getting power consumption levels that are significantly lower, at similar costs to a bulk CMOS process,” he said.

Asked about designing to an FD-SOI process, Savla said “we just had typical early adopter-type issues. Part of it was the additional modeling and testing requirements to use the back gate, but that will remain true regardless of the maturity of the process. It is not necessarily a negative.  If you really want to exploit what this process can do, then you want to vary the back-gate voltage, but that comes with the added modeling.”

Savla said the Nanotel chipset design is divided equally between digital and analog. “Within the same design we can use switches with backgate control to cut off the leakage current when the device is basically sleeping and not in use, to an extent that is not easily possible in bulk CMOS. On the other hand we can use the back-gate in active mode devices to make active operation possible with very, very low supply.”

Nanotel’s primary focus is not to sell ICs – it is a solution-focused company, designing devices and data packages for its customers, allowing them to use long range, low cost connectivity to the cellular network without having to rely on WiFi. Having its own chipset gives Nanotel a means to reduce costs and customize unique features for its customers, he said.

Dual-Mode Connectivity Solutions

The leading low-power wide-area (LPWA) connectivity standards — LTE-M, which is gaining traction in the U.S. market, and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), which being adopted in Europe and Asia – are expected to boost IoT deployments to nearly half a billion by 2021, according to ABI Research.

GF and VeriSilicon are developing a suite of IP to enable customers to create single-chip LPWA solutions that support either LTE-M or NB-IoT, a dual-mode solution. The IP enables a complete cellular modem module on a single chip, including integrated baseband, power management, RF radio and front-end components.

VeriSilicon provides Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaS) intellectual property which allows its customers to focus on differentiating features. VeriSilicon CEO Wayne Dai said the Chinese government has targeted NB-IoT for nationwide deployment over the coming year. GF’s new 300 mm fab for FDX in Chengdu, and IP platforms such as the single-chip solution for integrated NB-IoT and LTE-M, “will have a significant impact on China’s IoT and AIoT (AI of Things) industries.”

One Picoamp Per Micron

Anubhav Gupta, director of strategic marketing and business development for IoT, AI & Machine Learning at GF, said some customers are taking older multi-chip designs and creating single-chip solutions in 22FDX. “Due to the efficient SOI FET stacking for high power PA and high switch linearity, there are area, power and cost advantages in moving to a single die in 22FDX. We see low short channel effect, higher transconductance gain, significantly better mismatch and lower noise than equivalent designs in 28nm bulk.”

On the digital side, Gupta said the body-biasing capability allows customer to operate as low as 0.4V with standby leakage currents of less than one picoamp per micron. Also, GF now offers embedded MRAM with very fast wakeup, a similar read speed to flash, but a 1000x better write speed. When eMRAM is used in combination with on-chip SRAM, customers can avoid off-chip flash completely, Gupta said.

A Roadmap Required

Hutcheson said he believes there are designs underway by companies that are holding their cards close to the vest. “Since 2016, there is a lot more IP available, and GF has addressed the issue of the roadmap with 12FDX, so that 22 is not just a one-stop thing.”

STMicroelectronics, which has several FD-SOI designs in production at 28nm, recently announced that it will turn to GF’s 22FDX process as the next stop on its FD-SOI roadmap.

A spokesperson from STMicroelectronics, said “since 22FDX integrates the second-generation active devices (transistors), it was natural for ST to select GF’s 22FDX technology as our next-node technology, after the 28nm FD-SOI technology we are already using.”

The spokesperson said ST takes a positive view of the “development of the 22FDX technology node in Dresden, which is now qualified for volume production and ready for primetime, so it is immediately usable by ST to develop products.” The wafer capacity and experience of the manufacturing team in Dresden “give us confidence in GF’s capability to qualify and produce in volume.”

‘Performance-Optimized’ Vision Processor

Jens Benndorf, chief operating officer of Dream Chip Technologies GmbH (Hannover, Germany), said his team used 0.8V libraries for its “performance-optimized” automotive vision processor. Dream Chip was the lead company in an EU-supported design project that included ARM’s A53 Quad and Cortex®-R5 lock step for functional safety, Cadence’s quad Vision P6 , FlexNOC from Arteris IP, LPDDR4 controller from INVECAS, and other IP partners. The resulting multi-core vision processor, based on the 22FDX process, was first unveiled a year ago at the 2017 MWC. Since then, the design is providing European auto makers and Tier 1 automotive component suppliers with a platform from which they can create custom derivatives.

“The automotive industry realized that their assisted driving solutions, besides Radar and Lidar, required more camera information, integrating information from multiple cameras. The resulting Multi-Processor Chip Design used forward biasing to boost performance, and not any back biasing,” Benndorf said. The result was a computer vision processor solution, measuring 64 sq. mm, with an estimated 1 billion transistors, and drawing 4 Watts, which he said is “a very aggressive power consumption number given how much vision processing is on the chip.”

Riot Micro Bets on Cellular Links

While Nanotel’s design is equally divided between digital and analog, another startup using the 22FDX process has an all-digital NB-IoT modem design. Peter Wong, CEO of Vancouver-based Riot Micro, said his company’s approach, which does not use a digital signal processing (DSP) approach, allows IoT customers to turn off large portions of the chip to save power. That is especially welcome for battery-powered IoT edge devices that might need to operate for a decade on a battery.

Riot Micro’s first design was done with a competing foundry’s 55nm bulk CMOS, but a follow-on chip is in the 22FDX process. The Riot Micro LTE Cat-M/NB-IoT modem includes an ultra-low power processor to run the protocol stack. “We borrowed design methodologies from the Bluetooth world to drive down the power and cost. The PHY is designed using gates instead of a DSP with a tightly coupled and highly optimized prototol stack, this gives us very fine granular power control over the modem.“, Wong said.

“With 22FDX, the value proposition for us is potential power and area savings,” said Wong. “In addition, leveraging the growing ecosystems of IP availability in the 22FDX process helps to accelerate time to market.”

The Riot Micro design is a digital cellular modem which supports the LTE Cat-M and NB-IOT cellular standards; Wong said the Riot Micro modem will be certified with several major cellular carriers this year. A customer in the Middle East is planning to use it for an emergency-alert system.

“There are many ways to connect things to the internet: WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, cellular, etc… and there are use cases that fit all of them, but for many applications, cellular has so many advantages.  Cellular is inherently more secure, easy to deploy, provides mobility, and the spectrum is licensed and managed.   Just turn it on and it connects. You don’t have to worry about spectrum; that is all managed by the carrier.” he said, citing asset trackers and asset management as key applications.

Integrated Power Management

Gupta said GF sees some mixed-signal IoT customers trending toward a 0.4V power supply for the digital circuits, and 0.8 to 1.8 volts for the analog portions. “The availability of LDMOS in 22FDX removes the requirements for an external PMU (power management unit) for low power IoT applications. Typically in bulk processes they don’t have high voltage LDMOS, and since a lot of the IoT applications work on lithium-ion batteries, these applications would require an external power conversion chip for battery-powered applications.”

And the 0.4 V designs have enough digital performance to support an ARM core, for example, running from 100 Mhz up to sub-500 MHz speeds, Gupta said.

Tim Dry, segment marketing director at GF, said engineers are beginning to more fully understand the analog design capabilities of the 22FDX technology by using dynamic body-biasing. “It turns out that SOI body biasing enables of lot of analog scaling that we didn’t understand until recently. For ADCs (analog to digital converters), radios, and power components, we believe we can get the die area much smaller than with existing planar and potentially FinFET.”

The 22FDX solutions for IoT systems, such as smart meters, augmented reality and virtual reality headsets, utility control, and security cameras, can reduce power consumption. “Smart speakers are another application getting a lot of attention,” Dry said.

For more information on GF’s FDX™ solutions, join us at MWC from February 27 – March 2 at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain, to learn about how GF’s technology platforms are positioned to enable a new era of ‘connected intelligence’ with the transition to 5G, or go to globalfoundries.com.

By: Baljit Chandhoke

We can’t literally see the congestion, but the electromagnetic spectrum has become so crowded with traffic at the frequencies commonly used for wireless connectivity and data communications, that data traffic jams are increasingly likely and disruptive. Compounding the problem is that today’s wireless devices and networks, operating at less than 6 GHz, are inherently inadequate for next-generation application requirements.

The solution is to make use of the millimeter-wave band of the spectrum (30 to 300 GHz), which offers much more bandwidth. The developing 5G standard you’ve heard so much about is intended to establish a common path forward for use of this so-called mmWave band.

However, it’s no mean feat to develop technology that can do this, especially for mobile applications. One issue is that ultra-high frequencies suffer from high propagation losses. That means high power output is required, but in a battery-powered device like a smartphone so is high energy efficiency – tough to do simultaneously. Another issue is that mmWave transmissions are susceptible to being blocked by buildings or other objects, and therefore the ability to form precise “pencil” beams that radiate to and from phased-array antennas is essential.

Enter GF’s 45nm RF SOI technology platform (45RFSOI), aimed at next-generation RF and mmWave applications like integrated front end modules (FEMs) and beamformers in 5G base stations and smartphones; broadband Satcom phased array terminals; automotive radar; and other evolving high-performance wired and wireless applications.

The 45RFSOI technology is fully qualified and ready for production, and we’re already working with major customers on several of these applications. We anticipate that several customers will begin to ramp products this year and next, and we expect the first volume production to commence later this year.

Process design kits are now available, and quarterly multiple-project wafer runs are also available for fast prototyping, so that customers can evaluate hardware results as early as possible.

Technical Highlights

The beauty of our 45RFSOI is that it’s an outgrowth of a 45nm partially depleted SOI server-class baseline 300mm technology that has been in volume production at multiple GF fabs for a decade. We evaluated it extensively for use in mmWave applications and added RF-centric enablement, device and technology features that give it the ability to meet forthcoming 5G requirements better than competing technologies.

For example, for superior RF performance the 45RFSOI platform combines high-frequency transistors (ft/fmax of 305/380 GHz, respectively) with a high-resistivity SOI substrate and RF-friendly metal interconnect. There are ultra-thick top-level copper interconnects for optimum transmission line design, and the interconnect also leads to improved noise isolation and suppression of harmonics so that extremely low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) can be achieved.

Meanwhile, to reduce power requirements, physical size and cost, 45RFSOI has been designed for the easy integration of features such as power amplifiers (PAs), switches, LNAs, phase shifters, up/down converters and voltage-controlled oscillators/phase-locked loops (VCOs/PLLs).

SOI technology electrically isolates the transistors from the substrate, unlike with standard CMOS technology where the substrate is a common node. Therefore, RF SOI transistors can be stacked to achieve higher breakdown voltages and power-handling capabilities, which is especially important for beamforming front-end circuits like PAs, LNAs and switches.

Moreover, because 45RFSOI enables such powerful and highly integrated chips, fewer chips will be required for an antenna array versus other technologies, giving customers the ability to build smaller, more cost-effective phased array systems.

A Range of RF Solutions

45RFSOI is the latest addition to GF’s set of technology solutions for RF applications, the industry’s broadest offering of RF foundry processes. They include 45RFSOI and 8SW RFSOI, silicon germanium (SiGe) and RF-CMOS technologies.

These technologies span a wide range of mature and advanced nodes with RF-optimized options, a broad range of ASIC design services and foundational intellectual property (IP).

Their most important feature, however, is that they help our customers address their difficult technological challenges, and give them the ability to better capitalize on the market opportunities before them.

mmWave Applications – Phased Array Antenna System

 

By: Dr. Bami Bastani

When I returned from the holidays, I thought I had entered a time warp. Did I sleep through January and wake up near the end of February? I expected to see the usual deluge of news about the gadgets and gear that will be featured at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2018). Instead, I’ve seen story after story about next-generation 5G mobile networks—typically the stuff of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Time warp or not, one thing is clear: 2018 is shaping up to be a huge year for 5G. With an estimated 8.4 billion connected devices expected to be on the market by 2020, there is an accelerating need for an ultra-fast, high-bandwidth, low-latency network to connect them. 5G is coming, and it can’t get here soon enough.

Qualcomm’s keynote on January 10 is sure to be a high point for the 5G buzz at CES 2018. Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm, will be sharing Qualcomm’s vision for leadership in the 5G era. We were fortunate to hear a preview of Cristiano’s story when he delivered a keynote at our GLOBALFOUNDRIES Technical Conference (GTC 2017) back in September. One of his key points was that the demanding requirements of 5G networks are driving increased complexity at the chipset level. This means silicon innovation is essential to enabling the transition to 5G.

At GF, we offer a sweeping range of semiconductor technologies designed to help customers’ transition to next-generation 5G wireless networks. We have the industry’s broadest set of technology solutions for a range of 5G applications, including mmWave front end modules (FEMs), standalone or integrated mmWave transceivers and baseband chips, and high-performance application processors for mobile and networking.

Our roadmap includes offerings in RF-SOI, silicon germanium (SiGe), and CMOS, including a wide range of mature and advanced nodes with RF-optimized options combined with a broad range of ASIC design services and IP. These application-specific solutions address various customer approaches to 5G by supporting a vast range of capabilities, from ultra-low energy sensors, to ultra-fast devices with long-lasting battery life, to higher levels of integration that support on-chip memory.

• 5G RF and mmWave Transceivers and Baseband Processing: Whether it’s for 5G <6GHz applications or the new 5G mmWave bands, GF’s broad range of CMOS technologies with FinFET, FD-SOI and more mature bulk CMOS technologies have optimized RF and mmWave offerings that allow our customers to make the best design trade-offs between cost, power consumption and performance. GF’s FD-SOI technologies (22FDX and 12FDX) are truly differentiated CMOS platforms that provide the lowest power consumption solution for any RF or mmWave transceiver. In addition, FDX is very well suited to address another part of the 5G standard, massive IoT networks. GF’s optimized solutions provide customers a flexible and cost-effective solution to integrate RF and mmWave transceivers with baseband modem or digital “calibration” processing in 5G handsets and base stations, NB-IoT solutions and other high-performance applications.
• 5G mmWave Front End Modules: GF’s RF-SOI and SiGe solutions (130nm-45nm) deliver an optimal combination of performance, integration and power efficiency for FEMs with integrated switches, low noise amplifiers and power amplifier applications. For certain applications, such as 5G mmWave handsets and small base stations, GF’s 22FDX mmWave optimized offering makes it possible to integrate FEMs and transceivers onto a single chip, delivering significant advantages in terms of cost, power consumption and footprint. GF’s mmWave solutions are designed to serve applications ranging from sub-6 GHz to mmWave frequency bands.
• Advanced Applications Processing: GF’s advanced CMOS FinFET-based process technologies deliver an optimal combination of performance, integration and power efficiency for next-generation smartphone processors, low latency networks and massive MIMO networks. Advanced CMOS solutions are available today from GF.
• Custom Design for 5G Wireless Base Stations: The company’s application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design systems (FX-14 and FX-7) enable optimized 5G solutions (functional modules) by supporting wireless infrastructure protocols on high-speed SerDes, solutions to integrate advanced packaging, monolithic, ADC/DAC and programmable logic.

5G will undoubtedly play an integral role in helping next-generation networks provide “zero-distance connectivity” between users and their devices, allowing people to take full advantage of the processing power of the cloud as well as edge-to-edge connectivity. With the demand for 5G accelerating rapidly, GF will continue to work with its partners to provide solutions that will allow our customers to succeed in this competitive space. Stay tuned as we continue to roll out new details of our technology solutions for 5G throughout the coming year.

 

GF has a global footprint and with it a responsibility to our local communities. Through GF’s GlobalGives program, the company provides employees the opportunity to make a positive impact in their local communities in the areas of education, philanthropy and the environment.

In 2017, employees made a difference in many ways, giving their time, money and goods. Below is a sample of just a few of the wonderful programs and events employees helped support in 2017.

Aid to Victims of Disasters (GF WW)

GF launched a number of global campaigns this year to aid the victims of a series of natural disasters, which resulted in an extensive amount of damage and devastation around the world. These included Hurricanes Matthew, Irma, and Maria; flooding in South Asia; an earthquake in Mexico; wildfires in California; and an earthquake in Iran/Iraq.

The response from team GF was tremendous, raising valuable funds for all causes, in some cases including matching donations from the company. While immediate relief efforts were focused on providing victims with medical, food and water supplies, and other critical needs, those in the hardest hit areas will require even more support in the months ahead as they begin to rebuild their homes and communities.

Burlington Food Drive (Vermont)

Fab 9, in Burlington Vermont, held their annual food drive, collecting 4,817 pounds or nearly 2.5 tons of food that will make a large difference in nearby communities. In conjunction with the drive, the site held its annual food sculpture contest with teams of volunteers turning the donations into incredible, creative “food sculptures.”

A number of different service agencies in the region received boxes of food and other necessary commodities, thanks to the help of GF’s 971 dock, which supported the drive by storing, weighing, and transporting the food. Other community events in Burlington included a winter items drive, a bike build competition (which benefited a local charity), and Benevity training.

Toys for Tots Drive/Open House (New York)

Fab 8, in Malta New York, held its annual Toys for Tots Drive, providing employees and community members the opportunity to give back to the community over the holidays by helping out needy children in the Greater Capital Region. Local Veterans began collecting donations at the Fab 8 Open House.

As part of the event, GF also presented checks with money raised from our title sponsorship of the Malta 5K race to numerous community organizations. The event culminated with a check presentation to nearly a dozen FIRSTⒸ robotics teams and New York Tech Valley (NYTV) FIRSTⒸ affiliate partners, the recipients of NYTV FIRSTⒸ‘s 2018 grant awards. In 2017, the Malta site also donated about $3,000 worth of equipment to Ballston Spa High School for a new virtual reality lab.

Hair for Hope (Singapore)

The Singapore site held its annual Hair for Hope fundraising event, helping to raise funds for the Children’s Cancer Foundation and promote awareness of childhood cancer. A total of 68 GF employees had their heads shaved at the Singapore site, raising a total of $116,290.00 to date.

Employees at the Singapore site also supported the Boy’s Brigade Give-A-Gift Wishes program, providing 815 gifts to a number of different charitable organizations.

Christmas Volunteer Project (Germany)

Fab 1, in Dresden Germany, collected presents for 50 children and teenagers of the welfare organization Louisenstift gGmbH. The six groups of children from disadvantaged families range in age from 3 to 17 years. Many of them will not be able to celebrate Christmas with their families. Employees also made donations to two charitable organizations: Treberhilfe Dresden e.V., which supports teenagers and young adults without a home or any means of income, and INTERPLAST Germany e.V., a group of surgeons and nurses from Saxony, who operate for free on patients in Tanzania (Africa) during their vacation time.

ALS Walk/Treat the Troops Program (New York)

The Fab 10 team in East Fishkill, N.Y. participated in the annual Hudson Valley ALS Walk on the Walkway Over the Hudson. This is a walk in remembrance and in honor of relatives and friends who have been affected by ALS, and the funds raised support people living with ALS in the local community and helps to advance global ALS research and public policy initiatives aimed at finding treatments and a cure for the disease.

GF employees, along with IBM, also collected over 16,000 treats as part of the Treat the Troops program. GF employees brought the treats, which included cookies, candy, granola, crackers, chips, and popcorn, among others, as well as drink mix and cards, to a collection point at the IBM site in Poughkeepsie. In all, 211 packed boxes were shipped out to our deployed men and women!

Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Refuge (California)

Employees from the GF Santa Clara site sponsored a day of volunteering at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Refuge located in Alviso, just 10 minutes from campus.

Nineteen employees volunteered their time, spending approximately two hours weeding, planting, picking up litter and the like to help preserve the natural beauty of this local gem.  In total, GF volunteers picked up just over 27 pounds of trash. Other community activities at the Santa Clara site in 2017 included a food drive supporting the Redwood Empire Food Bank, a Back to School drive, and a Family Giving Tree Holiday Wish Drive.

Austin Food Drive (Texas)

Employees from GF’s Austin site participated in the Food and Fund Drive 2017, benefiting the Central Texas Food Bank. In all, 142 pounds of food (good for 113 healthy meals!) was donated by GF employees.

The Central Texas Food Bank works to fulfill the unmet needs of people in Central Texas in three ways – sharing free food and their knowledge on low-cost, healthy eating with families in need, assisting families who qualify for federal assistance programs, and making food affordable for charitable and government partners.

Sri Channabasaveshwara Gov’t School/Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology (India)

This year, GF’s Bangalore site donated a projector and computers to the Sri Channabasaveshwara Government School in Bellary, Karnataka, to help students attend “smart” classes. The school has approximately 200 students at the primary level and 200 students at the secondary level.  The school has qualified teachers who are very enthusiastic and, in addition to academics, they also focus on the overall development of children and extracurricular activities, such as in-house organic gardening, sports and cultural shows. GF also donated a projector to help support cancer awareness camps in rural areas in conjunction with the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, a well-known comprehensive regional center for cancer research and treatment, offering sophisticated diagnostic and treatment services in India.

As a company, GF remains committed to the communities in which we work. Through GlobalGives, employees have access to over two million non-profit organizations to enable a broader giving process and the opportunity to foster empathy through supporting our communities. GF employees, worldwide, are proud to be stewards for their communities and we all look forward to a great 2018.

By: Pat Patla

Information demands are increasing dramatically as digital transformation and other business trends are creating the need for more real-time decision making. Collecting, transmitting and storing the data that helps drive business insights is putting strains on businesses as they grapple with optimizing the increasing flow of data. Nowhere is this taking its toll on traditional systems more than in storage, where both the volume and critical nature of the information is driving rapid changes in how data is handled and tiered. Storage is both the bottleneck of most environments while simultaneously being the most critical component of any application.

Everspin created its nvNITRO™ technology to help address the growing needs for faster and more persistent storage. Built on magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) that is fabricated by GLOBALFOUNDRIES, nvNITRO brings both high performance and persistence to data storage, enabling a new generation of application performance.

We recently showed the power of nvNITRO at Supercomputing 17, the worldwide event for high performance computing.

In a demonstration with SMART Modular Technologies, SMART’s NVMe accelerator card was able to drive high performance with ultra-low latency. The demo showed an NVMe accelerator acting as a front-end buffer for an enterprise SSD. While SSDs are transforming businesses today and all flash arrays are gaining popularity because of their performance advantages over rotating media, NAND memory still can’t match the high speed and low latency of MRAM.

Transaction processing is just one of the areas where we see opportunity for MRAM. In these environments, to guarantee the integrity and compliance of transactions, many systems require logging or journaling of each transaction before beginning of the next new transaction. These applications – such as banking, payment processing, stock trading, e-commerce, supply chain, or ERP/CRM – can all benefit from nvNITRO technology. As message traffic increases, that additional logging can become a bottleneck if not handled quickly and efficiently.

With an MRAM storage accelerator as a front end to an SSD, transaction logging can be achieved in a fraction of the time required with just an SSD. The lower latency of MRAM means that these logs can be written faster, freeing the system up to begin the next transaction without delay. nvNITRO’s 9X reduction in latency, through the use of MRAM, means more transactions can be recorded per second, bringing the potential for greater overall application throughput.

The other key benefit that MRAM delivers is its ability to maintain the state of the data without requiring batteries or supercapacitors. For these businesses, writing huge volumes of transactions also presents a second challenge beyond speed – maintaining the data regardless of the state of the underlying system. Typically, when a system loses power or has a power interruption, transactions that are “in flight”, either being written, or being journaled, can be lost because standard DRAM memory is not persistent and the NAND memory in SSDs just can’t write fast enough to capture all of the in-flight data before power is lost. With the persistence of MRAM, this data can be written out faster, reducing the data stored in the buffer. If the system does need to restart, that data would still be persistent in the MRAM upon initialization. In a world where regulatory entities scrutinize every transaction and may need a financial company to “replay” its transactions, ensuring everything was logged properly the first time is invaluable. This sort of protection goes beyond just protecting the data; at that point, it is actually protecting the company.

The traffic at Supercomputing was brisk and we were happy to see the level of excitement that our demo was producing. Technology like MRAM can become a great foundation for many future platforms. The ability to integrate nvNITRO technology into storage solutions through a variety of interfaces – directly as a PCIe or U.2 device, integrated into the chassis or integrated directly into the system boards – means there is a wide variety of implementations to match specific needs. Discussions about nvNITRO always start with the specific use case being shown, but eventually becomes “hey, could you…?” And that is where it gets interesting.

Along with the STT-MRAM that we were displaying in the nvNITRO demo, STT-MRAM is also available as embedded MRAM (eMRAM) through GF for those applications that demand the persistence, durability and write performance that embedded flash (eFlash) cannot deliver. As we see growth in areas like drones, IoT and autonomous vehicles, the value of embedding MRAM directly into designs will grow. Today’s nvNITRO solutions are built on Everspin 40nm STT-MRAM technology that is produced by our partner GF. Additionally, GF is now offering process design kits for 22FDX eMRAM. GF expects customers to start prototyping MRAM on multi-project wafers (MPWs) to start in Q1 2018.

We see the immediate opportunity today in accelerating the storage of massive data streams. These large amounts of telemetry need to be efficiently handled in a manner that ensures both fast capture and long-term retention. But as MRAM and eMRAM continue to gain market momentum (moving traditional memory and storage products aside) and the form factors shrink, we will see even greater opportunity present itself. Today we are accelerating the back-end storage and processing piece of the equation but it is not a stretch to see MRAM and eMRAM potentially integrating into the front-end and edge devices that are creating this data – and that is where things begin to get even more interesting.

If Supercomputing 17 was any indication, the future is bright for MRAM.

By: Timothy Saxe

Embedding FPGA technology into SoC designs isn’t really a new idea.  In fact, at QuickLogic we’ve been doing it for nearly two decades, starting with our FPGA/hard PCI controller SoC all the way back in 1999.  The value proposition was the same then as it is now.  Higher levels of integration delivering a higher level of functionality, performance, and design flexibility with lower cost, power consumption, and board space requirements.  So why hasn’t eFPGA technology taken off much sooner?

The answer lies fundamentally in the relationship between die costs and development costs.  Let’s start with die sizes and costs.  Our PCI device in 1999 employed a 0.35 micron process which used 24,650 square microns per logic cell.  By 2002, the 180nm process we used for our QuickMIPs device resulted in 9,306 square microns per logic cell – less than half the area for more FPGA capability.  Today our latest device, the EOS™ S3 Sensor Processing Platform, includes an even greater level of FPGA capability with a die area of just 961 square microns per logic cell through the use of a 40nm process technology.  That’s roughly a factor of 25 reduction in the die area of the eFPGA portion of these devices over the last 18 years.

Lower die area requirements for eFPGA technology mean that it can be integrated into an SoC with only a very minor increase in total device cost.  For example, we estimate that in a device built using 40nm process technology, adding 1,000 logic cells of eFPGA capability to a 3mm x 3mm die only increases the total die size by roughly 10%.  The corresponding cost increase will be slightly higher or lower percentage-wise depending on die yields and package costs, but the cost increase for such a device is marginal.  Given all of the benefits we described earlier, the value proposition from the device perspective now looks really compelling.

Let’s continue on to take a look at development costs.  More advanced process technologies are more expensive to develop and require more sophisticated design and verification tools which cost more money and require the SoC designer to invest more time in the design cycle.  Making a design error, or getting a feature wrong, or trying to deliver a product extension, or address a group of fragmented but related market opportunities, or keep up with rapidly evolving market requirements all create the need for additional mask spins and that costs significantly more money now than it did ten or twenty years ago.

In today’s world of highly complex SoCs the reality is that the silicon is cheap, but development is expensive.

So what’s a thrifty developer to do?  The answer is to embed a reasonable amount of FPGA technology.  There will be a relatively small incremental silicon cost, but they will gain the ability to leverage their high investment in development by adding a high degree of post-manufacturing design flexibility.  Instead of needing expensive design and verification mask spins to fix bugs, change features, or address new market opportunities or rapidly evolving standards, they will keep the “hard-wired” portion of their device intact and simply update the programmable FPGA portion.  In fact, we estimate that a company can very easily save 40 percent in development costs for two variants of the same design through the use of embedded FPGA technology.  And that doesn’t include the higher peak revenue levels, gross margin dollars, and longer time-in-market benefits associated with having the right product in the market at the right time.

eFPGA technology is a particularly great fit for SoC designers working with GLOBALFOUNDRIES.  The new 22FDX® process delivers strong economic benefits for new devices, with fewer masks required compared to previous generation nodes. Its dynamic back-bias feature reduces power by an estimated 78 percent (@0.6V) relative to 40nm processes.  That makes it well-suited to the low power and ultra-low power wearable, hearable and IoT applications which our eFPGA users are targeting.

So, if you are an SoC developer or manager, the bottom line is that lower development costs and higher profits are yours for the taking through a combination of QuickLogic’s eFPGA technology and GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 22FDX process. The time is now.

 

By: Mark Granger

The automotive market for semiconductors is shifting into high gear. Right now the average car has about $350 worth of semiconductor content, but that is projected to grow another 50 percent by 2023 as the overall automotive market for semiconductors grows from $35 billion to $54 billion.

This strong growth is being driven by the need to develop what we are calling the ‘connected car.’ The term refers to the multiple electronic systems in a vehicle that collectively take data from wired and wireless sensors and combine it with high-performance processors and analog/power semiconductors, to provide the vehicle with semi-autonomous and ultimately fully autonomous capabilities.

These capabilities include Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) such as collision and blind spot warnings, sophisticated infotainment and telecommunications options, and precise electrical control of major vehicle subsystems like the powertrain, among many others.

The move toward the connected car is driving fundamental change in the automotive supply chain, which is presenting GF with a unique opportunity. Traditionally, there have been separate and distinct tiers of automotive suppliers. At the top of the supply chain are the automobile manufacturers themselves, known as the original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs. Tier 1 suppliers such as Bosch, Continental, Delphi, etc. supply automotive-grade parts and systems directly to the OEMs.

Tier 2 is where we have always fit in. Tier 2 suppliers such as semiconductor companies have traditionally supplied the Tier Ones with parts for automotive systems, and have tended not to work directly with the OEMs. However, this is changing. As more electronics-based systems are used in automobiles and as they become more complex, there is a greater need to understand system architectures and networks, and to bring complex IP and quality standards to the design and manufacture of the SoCs and other chips that meet those needs.

That is exactly what we do here at GF. It’s why we recently announced a platform called AutoPro™ that provides OEMs and other automotive customers with a broad set of technology solutions, design and manufacturing services that help them implement connected intelligence while minimizing certification efforts and speeding time to market.

AutoPro is built on our 10 years of automotive-industry experience and leverages GF’s diverse technologies for automotive customers. It includes our silicon germanium (SiGe), FD-SOI (FDX™), RF and advanced CMOS FinFETs, packaging and intellectual property (IP) technologies.

Importantly, it also includes system-level architects who work directly with OEMs. In recent years GF has hired many people with extensive automotive SoC experience, such as myself, and the networking system designers in our industry-leading ASIC business from the IBM Microelectronics acquisition are unparalleled.

AutoPro solutions support the full range of AEC-Q100 quality grades from Grade 2 to Grade 0, and, in addition, we ensure technology readiness, operational excellence and a robust automotive-ready quality system through our AutoPro Service Package.

This gives customers access to the latest technologies designed to meet strict automotive quality requirements defined in the ISO, International Automotive Task Force (IATF), Automotive Electronics Council (AEC), and VDA (German) standards.

Although AutoPro was only recently introduced, we are already at work with automotive OEMs.  One that we can mention is Audi, which has called our automotive offerings essential for delivering next-generation car electronics faster and with high reliability.

It’s early days, but the road is open before us.

 

By: Wallace Pai

Earlier this year GLOBALFOUNDRIES announced plans to build a 300mm fab in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China, in a joint venture with the Chengdu municipality.

We did so to take advantage of the fact that the Chinese semiconductor industry is undergoing radical change. The national imperative is to increase self-sufficiency in semiconductors dramatically in the next few years, because while China is the world’s fastest-growing semiconductor market, it currently must import about 80 percent of the chips used in equipment manufactured by Chinese OEMs.

Chengdu sees this move toward self-sufficiency as an opportunity to turn itself into the Silicon Valley of the budding Chinese semiconductor industry. While tourists may be familiar with the ancient city for its giant Pandas, spicy foods, cultural heritage and natural appeal, from a business perspective it is a thoroughly modern, cosmopolitan city with world-class infrastructure, a business-friendly attitude and a large, technology-savvy workforce.

Many foreign multinational companies are located there, such as Intel, Texas Instruments and Siemens, along with large Asian enterprises such as Foxconn, which builds about two-thirds of the world’s iPads there.

Accordingly, Chengdu is providing attractive financial, educational and other incentives to prospective industrial partners, with the goal of developing an entire chip design and manufacturing ecosystem to serve the Chinese market.

That presented GF with an incredible ground-floor opportunity, not only to manufacture the chips required by the country’s electronics manufacturers, but also to play a key role in supporting the developing Chinese semiconductor industry as a trusted partner with uniquely advantageous, world-class technical resources.

Thus, we chose to build our fab in Chengdu despite strong interest from other cities. Fab 11 will be the largest and one of the most advanced 300mm fabs in China upon completion next year, and will be the center of our 22FDX® production for that market.

Initially we will produce 130nm-180nm mainstream technologies there, with a capacity of 20,000 wafer starts per month (wspm). Then, in the latter part of 2019, we will begin volume production of our highly differentiated 22FDX (FD-SOI) technology, with an anticipated capacity of 65,000 wspm. Ultimately some 3,500 employees will be involved in Fab 11 operations.

Fab 11 adds to the resources we already have in China. We started with a sales office in Shanghai several years ago, where there are now 50 people in various roles including field application engineers, sales, marketing and other technical support functions.

But as a result of the IBM Microelectronics acquisition, we now also can offer a highly differentiated portfolio of RF technologies and a very large ASIC design/development team, with about 150 people in Shanghai and another 40-50 in Beijing. As our ASIC business continues to grow, so too will these numbers. This ASIC offering is a very powerful one, with one of the industry’s broadest ranges of ASIC design services, differentiated intellectual property (IP), custom silicon and advanced packaging for true end-to-end solutions.

Building a 22FDX Ecosystem, Leveraging ASIC Capabilities

The Chengdu government rightly sees our 22FDX technology as a key advantage in its efforts to become a center of gravity for the growing Chinese chip industry, and our presence as a magnet that will attract even more technology companies and make the city an international center of excellence for semiconductors.

That’s because 22FDX, with its unique combination of performance, RF capabilities, power, size and cost, is a perfect match for the end-markets on which China is focusing – battery-powered, wireless computing devices for mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), driver assistance/autonomous driving and 5G applications.

Beyond the fab, and along with our joint venture partner, we are helping to develop an entire 22FDX-based ecosystem comprising IP, EDA and design services companies, who will be our customers and partners going forward. This ecosystem will play a critical role in the eventual launch of 22FDX technology in China because these companies will already know how to work with it and will be familiar with its benefits as they design innovative electronic products.

For example, there are more than 700 fabless semiconductor companies in China, and that number is growing fast. While some are more technically advanced than others, on an overall basis there is a strong need for expert help and technical assistance. Our in-country ASIC engineers are already working on-site with some of these companies on 22FDX projects which means, in effect, that we’re already open for business in that technology even though Fab 11 itself is still under construction.

Throughout greater China, our existing customers range from Tier One companies to many of these smaller companies, but as we bring on more capabilities and technologies such as 22FDX, opportunities are opening up with customers we weren’t able to serve previously.

It’s Just the Beginning

The Chinese semiconductor industry is really only in its infancy. More than 10 fabs are now under construction throughout the country, including ours, and an entire industrial infrastructure is being established.

Seen in that light, our new fab is not simply a manufacturing facility, but rather is a tangible symbol of a bright future for us in China.