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.

About Author

Dr. Bami Bastani

Dr. Bami Bastani is head of GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ radio frequency (RF) business unit, responsible for expanding the organization’s business leadership position in RF.

Bastani has more than 35 years of industry experience in the semiconductor industry, including component to system-level RF technologies. Prior to joining GLOBALFOUNDRIES, he was president, CEO and board member of Meru Networks, a global enterprise-grade Wi-Fi networks solution provider. During his time with the company, Bastani transformed Meru Networks from a hardware company to a solution provider, delivering a portfolio of software, software-defined networks (2015 SDN Excellence Award) and subscription cloud offerings (WaaS).

Dr. Bastani has also held positions of president, CEO and board member in the mobility, consumer and broadband markets, including president and CEO of Trident Microsystems, Inc. and ANADIGICS, Inc. In addition, he has served in executive positions at Fujitsu Microelectronics, National Semiconductor and Intel Corporation.

Dr. Bastani holds a Ph.D. & MSEE in Microelectronics from Ohio State University.

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.

About Author

Pat Patla

Pat Patla, is the Senior Vice President of Marketing, at Everspin. He is responsible for driving strategic direction for Everspin and leading the marketing effort to drive growth across our business, including product roadmaps and the development and execution of global marketing strategies that solidify the leadership position of the company.

Prior to Everspin, Pat was the Senior VP and General Manager for KNUPATH, a privately held semiconductor company, where he was responsible for establishing product roadmap strategies in the Machine Learning space. In addition, he has held several senior management positions including VP of Server Business Marketing at Samsung and VP and GM of the Server and Embedded Division of Advanced Micro Devices. Pat also led the launch of PowerEdge servers at Dell, Inc., achieving the number one market share in multi-socket servers.

Pat holds a Bachelors of Science degree in marketing management from DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois.

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.

About Author

Timothy Saxe

Senior VP of Engineering and CTO

Timothy Saxe (Ph.D) has served as our Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer since November 2008. In August 2016, he expanded the role to include Senior Vice President of Engineering. Mr. Saxe has been with QuickLogic since May 2001 and during the last 15 years has held a variety of executive leadership positions including Vice President of Engineering and Vice President of Software Engineering. Dr. Saxe was Vice President of FLASH Engineering at Actel Corporation, a semiconductor manufacturing company. Dr. Saxe joined GateField Corporation, a design verification tools and services company formerly known as Zycad, in June 1983 and was a founder of their semiconductor manufacturing division in 1993. Dr. Saxe became GateField’s Chief Executive Officer in February 1999 and served in that capacity until GateField was acquired by Actel in November 2000. Mr. Saxe holds a B.S.E.E. degree from North Carolina State University, and an M.S.E.E. degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

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.

About Author

Mark Granger

GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ Vice President of Automotive, Mark Granger, has been in charge of high performance SoC product design and product management for about 20 years, most recently at NVIDIA where he led the company’s efforts to provide leading-edge application processors for autonomous vehicles.

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.

By: Dave Eggleston

There’s been a lot of news recently about embedded MRAM (eMRAM), and for good reasons.  The technology is rapidly accelerating from research and development to commercialization at multiple foundries, and is now being adopted by chip designers. Most notably, GLOBALFOUNDRIES just announced the availability of its 22FDX® 22nm FD-SOI eMRAM for system-on-chip (SoC) designers, with released PDKs, off-the-shelf macros, and MPWs for customer prototyping. With risk production expected from GF and other foundries by the end of 2018, MRAM is shaping up to be a big technology and market disruptor right now, promising to replace embedded Flash, and augment SRAM in MCUs and SoCs for automotive, IoT, consumer and industrial systems. Over the horizon, FinFET processes with eMRAM will also appear, bringing new capabilities to future storage, networking and data center systems.

Supercharged Performance

MRAM technology has been under development for decades – in parallel with several other non-volatile memories including RRAM, Phase Change, Carbon Nanotubes, Ferroelectric – and recently, eMRAM has clearly taken the lead position among all emerging embedded memory technologies. Why? eMRAM offers SoC designers very significant performance advantages:

• Very fast write speeds (<200ns)
• Extremely high endurance (~10E8 cycles)
• Operation from logic Vcc (no high voltage pumps needed)
• Low energy writes (10x lower than eFlash)
• Zero bitcell static leakage (0 pA vs. >50pA for a SRAM bitcell)

Coupled with the performance advantages, eMRAM enjoys a significantly higher level of technology maturity versus other emerging NVM options, featuring:

• Well understood magnetism physics
• Simple, controllable switching mechanism (no forming, or stepped writes needed)
• Low incidence of single bit failures
• Demonstration of multi-Mb arrays at sub-28nm
• Achieving high yield, with excellent reliability
• Full integration into advanced foundry production processes

eMRAM simultaneously delivers bit density, speed, endurance, coupled with low power consumption and non-volatility. The combined advantages of superior performance and technology maturity for eMRAM are key factors for foundry customers deciding to use eMRAM for their sub 28nm products.

Hit the Road Running

eMRAM simultaneously delivers bit density, speed, endurance, coupled with low power consumption and non-volatility. The combined advantages of superior performance and technology maturity for eMRAM are key factors for foundry customers deciding to use eMRAM for their sub 28nm products.

Historically, eMRAM has not been perceived as ready for commercialization because of several manufacturing and reliability barriers: material complexity, poor data retention at hot temperatures, susceptibility to external magnetic fields, and finally, difficult and expensive manufacturing.

Tough challenges to overcome, but to move the needle from an unreliable to reliable technology the industry has directly tackled the issues of materials and manufacturing complexity. As a part of this effort, major fab equipment makers, along with foundries, pioneered eMRAM specific PVD and Etch equipment that achieves 20 wafers per hour (wph) throughput, which enables a competitive manufacturing cost.

Moreover, GF has specifically improved eMRAM reliability, by modifying the magnetic materials to deliver outstanding data retention and magnetic immunity, including:

• Less than 10ppm bit error rate through 260°C solder reflow
• 15 year data retention at 125°C
• More than 1000 Oe magnetic immunity

In other words, many of the past barriers for eMRAM commercialization have now been overcome – solved by the collective efforts of the foundries and major fab equipment makers in making eMRAM reliable and manufacturable.

Crank up the “Killer Combo”

In light of these new advancements in reliability and manufacturability, high-volume market opportunities have now opened up for eMRAM. The market opportunity further expands with the widespread commercialization of fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) as a substrate.

eMRAM on FD-SOI brings together best-in-class capabilities, creating an irresistible “Killer Combo” vs. other bulk silicon offerings. Unlike eFlash, which is built down into the silicon, eMRAM’s magnetic element is built up in the metal layers, so it is more easily implemented into a logic process such as FD-SOI with no impact on FEOL transistors. Additionally, eMRAM’s higher endurance, faster write speed increases SoC performance, and the low write energy reduces power consumption by more than 80 percent (vs. 28nm bulk silicon with eFlash).

In particular, GF’s industry leading 22FDX eMRAM platform provides excellent scaling, outstanding RF IP, ultra-low leakage, power island control – and (finally!), eMRAM macros with either eFlash or SRAM interfaces. For the first time, the versatility of GF’s 22FDX eMRAM enables ultra-efficient memory subsystems that power cycle with no time or energy penalty, making it suitable for a broad spectrum of applications.

eMRAM is finally here; ready for SoC designers to take advantage of the superior performance and technology maturity, with GF’s 22FDX eMRAM delivering excellent reliability and manufacturability.

Design your Killer Product today, using GF’s 22FDX “Killer Combo”!

To test drive GF’s 22FDX and embedded memory offerings:

• GF’s Embedded Memory Technology Brief
• GF’s VLSI Symposium Technical paper on eMRAM for GP-MCU Applications
• GF’s IMW Technical paper on eFlash for Automotive MCUs
• GF’s 22FDX Technology Brief

About Author

Dave Eggleston

Dave Eggleston is the Vice President of Embedded Memory at GlobalFoundries, which he joined in 2015. Dave has responsibility for the embedded volatile and non-volatile memory businesses at GlobalFoundries, as well as the related strategic direction and initiatives. Dave is the former CEO and President of Unity Semiconductor, a RRAM industry pioneer acquired by Rambus. He has held technical executive management roles at Rambus, Micron (where he built and spearheaded the NAND systems engineering organization), SanDisk, and AMD. He holds 28 patents in NAND flash and next-generation ReRAM memory, storage system usage, and high volume manufacturing. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of two NVM start-up companies. He received his MSEE from Santa Clara University and his BSEE from Duke University.