Innosilicon’s Broad IP Portfolio Qualified on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 12LP FinFET Platform for High-Performance Applications October 24, 2019Innosilicon, the world-class innovative fabless IP design and customized ASIC company, announced today that its comprehensive IP portfolio has been qualified on GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF ®) 12nm Leading-Performance (12LP) platform, enabling designers to deliver differentiated products to a broad set of demanding compute-intensive applications including artificial intelligence and virtual reality to high-end smartphones and networking infrastructure. Innosilicon’s GDDR6 is design ready and has taped out on GF’s 12LP.
格芯“体偏置生态系统”蓄势待发 October 24, 2019作者：Dave Lammers 格芯在22FDX技术方面已经取得了一些成功，但是在保守的半导体行业中，要让新技术投入使用是一个耗时耗力的过程。经过几年的基础夯实，同时5G、汽车和射频物联网设备都意味着全耗尽式SOI技术市场的快速增长，现在正是FDX大展拳脚的时候。 格芯工业和多市场业务部副总裁Ed Kaste在格芯技术大会(GTC 2019)分组会议上介绍道，格芯预计22FDX器件今年的出货量将达1亿个。 在电源管理领域的一个量产设计中标中，FDX在模拟、射频和低功耗工作方面的优势与体硅相比，更胜一筹。格芯移动与无线基础设施市场部高级总监Jamie Schaeffer表示：“我们相信通过展示FDX在该电源管理应用中可实现的性能，将有助于我们在物联网领域赢取其他大批量设计中标。”虽然该电源管理芯片相对较小，所需的晶圆数量也不是很多，但Schaeffer表示，这是一个范例：展示了即使未启用体偏置，仅22FDX“也是一个性能更出色的晶体管”。Schaeffer在9月下旬于圣克拉拉举行的GTC 2019上介绍道，在0.5V电压下（许多设计中标的目标电压），基于SOI的FDX技术功耗更小、漏电流更低，而且射频性能甚至“超出了格芯的初始期望值”。 我在会议上的感受到，目前，FDX技术所需的方方面面都汇集到一起，种类繁多，这篇博客无法一一加以介绍，因此，我将重点关注自适应体偏置功能。 FDX设计中标中很少采用体偏置，部分原因是迄今为止还没有多少设计人员能够轻松实现体偏置以达到性能提升或功耗降低。在某些用例中，用于实现体偏置的IP本身就消耗了相当大的功耗，从而抵消了总体功耗收益。 体偏置生态系统就绪 但是，一切都在改变。市场现在已经完全支持自适应体偏置(ABB)，总的来说，可以从多家IP供应商处获得更深入的FDX IP库，包括面向汽车应用的Synopsys、面向物联网CryptoIsland™安全性的ARM，以及来自芯原的IP等等。 Schaeffer向GTC与会者表示：“体偏置无疑是FDX最具差异化的能力，但由于没有完整的体偏置生态系统，因此它尚未得到广泛采用。在过去几年里，我们建立了首个体偏置生态系统，包括带有工艺、电压、温度和体偏置表征的库和存储器。该生态系统还包括体偏置发生器，以及来自Cadence和Synopsys的参考设计。从设计和规划一直到表征和测试，我们已经全部准备就绪。” Schaeffer表示，其目标是“为客户简化用例。富有创意的设计人员如何使用体偏置并不受任何限制，只是在某种程度上，我们将它过度复杂化了。为了简化设计过程，我们让客户能够利用体偏置来补偿工艺。仅此一项，就可以使设计性能提高多达30%。仔细想想，该设计与半代工艺或全节点改进类似，只需进行一个设计微调即可。” Schaeffer在GTC上宣布，22FDX平台现已支持ARM的内置安全IP（称为集成安全元件(iSE)），从而让物联网设备设计人员能够更轻松地获得安全认证。 ARM的集成安全元件(iSE) IP现可用于基于22FDX的SoC，降低高安全性标准芯片供应商的进入门槛 （资料来源：GTC 2019） 来自Dolphin Design的关键IP Dolphin Design（总部位于法国梅朗）首席执行官Philippe Berger表示，公司30位工程师今年开发出了IP和测试芯片，可支持FDX平台上的自适应（正向或反向）体偏置(ABB)（正向偏置降低阈值电压以提高性能，而反向偏置则提高Vt以降低漏电流）。 ABB功能让设计人员可以利用正向和反向偏置技术，动态补偿工艺、电源电压、温度(PVT)变化以及老化影响。Dolphin的IP嵌入了体偏置电压调节、PVT监视器、老化传感器以及控制环。Berger表示，当传感器监视PVT特性时，“可调节体电压，使晶体管恢复到您所需要的特性”。 他还表示，Dolphin IP“提供了能够充分利用工艺角紧固优势的设计方法论”。Dolphin与格芯于今年1月签署了合同，共同开发ABB知识产权，目前已可提供该IP。Berger介绍道，客户从Dolphin获得IP许可时，它是作为“格芯赞助”的IP免费提供的。 Berger表示：“基本上，目前几乎没人在使用体偏置，因为没有设计环境。”他还预测道：“今后，体偏置解决方案将至关重要，特别是当设计人员要将射频与其余电路结合在一起时。”Berger表示，体偏置功能随着5G蜂窝和物联网市场的蓬勃发展应运而生，体偏置(BB)将广泛应用于功率放大器(PA)和低噪声放大器(LNA)功能。 Dolphin的自适应体偏置(ABB) IP是格芯体偏置生态系统的一部分，旨在改善性能、延迟和能耗。 （资料来源：GTC 2019） Invecas, Inc.客户工程部副总裁Bhaskar Kolla表示，Invecas已经创建了一个标准的单元库，该库具有适合于自适应体偏置的工艺角表征。Invecas库中的“hook”可将Dolphin的ABB IP调入系统一起工作。Kolla表示：“Dolphin IP将使得动态（自适应）偏置更易于使用。一些客户已经使用了静态（正向）偏置，但是借助自适应偏置，客户既可以使用正向偏置，也可以使用反向偏置。我们的库现已支持这一功能。” 格芯平台首席技术专家兼全球研发部副总裁John Pellerin表示，新一代FDX工艺12FDX中将搭载更多ABB优势。22FDX工艺中的阱结构要求预先设置好给定电路模块的体偏置条件（对标称电压进行加/减），而采用12FDX工艺时，则能够以非常精细的电路粒度在两个方向上任意切换偏置。“我可以将它比作街道。采用22FDX时，就像是在城市街区中的车流只能单向行驶，而采用12FDX时，该城市街区中的车流可以双向行驶。” 格芯经过重组，组建了一个新部门，负责面向汽车、工业和多市场(AIM)应用的处理平台、IP和其他设计支持元件，其中多重市场涵盖了物联网市场，例如用于农业、智能城市、医疗、可穿戴电子产品、智能家居等领域的低功耗蜂窝网络。 Kaste告诉GTC观众，尽管早先对物联网市场增长的炒作有所降温，但他相信，随着AIM市场（汽车、工业和多市场）到2022年将增长达到240亿单位，“我们希望证明它即刻必将起飞”。此外，几乎所有AIM市场(98%)都将采用12nm设计规则，而且这一比例“到2022年及以后”将更高。 每一度电都至关重要 为了使这些预测成为现实，限制能耗成为当务之急，这对于FDX技术而言是个巨大的机会。数十亿乃至数万亿台连接设备必须功耗极低。正如Synopsys联合首席执行官Aart de Geus在GTC的主题演讲中指出的那样，在全球变暖的时代，“每一度电都至关重要”。 5G网络融合使AI增强型物联网设备能够将大量数据发送至云，产生倍增效应。de Geus表示：“物联网与5G的乘积作用，将产生海量数据来发送至云。但这意味着令人难以置信的能源需求，而这个时代人人都在关注气候变化。地球的生存能力受到威胁。”
格芯的前十年：找到中心 October 11, 2019作者: Dave Lammers 系列文章中的第二部分（共三部分）：回顾格芯的前十年、展望未来十年以及更远的将来。 在格芯发展的前十年中，代工厂遭遇了前所未有的挑战，从考验全体员工勇气的技术转型到如何将格芯与其他竞争对手区分开来的决策。 从2009年仅仅可为AMD提供一些技术解决方案到如今的发展规模，格芯是如何借助一系列基于RF的解决方案占据市场主导地位，并在全耗尽式SOI中大力发展，这无疑是过去十多年间半导体行业最有意思的事情。 打造规模化全球半导体制造商之旅 资料来源：格芯 我和Gregg Bartlett谈过此事，他从公司成立就进公司了，现在是格芯的工程和技术主管。Bartlett记得，2009年他刚加入格芯就立即投入到新代工厂的严苛工作中。但正是在这一时期，管理层学会了评估技术和产品转型可以承担的风险，这是一次宝贵的经验。 富有挑战的开始 2009年初，在阿布扎比穆巴达拉投资基金的资金支持下，格芯从AMD中剥离出来，并立即受命利用新的32nm高k/金属栅极工艺推出新AMD产品架构。结果发现这两者组合很难实现大规模量产。 Bartlett回忆说，AMD的旗舰新品“APU”率先将图形处理引擎和CPU内核结合在一个芯片上，需要在格芯位于德国德累斯顿的旗舰晶圆厂集中生产。Bartlett说：“这是一段相当令人沮丧的时期，非常艰难，但我们坚持了下来。” Patrick Moorhead现在是Moor Insights & Strategy的行业分析师，十年前他是AMD管理团队的成员。“如果从历史的角度来看，Llano拥有与APU集成的首批大型图形IP之一。当时，没有任何一款智能手机处理器能够提供类似功能。但是事情进展并不顺利，要继续坚持下去就得面临超乎寻常的挑战。” Bartlett说，格芯管理层学到的主要经验就是管理好所承担的风险。“刚走出困境，格芯又试图攻克新的难题，推出一种革命性的新硅技术。我们设法改变芯片架构，同时进行技术创新。看看今天我们的公司，可以说我们学到了很多，与客户合作以及通过客户设计创新更好地管理技术创新。” 从3个客户到300个客户 2010年，在穆巴达拉基金领导层的支持下，格芯的管理层收购了Chartered Semiconductor。格芯和德累斯顿晶圆厂只为一小部分客户生产了几种不同的产品，这些客户需要晶圆厂能提供前沿技术。Bartlett说格芯的管理层意识到，要学会运用各种不同的工艺技术来满足不同的客户需要。 “然后我们问自己：如何将一家只有3个客户的晶圆厂发展成拥有30个客户，然后是300个客户的晶圆厂？如何改变业务流程？答案当然是：不容易。Chartered为我们带来了同时为数百名客户服务的技能和流程，”Bartlett说道，并称赞Chartered新加坡团队将“客户导向”文化引入格芯。 格芯于2010年1月13日收购了Chartered Semiconductor新加坡晶圆厂。Chartered Semiconductor最初于1995年开设了这家晶圆厂。它是最早的200mm晶圆厂之一。资料来源：格芯 他说：“Chartered规划出如何为客户制定应急计划，以确保他们能成功打入市场。” Bartlett赞扬了穆巴达拉投资基金的领导人，称他们“愿意在收购Chartered方面进行大笔投资，因为他们知道这项收购具有相当大的变革意义”。此次收购为格芯增添了位于新加坡的200mm和300mm晶圆厂，以及大约200家客户。收购标志着新代工厂转型的开始，也创造了服务众多客户的流程。 “这是一种非有机转变，加速了我们作为全球代工厂的运作能力。目前，新加坡是我们公司非常成功的一部分，其工艺技术和人才迅速发展，”Bartlett说。 一次非常偶然的合作 借助德累斯顿在32/28nm节点的工作经验，五年后，新的马耳他晶圆厂在面临14nm节点的挑战时首次引入了FinFET。 这次，格芯和AMD顺利度过了难关，Moorhead描绘了完美的结局：“当Ryzen的第一个版本（AMD 14nm）面世时，作为一名行业分析师，我不得不问自己，‘有什么是不可能的？’样品出货几千件是一回事，但出货几十万件甚至几百万件则是另一回事。至少可以这么说，这是一次了不起的进步。而要做到这一点，缓存单元尺寸、晶体管性能、功耗和散热方面都要优于英特尔的许多产品，确实是了不起。” 在纽约萨拉托加县，格芯奠基仪式的正式举行标志着2号行政办公大楼作为8号晶圆厂的一部分开始建设。资料来源：格芯 学会合作 为了取得14nm的成功，格芯进行了客观的自我评估。当时担任格芯首席技术官的Bartlett回忆说，当时IBM技术联盟的成员对14nm节点有着不同的看法。IBM正研究一种基于SOI的工艺，包括其深沟槽嵌入式DRAM，而格芯和三星则分别采用不同的方法朝着体硅CMOS FinFET 14nm工艺发展。 格芯和三星就是否合作以及如何合作的讨论时断时续，但他们都意识到对于移动领域的大客户来说，合作是管理供应风险的有利办法。这推动格芯和三星就单一技术的部署展开了合作。 “很明显这时就需要开始合作了，结果证明这是非常有益的。”Bartlett说。通过与三星在14nm上的合作，格芯加速了向高量产制造的转型。与此同时，格芯在马耳他的技术开发团队得以发展壮大，该团队目前正为更多的应用程序和客户针对平台实施差异化。 借助FD-SOI进行差异化的第一步 Bartlett说，在收购IBM微电子业务的过程中，管理层得出结论，格芯需要技术多样化战略，以区别其主要竞争对手在28nm节点的工作。 “FD-SOI是我们进行技术平台差异化的第一个有意识的选择。我们决定面向我们认为需要物联网和集成射频等FD-SOI的细分市场推出卓越的技术解决方案，而不是去模仿行业领先者，”Bartlett说。 格芯的22FDX平台技术依赖于平面晶体管和全耗尽式SOI晶圆 资料来源：格芯 去年，由Tom Caulfield领导的格芯新管理团队认为要从7nm转向与我们的客户建立更紧密的联系，这需要我们能够做出艰难决定并灵活变通。这种转变释放了开发资源，从而在格芯大多数客户群使用的技术平台上进行更多投资，包括12nm FinFET、22FDX®、RF、硅光子和其他平台。 Moorhead说，他相信22FDX工艺在边缘处理方面具有功耗优势，并且随着5G RF和数据处理趋于一致，边缘处理将发挥主要作用。“格芯面临着很大的机会。5G以及所有相关电路将从根本上与物联网相连。这将定义未来十年。它让我们实现超连接，”Moorhead说。 我问Bartlett，格芯在前十年的经历是否塑造了一支经得起战斗考验的员工队伍，并能更从容地应对未来的挑战。 “我们从成立的前十年中学到了很多，明白了哪些决定是正确的，哪些决定是错误及其错误原因。当我们作出错误决定时，格芯能够作为一个团队一起面对，这意味着我们能够更好地应对未来的挑战。”他说。 “我们以后还会犯错吗？很有可能，但不会是因为我们没有考虑风险。公司发展到现在，我们从中学到了很多，例如，如何支持我们的客户，如何管理自己所承担的风险，最重要的是当客户的需求与我们的核心能力一致时，与客户保持紧密联系。我们对自已有清醒的认识，清楚地知道自己的核心竞争力，并希望借助这些能力在未来的道路上奋力前行。” 在本系列文章的最后一部分，我们将探讨格芯的未来，以及它的差异化产品组合将如何帮助客户并改变这个影响世界的行业。 关于作者 Dave Lammers是固态技术特约撰稿人，也是格芯的Foundry Files的特约博客作者。他于20世界80年代早期在美联社东京分社工作期间开始撰写关于半导体行业的文章，彼时该行业正经历快速发展。他于1985年加入E.E. Times，定居东京，在之后的14年内，足迹遍及日本、韩国和台湾。1998年，Dave与他的妻子Mieko以及4个孩子移居奥斯丁，为E.E Times开设德克萨斯办事处。Dave毕业于美国圣母大学，获得密苏里大学新闻学院新闻学硕士学位。
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Qualifies Synopsys Fusion Design Platform on 12LP FinFET Platform October 10, 2019Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) today announced that GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®) has qualified Synopsys’ Fusion Design Platform™ for its 12-nanometer (nm) Leading-Performance (12LP) FinFET platform. Optimized for the high-performance and low-power requirements of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and mobile system-on-chips (SoCs), the production-ready flow is based on the silicon-proven RTL-to-GDSII 12LP foundry reference flow and incorporates Synopsys Advanced Fusion technologies for best quality-of-results (QoR) and time-to-results (TTR) in FinFET designs.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Brings New Level of Security and Protection on 22FDX Platform for Connected Systems October 10, 201922FDX security solution aims to protect against physical tampering and attacks for cellular Internet of Things (IoT) devices Santa Clara, Calif., October 10, 2019 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®), the world’s leading specialty foundry, announced today that it is working with Arm® to offer secure system-on-chip (SoC) solutions on GF’s 22FDX® platform, based on FD-SOI, for cellular IoT applications. With the growing threat of reverse engineering and other illegal threats to IP, it is imperative to protect complex electronic systems at their foundation with hardware-based security IP solutions, including crypto cores, hardware trust and high-speed protocol engines. GF’s 22FDX platform with Arm® CryptoIsland™ on-chip security enclave provides an on-die, hardware-secure solution enabling easy integration of front-end modules (FEM), RF, baseband, embedded MRAM and cryptographic capabilities into a single IoT SoC, while significantly reducing costs. “In a world where billions of devices are generating data across smart cities, rural environments, and digitally transformed industries, in order to deliver true insight, security cannot be optional,” said Vincent Korstanje, vice president and general manager, Emerging Businesses at Arm. “Customers designing for mobile and IoT applications will benefit from the CryptoIsland technology on GF’s 22FDX highly integrated, energy-efficient platform, providing new levels of security that is easy to deploy at a cost point that scales.” “With so many conduits to the Internet and the growing importance of cyberattack defenses, we believe chip security will only grow in importance for the industry and our clients in the years ahead,” said Ed Kaste, vice president of Industrial and Multi-Market at GF. “By leveraging our 22FDX platform and applying Arm’s powerful CryptoIsland security subsystem, we can jointly offer a highly integrated security solution to our mutual clients that will unlock new levels of cellular IoT integration, offering new secure identity capabilities for cellular IoT applications.” GF’s 22FDX provides a fast path-to-product solution that includes silicon-qualified IP. The 22FDX security solution is now under development on GF’s state-of-the-art 300mm production line at Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany. About GF GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. We deliver differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable our clients to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of clients across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit globalfoundries.com. Contact: Erica McGillGLOBALFOUNDRIES(518) 795-5240[email protected]
GLOBALFOUNDRIES and Racyics GmbH Demonstrate Ultra-Low-Power Microcontroller for the Internet of Things October 10, 2019Record silicon results to be presented tomorrow at GTC 2019 in Munich, made possible by the adaptive body biasing capability on GF’s 22FDX® platform, along with Racyics’ IP Santa Clara, Calif. and Dresden, Germany, October 10, 2019 – A major limiting factor in the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) applications is the amount of power consumed by the edge devices used in IoT networks, and as a result, there is an urgent need to find ways to use far less power to operate them. Tomorrow, GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®), the world’s leading specialty foundry, and Racyics GmbH will unveil a major breakthrough in the race to build more power-efficient IoT devices: record-breaking ultra-low-power operation of a commonly used microcontroller core for mixed-signal IoT applications, built on GF’s 22FDX® platform. At GF’s annual Global Technology Conference (GTC) in Munich, the companies will demonstrate a 22FDX-based 100MHz Arm® Cortex®-M4F microcontroller test chip with 84kB of SRAM, which demonstrated an ultra-high energy-efficiency of 6.88 µW/MHz. Key to this outstanding performance is the adaptive body bias (ABB) tunability inherent to 22FDX, along with Racyics’ circuit design approach which maximizes its advantages. The 22FDX platform with ABB capability enables designers to create circuits where transistor threshold voltage can be tuned, or optimized, to match an application’s requirements for energy efficiency, performance, area, reliability, or any combination. Leveraging this capability, Racyics offers a design IP called ABBX that enables the creation of circuits with reliable, predictable ultra-low voltage operation down to 0.4V. This is done by holistically considering process, supply voltage and temperature inputs to achieve power, performance and area goals with a high yield. “The need for power-efficiency is urgent because SoCs (systems-on-chip) for IoT applications are projected to grow at a double-digit rate, fueled by diverse and increasingly sophisticated applications across smart city, agricultural, medical, industrial, smart home and other markets,“ said Ed Kaste, vice president of Industrial and Multi-Market at GF. “Although the needs of these applications vary, the most important consideration among all of them is ultra-low power consumption. The record-breaking circuit we produced and will discuss at GTC 2019 is tangible proof that our 22FDX platform offers best-in-class performance, power consumption and level of integration for IoT applications.” “Our easy-to use turnkey ABBX solution is based on the standard design and sign-off flow, and delivers improved PPA (power, performance and area) results with guaranteed performance and power,” said Holger Eisenreich, CEO of Racyics. “The silicon results demonstrate the benefits of our holistic adaptive body biasing approach for ultra-low voltage designs.” Cellular narrowband (NB-IoT) devices offer one example of why energy efficiency is such a critical IoT requirement. These devices are often expected to operate on battery power for up to 10 years, and to achieve this, sophisticated energy management techniques are used to activate specific functional blocks and power domains only as-needed. When in operation, extreme energy efficiency at the lowest operating voltages are key to achieving the most demanding power budget. The Racyics ABBX solution is now qualified on GF’s 22FDX® platform. About Racyics GmbH Racyics, based in Dresden, Germany, is an experienced system-on-chip (SoC) design service and IP provider with a focus on advanced semiconductor nodes. We offer our customers a wide range of design services including custom IP and turnkey SoC solutions. For more information, please go to www.racyics.de. About GF GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. We deliver differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable our clients to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of clients across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit globalfoundries.com. Contact: Erica McGillGLOBALFOUNDRIES(518) 795-5240[email protected]
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Acquires Smartcom’s PDK Engineering Team to Expand Worldwide Design Enablement Capacity October 10, 2019Acquisition strengthens overall process design capabilities and expands the company’s footprint in Europe Santa Clara, Calif., October 10, 2019 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES® (GF®), the world’s leading specialty foundry, announced today that it has acquired the PDK (Process Design Kit) engineering team from Smartcom Bulgaria AD in Sofia, Bulgaria. The newly acquired team will enhance GF’s scale and capabilities, while strengthening competitiveness of its specialized application solutions to further position the company for growth and value creation. Process Design Kits are the critical interface between a company’s integrated circuit (IC) design and the fabs, which manufacture the clients chip products. Since 2015, Smartcom has supported GF’s PDK development and quality assurance for platform technologies spanning from 350nm to 12nm. Under the terms of the acquisition, GF will acquire Smartcom’s PDK development team of more than 125 employees. The newly acquired team will be led by Dr. Dobromir Gaydazhiev, an experienced industry veteran who has been responsible for leading the business since its inception in 2003. The deal is expected to close in December 2019, following receipt of required regulatory approvals. With this acquisition, GF is expanding its worldwide design enablement capabilities and strengthening its European footprint. The Sofia operations build on GF’s long established Fab 1 operations in Dresden, Germany, the company’s Bump Test Facility (BTF) and the AMTC mask house, a joint venture with Toppan. These three facilities with more than 3500 employees and a combined investment of more than US $12B are central to Silicon Saxony, Europe’s largest and most significant microelectronics cluster. “Today is an exciting day for GF. As we continue to offer more feature-rich differentiated solutions for our clients, PDKs are becoming increasingly important,” said Thomas Caulfield, CEO of GF. “With the acquisition of Smartcom’s PDK development team, we are enhancing the depth and breadth of our capabilities and capacity in Europe and across the globe. We have worked with the Sofia team for many years and the quality of their work is unmatched in the industry. We fully expect to expand our investment in our worldwide PDK organization to meet the growing demands of our clients.” “We are excited to join GF at this time and to be part of GF’s growth strategy,” said Dr. Dobromir Gaydazhiev, managing director PDK Services Bulgaria EAD. “Our collaboration goes back many years and our progress has been largely fueled by GF. The team and I are looking forward to become fully integrated into GF’s design enablement processes and to helping enable our clients’ products with our PDKs. We also appreciate the opportunity to engage in European programs and projects that bring together RTOs, IDMs, Design System Companies with Foundries to advance Europe’s capabilities and capacities in microelectronics.” About Smartcom Smartcom Bulgaria AD (Smartcom) is an innovation and technology driven private joint stock company, established in May 1990, which operates subsidiaries in UK and Turkey. The company specializes in: Microelectronics and Electronic Design Automation, Carrier Grade Telecom Professional Services, Embedded Systems, IoT. For more information, visit: www.smartcom.bg About GF GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) is the world’s leading specialty foundry. We deliver differentiated feature-rich solutions that enable our clients to develop innovative products for high-growth market segments. GF provides a broad range of platforms and features with a unique mix of design, development and fabrication services. With an at-scale manufacturing footprint spanning the U.S., Europe and Asia, GF has the flexibility and agility to meet the dynamic needs of clients across the globe. GF is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit globalfoundries.com. Contact: Erica McGillGLOBALFOUNDRIES(518) 795-5240[email protected]
GF’s First Decade: Finding Their Center September 30, 2019By: Dave Lammers The second of a three-part series looking back at GF’s first 10 years, and looking forward to the next decade and beyond. GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ first decade was a ten-year period during which the foundry met a series of remarkable challenges, ranging from technology transitions that tested the mettle of its staff to decisions about how to differentiate GF from its competition. How GF got from delivering just a few technology solutions for AMD in 2009 to where it is today – with a portfolio of RF-based solutions dominating the marketplace and a serious thrust underway in fully depleted SOI – is arguably the most interesting story in the semiconductor industry over the past decade. The journey to build an at-scale global semiconductor manufacturerSource: GF I talked to Gregg Bartlett, now GF’s head of engineering and technology, who was recruited to join the brand-new company at the very beginning. Bartlett remembers 2009 as the year when he joined GLOBALFOUNDRIES and immediately was thrust into what was a demanding start for the new foundry, but it also was a time when management learned to assess how much risk it should take on technology and product transitions – a valuable lesson. A Challenging Beginning GF, spun out from AMD in early 2009 with financial backing from Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala investment fund, was immediately tasked with bringing up a new AMD product architecture, on a new 32nm high-k/metal gate process. That combination proved to be very challenging to build in high volume production. Bartlett recalled, AMD’s flagship new “APU” part –which pioneered the combination of a graphics processing engine and a CPU core on one die – required focused execution at GF’s flagship fab in Dresden, Germany. “It was quite a humbling time, a really difficult time – but we persevered,” Bartlett said. Patrick Moorhead, now an industry analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, was part of AMD’s management team a decade ago. “If you look at it from a historical perspective, Llano had one of the first large pieces of graphics IP that was integrated with the APU. At that time, no smart phone processor was delivering anything like it. But getting it going came in fits and starts, and there were super, super challenges in getting that part going.” Bartlett said the main lesson GF management learned was to manage the amount of risk being taken. “Right out of the chute, GF was trying to be something that was going to be hard to do, introduce a revolutionary new silicon technology. We tried to change our chip architecture, while at the same time making technological innovations. I look at our company today, and can say we have learned a lot about working with customers to better manage technology innovation with customer design innovation.” From Three to 300 Customers Then in 2010 GF’s management, with backing from the leadership at the Mubadala fund, acquired Chartered Semiconductor. GF and the Dresden fab had produced just a few different parts for a small group of customers who needed the leading-edge technology offered in the fab, and Bartlett said GF’s management realized it needed to learn to deal with multiple customers with various process technologies. “We asked ourselves then: How do you change a fab with three customers to one with 30 customers, and then 300 customers? How do you change your business processes? The answer was, of course: not easily. Chartered brought us skills and processes to deal with hundreds of customers all at once,” Bartlett said, praising the “customer orientation” that Chartered’s Singapore team brought into the GF culture. GLOBALFOUNDRIES acquired the Singapore site from Chartered Semiconductor on January 13, 2010. Chartered Semiconductor originally opened the fab in 1995. It was one of the first 200mm fabs. Source: GF “What Chartered had figured out was how to always have contingency plans for customers to ensure they hit their market introductions,” he said. Bartlett gave credit to the leaders at the Mubadala investment fund, saying they were “willing to make the large investment in acquiring Chartered, knowing how transformative the acquisition was.” The acquisition gave GF several 200 and 300mm fabs in Singapore, and roughly 200 customers. The acquisition began a transformation of the new foundry, creating a process of dealing with many dozens of customers. “This was an inorganic transformation that accelerated our ability to operate as a global foundry. Today, Singapore is a very successful part of our corporation and has proliferated processes and talent across our company,” Bartlett said. A ‘Very Fortuitous” Cooperation Building on lessons learned from Dresden’s work on the 32/28nm node, five years later the new Malta fab faced the challenge at the 14nm node, when FinFETs were first introduced. This time, GF and AMD came through it smoothly, with Moorhead describing the happy endpoint: “When the first versions of (the AMD 14nm) Ryzen came out, as an industry analyst I had to ask myself, ‘What is not going to work?’ It is one thing to ship a few thousand samples, but shipping hundreds of thousands, and then millions, is a different thing. It was a super-impressive ramp, to say the least. And to do that while outperforming many of Intel’s products on cache cell size, on performance of the transistors, on power consumption and the amount of heat, was truly remarkable.” GF’s groundbreaking ceremony to officially start construction of the Admin 2 office building as part of Fab 8 in Saratoga County, New York. Source: GF Learning to Collaborate To achieve that 14nm success, GF went through an honest self-appraisal. Bartlett, who by then was GF’s chief technology officer, recalls that at the time, members of the IBM technology alliance all had come up with different answers to the 14nm node. IBM was pursuing an SOI-based process that included its deep-trench embedded DRAM, while GF and Samsung went their separate ways toward bulk CMOS finFET 14nm processes. While GF and Samsung were holding intermittent discussions about if and how to cooperate, they realized cooperation was a good way to manage supply risk for a very large customer in the mobile space. This brought GF and Samsung together to collaborate on deployment of a single technology between the two companies. When it became apparent that there was a deal, that turned out to be very beneficial,” Bartlett said. By working with Samsung on 14nm, GF accelerated its transition to go into high-volume manufacturing. At the same time, GF was able to grow the technology development team in Malta that is now differentiating that platform for more applications and customers today. A First Step Toward Differentiation with FD-SOI Bartlett said that when GF was in the process of acquiring IBM Microelectronics, management concluded it needed a technology diversification strategy, something different than what its main competitor was doing at the 28nm node. “FD-SOI was our first conscious choice to differentiate on a technology platform. Rather than go imitate the industry leader, we decided to drive a superior technology solution for market segments we believed needed FDSOI such as IoT and integrated RF,” Bartlett said. GF’s 22FDX platform technology relies on planar transistors as well as fully-depleted SOI wafersSource: GF That ability to make tough decisions, to be flexible, was needed again last year, when GF’s new management team, led by Tom Caulfield, concluded that it needed to pivot away from 7nm to be more relevant to our customers. This pivot freed development resources, allowing more investment in the technology platforms that the majority of GF’s customer base was using, including 12nm FinFET, 22FDX®, RF, silicon photonics and other platforms. Moorhead said he believes the 22FDX process has power advantages for edge processing that will play a major role as 5G RF and data processing converge. “The opportunity for GF is huge. 5G — and all of the associated circuitry that goes with it – will be fundamentally connected to the Internet of Things. That is going to define the next ten years. It gets us to hyper-connectivity,” Moorhead said. I asked Bartlett if GF’s experiences over its first decade had created a battle-tested workforce, better able to meet future challenges. “We’ve learned a lot from our first ten years of existence, understanding which decisions we got right, and which ones we got wrong and why. And when we got them wrong, to have gone through them together as one GF team means we are better able to deal with future challenges.” he said. “Will we make mistakes going forward? Very likely, but not because we hadn’t considered the risks. When I look at our company today, we have learned a lot about how you support our customers, how you manage the risk you are taking, and most importantly about being relevant to the customers where their needs align with core capabilities. We know who we are, where our core competencies are and are excited for a future going on offense with those capabilities.” In the final installment in this series, we will examine the future of GF and how its differentiated portfolio will enable its customers and change the industry that’s changing the world. About Author Dave Lammers Dave Lammers is a contributing writer for Solid State Technology and a contributing blogger for GF’s Foundry Files. Dave started writing about the semiconductor industry while working at the Associated Press Tokyo bureau in the early 1980s, a time of rapid growth for the industry. He joined E.E. Times in 1985, covering Japan, Korea, and Taiwan for the next 14 years while based in Tokyo. In 1998 Dave, his wife Mieko, and their four children moved to Austin to set up a Texas bureau for E.E. Times. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Dave received a master’s in journalism at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
CSEM joins GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ FDXcelerator™ Program bringing ultra-low-Power IP to 22FDX® process September 24, 2019CSEM, a leader in low-power RFIC design and embedded systems, announced today at GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) annual Global Technology Conference (GTC) that CSEM is developing ultra-low power Bluetooth Low Energy® (BLE), CMOS radar mmWave IP and embedded machine-learning accelerators on GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) 22nm FD-SOI (22FDX®) platform.
Evaluation Boards Now Available for Flex Logix EFLX® 4K eFPGA on GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ Most Advanced FinFET Platform September 24, 2019Flex Logix Technologies, Inc., the leading supplier of embedded FPGA (eFPGA) IP and software, today announced that it has received working first silicon of its validation chip for the EFLX 4K eFPGA IP cores running on GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) 12nm Leading-Performance (12LP) FinFET platform and newly announced 12LP+ solution. The chip is currently in characterization and Flex Logix will be demonstrating the evaluation board at the GLOBALFOUNDRIES Technology Conference (GTC 2019) on Tuesday, September 24 in Santa Clara California.
