Cypress and UMC Deliver ICs On New 65-Nanometer SONOS Embedded Flash Technology

High-Yield, Reliable UMC Process Offers Easy, Cost-Effective Manufacturing and Low Test Cost; Cypress to Employ Process for Next-Generation PSoC® Products, nvSRAMs and More

The new S65™ process is a 65-nanometer SONOS embedded nonvolatile memory (NVM)?technology. It is now successfully integrated into UMC’s standard LL65 process. Existing or new designs using the LL65 process can now easily add embedded Flash memory with fast time-to-market, low development cost, and minimum design disturbance to other IPs. The S65 process offers major advantages including high endurance, low power, and resistance to soft errors. It only requires three additional mask layers to a standard CMOS process, as compared to 7-12 additional masks for other embedded Flash technology approaches. It also offers intrinsically high yields and low test costs. Using Cypress products as a reference, the new process is expected to provide a 75 percent reduction in array size and 50 percent power reduction compared to products manufactured on the current 130-nanometer S8™process.

“We’re excited to team with a world leader in semiconductor manufacturing to bring this outstanding technology to market,” said Shahin Sharifzadeh, executive vice president of worldwide Manufacturing and Operation for Cypress. “Our product lines are eager to introduce new, high-performance products on S65, and we look forward to working with UMC to license the technology to their large customer base around the world.”

“As a customer driven foundry, UMC is continuously introducing enhanced process offerings for its customers”, said P W Yen, Sr. Vice President from UMC. “Today, Embedded NVM is a key feature in many IC designs. UMC has delivered a very valuable technology solution to meet customer needs through the successful S65 integration and its full compatibility with the LL65 foundry process. We look forward to ramping this process to production for Cypress and other UMC customers.”

The UMC S65TM process is scheduled for availability to foundry customers in Q3, 2011.