FleX Silicon-on-Polymer Available With TowerJazz Foundry CMOS

31st January 2013

Nat Bowers

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American Semiconductor announces TowerJazz is the first foundry with a CMOS process, CS18, available for physically flexible wafers and ICs utilizing FleX Silicon-on-Polymer. This announcement was made at the 12th annual Flexible & Printed Electronics Conference presented by the FlexTech Alliance held in Phoenix, Arizona on January 29 - February 1, 2013.

FleX Silicon-on-Polymer is American Semiconductor's process for transforming standard silicon wafers into flexible wafers that can be bent, conformally mounted to non-flat surfaces, and integrated with printed electronics to create flexible hybrid systems. FleX has been successfully demonstrated in various prototype processes, said Rich Chaney, General Manager of American Semiconductor. Partnering with TowerJazz to release FleX with their foundry CS18 process will greatly expand the availability of flexible ICs and is a benefit to the flexible electronics community.

FleX is a post-fabrication process that can be applied to our production SOI technology making it possible to turn any product into a flexible die helping our customers create new, differentiated solutions, said Dr. Marco Racanelli, Sr. Vice President of TowerJazz. We are excited to partner with American Semiconductor and look forward to jointly participate in the growth of this new market.

As part of our qualification of the TowerJazz CS18-FleX offering, we are characterizing RF devices for improved performance and developing the device models that will allow engineers to design their IC in a flexible form from the start, said Doug Hackler President and CEO of American Semiconductor. We anticipate that demand will be significant and that we will need to support multi-project wafers very soon.

American Semiconductor offers full support for FleX IC and flexible hybrid system development. This includes IC design support for all TowerJazz CMOS processes, including CS18-FleX. Design support is available for full custom IC design, IP development or integration, or any part of the design flow a customer might want assistance with. Engineering support for flexible hybrid systems includes printed electronics design and fabrication, FleX integration, and prototype development.

FleX is compatible with printed electronics to create flexible hybrid systems that enable new innovation in many applications including conformal and structurally integrated antennas, structural health monitoring for automotive and aerospace, and flexible consumer electronics.