Weebit receives new silicon wafers from SkyWater

Weebit Nano, a developer of memory technologies for the global semiconductor industry, and SkyWater Technology, the technology realisation partner, announced the first silicon wafers integrating Weebit’s embedded Resistive Random-AccessMemory (ReRAM) module have been delivered to Weebit from SkyWater’s US production fab.

This is the first time silicon wafers of Weebit ReRAM have been received from a production fab, a major milestone toward commercialisation of the technology at SkyWater.

Manufacturing of Weebit ReRAM is now proven with standard tools and a mature process flow, making it easy for customers to adopt this innovative non-volatile memory (NVM) for development of their system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The silicon wafers will be sliced into chips, packaged, and then tested and qualified.

The chips, which were manufactured in SkyWater’s 130nm CMOS process, will be used for customer demonstrations, testing and prototyping ahead of commercial orders and volume production, allowing customers to confidently start designing SoCs using these ReRAM modules.

SkyWater’s 130nm process has been used for billions of devices made for automotive, industrial and consumer applications. The automotive-grade, extended temperature, mixed-signal CMOS platform is well suited for IoT and edge computing as it enables a combination of both digital and analog circuit performance with embedded NVM for a wide range of SoC architectures.

Coby Hanoch, CEO of Weebit Nano, said: “This is the first time we’ve received ReRAM wafers from a production fab – a huge milestone towards commercialisation that has been achieved on-time through our close partnership with SkyWater. This increases the confidence of potential customers in our IP, pushing forward companies interested in engaging with us, and we’re seeing discussions with potential customers ramping up as we get closer to production. The demo chips produced by SkyWater integrating Weebit’s ReRAM module are enabling these companies to see the true advantages our technology can provide.”

SkyWater Chief Revenue Officer, Mark Litecky, said: “As part of our Technology-as-a-Service model, SkyWater works with customers to co-create solutions with innovative architectures, materials and approaches to integration. Weebit ReRAM is an exciting new NVM that customers across a broad array of markets can incorporate into their SoCs to achieve differentiation. We already see strong interest for the technology for applications including IoT, power management and mixed-signal ICs. Looking ahead, Weebit ReRAM is a rich building block for hybrid architectures that can be flexibly integrated in new and interesting ways – an exciting prospect for companies looking to bring innovative ideas to reality.”

The demo chips comprise a full sub-system for embedded applications, including the Weebit ReRAM module, a RISC-V microcontroller (MCU), system interfaces, memories and peripherals. Weebit’s embedded ReRAM module includes a 256Kb ReRAM array, control logic, decoders, IOs (Input/Output communication elements) and error correcting code (ECC).  It is designed with unique patent-pending analogue and digital smart circuitry running smart algorithms that significantly enhance the memory array’s technical parameters.  It also supports an extended temperature range, 10 years’ data retention at high temperatures, fast access time, and extremely low standby power.

Full qualification of the highly integrated demo chips in SkyWater’s US production fab is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023.

Weebit ReRAM IP is available in SkyWater’s 130nm CMOS process.