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Excellent news and exciting applications made headlines at the recent FD-SOI and RF-SOI events in Shanghai. During the FD-SOI day, Amazon/Blink and Intellifusion shared news about their new chips, and we got updates from GF and Samsung. The RF-SOI day featured a great talk with details about China Mobile's 5G plans, and peeks at Nokia's groundbreaking approach and Qorvo's outlook. [caption id="attachment_12354" align="alignright" width="300"] (Photo courtesy: Verisilicon)[/caption] The hall was absolutely full – with over 300 people attending each day. The FD-SOI event was by invitation only, and there were far more people wanting to attend than there was room for, even given the big room in which the events were held. The events got excellent coverage in the China tech press. For example, EEWorld started with an overview article and added five supporting pieces zooming in on key presentations and companies: one on GlobalFoundries, one on Samsung, one on Verisilicon, and two on Soitec (CEO and top exec interviews). These pieces are in Chinese, but just open the links through your favorite translation site. Many of the key slides are captured in these articles, so if you can't wait for the ppts to be posted on the SOI Consortium website, you can get some quick previews now. The Verisilicon PR folks also wrote up highlights of the FD-SOI event in real time with lots of great pictures – you can read that here. Many thanks to that team, too, for flagging the coverage in the China press and posting it on their WeChat account. On the RF-SOI side, the Simgui folks wrote that up – you can read it here. They also sponsored a gala dinner with awards given to Qorvo and SmarterMicro – you can read about that here. Most of the presentations will be posted on the SOI Consortium website over the next few weeks, at which point we'll cover them in-depth here at ASN. But for now, here's a quick round-up of some of the highlights. FD-SOI Highlights [caption id="attachment_12347" align="alignright" width="300"] (Courtesy: Blink, Verisilicon)[/caption] Boston-area based Blink, which makes very popular home security systems, was recently bought by Amazon (see their current product page here). They just taped out a new chip on Samsung's 28FDS FD-SOI technology, and they're really happy about it. “I believe for battery powered devices at home, FD-SOI is the way to go,” said Yantoa Jia, Head of ASIC China Ops at Blink. Their goal in the move from 55nm bulk to 28nm FD-SOI was to double battery life, add features and control costs: and they did it. Even adding two more CPU cores and lots more features, “The power drop is fantastic,” he said. Design was no problem, he continued, and there was plenty of IP. Once the new generation is officially announced, he promised to sit down with ASN and give us more details. Attendees also heard about a new chipset from Intellifusion, which is putting its face recognition technology onto GlobalFoundries' 22FDX FD-SOI with design house Verisilicon. CEO Nin Chen gave an impromptu talk about how their technology is used to find missing people and property. The new chip, which is especially designed for use in cities, is network-to-cloud leveraging AI. For his part Thomas Morgenstern, GlobalFoundries SVP and GM of the Dresden Fab 1, said they're seeing high yields and increasing capacity for 22FDX. The marketing and manufacturing ecosystem has been built around the fab in Europe. Now, he said, the key is to build an FD-SOI ecosystem in China. The market needs of China largely parallel those of Europe, he noted, for performance and efficiency at the right cost point. The ecosystem enables fast time-to-market and 1st-time-right. [caption id="attachment_12343" align="alignleft" width="300"] (Photo courtesy: Cadence)[/caption] Samsung SVP Gitae Jeong sees their FD-SOI technology as the right solution for the 4th Revolution, which includes everything from energy harvesting to self-driving cars. They've just taped out their first 5G mmWave cellular chip on 28FDS, he revealed. eMRAM is looking very good, only requiring three additional masks and getting stable yields from -40o to 105oC. 18FDS is on schedule, with PDK 0.5 now being released, and 1.0 on track for release in March 2019. They expect a very fast ramp, and are looking at a 35% area reduction, power cut in half and performance up 22% compared to 28FDS. RF-SOI Highlights [caption id="attachment_12350" align="alignright" width="300"] China Mobile, Project Manager Danni Song (Photo courtesy: Simgui)[/caption] When China Mobile talks, the world listens. Project Manager Danni Song presented again this year (she gave a great talk last year, too). China has a very ambitious 5G project underway, and under two years in which to roll it out. The biggest challenges are power consumption and cost (a problem made worse by the additional power amplifiers needed for MIMO). Can RF-SOI help solve these challenges, she asked? One thing she did clarify during the panel discussion was with respect to the mmWave part of the 5G puzzle. Their initial 2020 rollout will only focus on sub-6GHz, with mmWave following a year or two later. Michael Reiha, Head of RFIC R D at Nokia Mobile Networks clarified the worldwide 5G rollout during the panel discussion. Different locations on the planet have different histories and needs, so will rollout 5G in different ways. For historical reasons (and a lack of choice), the US will lead with mmWave, he said. Europe, meanwhile, will focus on 24GHz to meet the needs of automotive radar. In his presentation, Reiha described Nokia's approach to power amplifiers (PA), which is very different from what others are doing. With RF-SOI, he said, you can add sensors and logic for a level of preventative care, so you can gauge and protect your equipment using AI. He believes this disruptive approach will put them two years ahead of the industry, enabling massive MIMO to be deployed in dense urban areas with 60% lower power consumption and 50% savings in material costs. Go read about their Reefshark tech, he urged, which he says will beat GaAs. “The future is very bright with RF-SOI,” he concluded. “I can state that with confidence.” [caption id="attachment_12351" align="alignleft" width="300"] Julio Costa, Director of Technology Development, Qorvo (Photo courtesy: Simgui)[/caption] Julio Costa, Director of Technology Development at Qorvo sees it differently. Traditionally a GaAs house, all their RF-SOI work is fabless. While RF front end modules (FEMs) are loaded with RF-SOI, he said, and are a big winner for antenna tuning, Qorvo still sees GaAs for high-efficiency amplifiers and envelope tracking. But, he said, it will be a battle. GaAs wins in terms of area and power consumption he contends, but adds that SOI wins in terms of cost. Power levels, he predicts, will be the determining factor. So that's the quick overview – we'll drill down into the presentations as they're posted, so stay tuned!

The presentations from the SOI Consortium sponsored workshop held during Semicon West are now posted and freely available on the website – click here to see the full agenda with links to the presentations. The workshop, entitled 4G/5G Connectivity: Opportunities for the SOI Supply Chain, was well-attended and generated excellent discussions. If you don't have time to look at all of the ppts, here are quick overviews. Market Overview and FD SOI Opportunities, by Handel Jones, CEO, IBS. Handel Jones is an industry veteran, China expert and longtime follower of the SOI ecosystem. High performance with low power consumption are the key requirements for the continued growth in the semiconductor industry, he said, making FD-SOI the right choice for a wide range of products. Here's how he sees it: [caption id="attachment_12312" align="alignleft" width="300"] (Courtesy: IBS and SOI Consortium)[/caption] He estimates the yearly TAM (total available market) for FD-SOI based products in the range of $46 billion over the next 10 years, largely driven by needs for ultra-low power and RF integration. He goes on to break out volumes by applications (including ISPs – image signal processors; and CIS – CMOS image sensors), foundry markets by feature dimension and to map out technology trends. Mobile Radio Transformation in the Age of 5G: A Perspective on Opportunities for SOI, Peter Rabbeni, Vice President, Globalfoundries. Peter Rabbeni is an RF expert par excellence, having overseen the shipping of over 35 billion RF-SOI products to date. In his presentation, he details how 5G NR (New Radio) sub-6GHz frequency band specifications significantly increase frequency range and channel bandwidth, and how new band support and MIMO complexity and die size per handset are driving complexity in RF FEMs. Furthermore, 5G/mmWave phased arrays are driving a paradigm shift in the approaches that can be taken, he explains, so greater integration is needed. Here's a great slide showing where GF's two main SOI technologies come into play: [caption id="attachment_12311" align="alignleft" width="1000"] (Courtesy: GlobalFoundries and SOI Consortium)[/caption] Empowerment of 5G with SOI-Based Technologies, Emmanuel Sabonnadière, CEO, Leti-CEA. [caption id="attachment_12310" align="alignleft" width="300"] (Courtesy: Leti and SOI Consortium)[/caption] Working in partnership with industry leaders around the world, Leti has been the research powerhouse behind all things SOI since the early 1980s. In fact Reuters ranks them #2 in their most recent list of the World’s Most Innovative Research Institutions. This presentation reviews the key technical benefits of FD-SOI for IoT and IMT (that's international mobile communications, btw). Engineered Substrates – at the Foundation of 5G, Thomas Piliszczuk, Executive Vice President, Soitec. This presentation really puts the context around engineered substrates. Here are two excellent and useful slides here that identify which engineered substrates go where in the 5G world, and the engineered substrates that Soitec provides. Check these out: [caption id="attachment_12309" align="alignleft" width="1000"] (Courtesy: Soitec and SOI Consortium)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_12308" align="alignleft" width="1000"] (Courtesy: Soitec and SOI Consortium)[/caption] Ultra-thin Double Layer Metrology with High Lateral Resolution, Bernd Srocka, Vice President, Unity GmbH. [caption id="attachment_12307" align="alignleft" width="300"] (Courtesy: Unity and SOI Consortium)[/caption] In case you're not familiar with them, Unity provides a wide range of solutions in metrology and inspection. Both the top silicon layer and BOX layer of wafers for FD-SOI applications have draconian requirements that have required new approaches in metrology to ensure the thickness and homegeneity control of these very thin layers. China 5G Plan and SOI Ecosystem, Jeffrey Wang, CEO, Simgui. Shanghai-based Simgui partners with Soitec, using SmartCut™ technology for the production of RF-SOI wafers. It is doubling its capacity to reach 400K over the next year, and expanding into 300mm. China is aggressively working on 5G and plans to deploy 5G commercialization in 2020. Jeff Wang's is a terrific presentation detailing the rollout. (BTW, in addition to the massive funding effort underway, the government created the National Silicon Industry Group (NSIG) to support the semiconductor material ecosystem in China. You'll want to keep up with what's going on here). Here's the slide that summarizes the SOI ecosystem in China – the presentation then goes on to detail who does what. [caption id="attachment_12306" align="alignleft" width="1000"] (Courtesy: Simgui and SOI Consortium)[/caption] Inspection and Metrology Relevance in SOI Manufacturing, Jijen Vazhaeparambil, Vice President General Manager, KLA-Tencor. [caption id="attachment_12305" align="alignleft" width="300"] (Courtesy: KLA-Tencor and SOI Consortium)[/caption] K-T has played a strategic role in the SOI story going back for decades (and in fact they wrote a piece for the third edition of ASN back in 2005!), ensuring metrology innovations for things that hadn't previously need detection and measurement. With each new set of requirements, they rose to the occasion with wafer metrology solutions that helped increase quality and decrease costs. This presentation recaps some of them.

pSemi (formerly Peregrine, now a Murata company) has staked its claim for having the world's first monolithic SOI Wi-Fi front-end module (FEM)—the PE561221. This 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi FEM is the first to integrate a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a power amplifier (PA) and two RF switches (SP4T, SP3T) on a single SOI CMOS die. pSemi says it's ideal for Wi-Fi home gateways, routers and set-top boxes (read the full press release here). Driving this is the new WiFi standard, IEEE 802.11ax, which launches next year. While it's largely meant to tackle issues with WiFi in crowded places, it's also going to be welcome in high-demand home situations. (There's a good piece on the NetworkWorld site on what 802.11ax will do compared to the current 802.11ac – you can read it here). [caption id="attachment_12252" align="alignright" width="300"] The PE561221 uses a smart bias circuit to deliver a high linearity signal and excellent long-packet EVM performance. (Courtesy: pSemi)[/caption] With new standards come new challenges. pSemi explains their PE561221 uses a smart bias circuit to deliver a high linearity signal and excellent long-packet error vector magnitude (EVM) performance. “Traditional process technologies struggle to keep up with both performance and integration requirements, and only SOI can offer the ideal combination of integration and high performance,” says Colin Hunt, vice president of worldwide sales at pSemi. The monolithic die uses a compact 16-pin, 2 x 2 mm LGA package ideal for either stand-alone use or in 4 x 4 MIMO and 8 x 8 MIMO modules. It is based on pSemi’s UltraCMOS® technology platform—a patented, advanced form of SOI that offers superior performance compared to other mixed-signal processes. UltraCMOS technology also enables intelligent integration, notes pSemi—the unique design ability to integrate RF, digital and analog components on a single die. Volume-production parts and samples of the PE561221 are now available from pSemi. And this is just the beginning: while the PE561221 is the first product in the pSemi Wi-Fi FEM portfolio, the product roadmap includes 5 GHz Wi-Fi FEM solutions. The folks at pSemi have been doing RF-SOI for 30 years now, and recently shipped their 4 billionth chip. For the last five years, they've partnered with GlobalFoundries.

FD-SOI was a very important topic during the recent Mount Qingcheng China IC Ecosystem Forum. To situate things, Mount Qingcheng, with its lush hills and waterways, is located just outside of Chengdu. That of course is where GlobalFoundries is building its new fab, which will be the first in China to run FD-SOI. Chengdu is also a key city in China's automotive electronics landscape. [caption id="attachment_12236" align="alignright" width="300"] (Image Courtesy: VeriSilicon)[/caption] The theme of the forum was Building a Smart Automotive Electronics Industry Chain. Over 260 decision-makers from government, academia and industry attended – and the SOI Consortium had a significant presence. The event was chaired by Wayne Dai, CEO/Founder of consortium member VeriSilicon, and tireless champion of the the FD-SOI ecosystem in China and worldwide. Morning keynotes were given by: Carlos Mazure, Soitec CTO and SOI Consortium Executive Co-Director; Mark Granger, GF's VP of Automotive Product Line Management; and Tony King-Smith, Executive Advisor at AImotive, a GF 22FDX customer. BTW, transcripts of all the talks are available through Gasgoo, China's largest automotive B2B marketplace. You can click here to access them. (They're in Chinese – but you can open them in the language of your choice using the major translation websites.) Chengdu Officials Affirm Support for FD-SOI Fan Yi, Deputy Mayor of Chengdu, spoke extensively of FD-SOI in his keynote on the importance of rapidly developing smart cars. He heralded the “spectacular” new GlobalFoundries fab there. Following a meeting with the company's top brass the day before, he affirmed GF's confidence in their investment. There is a solid roadmap for FD-SOI, he noted, and efforts are underway to accelerate the move into production and expand education and training. He cited the benefits of FD-SOI for the entire supply chain, from design through package and test, raising the level of the entire IC industry to new heights. The government, he said, attaches great importance to this enterprise. Their thinking regarding intelligent transport in China is integrated with the overall approach to smart cities. SOI Consortium Leads Industry Keynotes [caption id="attachment_12232" align="alignleft" width="300"] Wayne Dai, VeriSilicon Founder and CEO (Photo courtesy VeriSilicon)[/caption] In his opening remarks, Wayne Dai emphasized the need for China to seize the advantage in the next round of development opportunities in the automotive electronics industry. This year's Qingcheng forum, he noted, brought together key representatives from across the supply chain, from of the highest to the deepest reaches of the smart car electronics industry, and across markets, technologies, solutions, industrial ecosystem, standards and regulations. In his talk on how FD-SOI is boosting the accelerated development of automotive electronics, Carlos Mazure presented the SOI Industry Consortium. He noted that the Consortium promotes mutual understanding and development across the ecosystem. SOI is already present throughout automotive applications, he noted. There are currently about 100mm2 of SOI per car, in such diverse areas power systems, transmissions, entertainment, in-vehicle networking and more. SOI will experience especially high growth in electrification, information/entertainment, networking, 5G, AI/edge computing and ADAS. He then went on to give some history and an extensive overview of the major trends and highlights we've seen over recent years. He finished by giving examples of convergence across the supply chain with IC manufacturers working with automakers to lower power, increase processor performance and advance 5G. [caption id="attachment_12233" align="alignright" width="665"] Carlos Mazure, Soitec CTO and SOI Consortium Executive Co-Director; Tony King-Smith, Executive Advisor at AImotive and Mark Granger, GF's VP of Automotive Product Line Management (Photo courtesy VeriSilicon)[/caption] GF's Mark Granger addressed the rapid development of automotive electronics. In certain areas, he said, he sees growth rates of over 20%. They are working on building the Chengdu ecosystem, especially for design, and in cooperation with the rest of the supply chain. Furthermore, he reminded the audience, when you talk about cars, travel implies that you also talk about IoT as well as things like infotainment and integrated radar ICs. In addition to cost and power efficiencies, the AEC-Q100 standard for IC reliability in automotive applications is also pushing designers to turn to FD-SOI. In the GF meeting with Chengdu government officials (referenced above in deputy mayor Fan Yi's talk), he too confirmed their support of FD-SOI as a key technology for China. GF is currently cooperating with about 75 automotive partners, he said, and the company is looking to increase cooperation with partners in the Chengdu region. Tony King-Smith talked about the 22FDX test chip AImotive is doing with Verisilicon and GF. In case you missed it, in June 2017 AImotive announced its AI-optimized hardware IP was available to global chip manufacturers for license. AiWare is built from the ground up for running neural networks, and the company says it is up to 20 times more power efficient than other leading AI acceleration hardware solutions on the market. In the same announcement, they revealed that VeriSilicon would be the first to integrate aiWare into a chip design,and that aiWare-based test chips would be fabricated on GF's 22FDX. The chip is expected to debut this year. While the afternoon agenda was not specific to FD-SOI, it did focus on the "smart cockpit" and "intelligent driving", with talks by nine leading players in China's automotive IC and investment communities. ~ ~ ~Note: Many thanks to the folks at VeriSilicon, who wrote up this event for their WeChat feed, and shared photos with us here at ASN.

[caption id="attachment_12150" align="alignright" width="252"] Manuel Sellier, Product Marketing Manager at Soitec[/caption] Manuel Sellier, Product Marketing Manager at Soitec for the FD-SOI (and some other) SOI product lines has written an absolutely terrific primer entitled FD-SOI: A technology setting new standards for IoT, automotive and mobile connectivity applications. It's in the August edition of the GSA Forum (the GSA is the Global Semiconductor Alliance). If you know anyone who needs to quickly glean an understanding of FD-SOI that is both in-depth and broad, you'll want to share this piece with them right away. Before joining Soitec, Sellier was a chip designer at ST, where he gained deep experience designing FD-SOI chips. What's more, he holds a Ph.D. in the modeling and circuit simulation of advanced MOS transistors, including FD-SOI and FinFETs. So, he really knows his stuff. But don't worry that this might be too technical: Sellier's writing is thoroughly accessible (and engaging!) for anyone in the industry. He starts with the wafer history, then quickly moves on to the features from the designer's standpoint. And he puts it all in a business perspective. I can't recommend this piece enough – even if you think you know everything already yourself, you're sure to learn something new.

Intento Design is working with STMicroelectronics to bring ID-XploreTM EDA software, which is aimed at solving the critical analog design challenges, to FD-SOI process nodes. “ID-Xplore is a disruptive EDA software that accelerates analog design and migration processes by at least one order of magnitude. It reduces the cost and latency inherent to analog design. Currently, there is no similar EDA tool on the market covering the analog design challenges like ID-Xplore,” noted Dr. Ramy Iskander, CEO of Intento Design (see the press release here). ST's FD-SOI design expertise roots, of course, are as deep as they get. “ST’s decision to work with us confirms the relevance of our solution. We are very excited to work jointly with ST teams to take the most benefit out of FD-SOI technology leveraging ST’s pioneering leadership in this area,” continued Dr. Iskander. “We’ve already seen the benefits of ID-Xplore in accelerating the design phase of different analog circuits, thanks to the software’s fast and accurate exploration capabilities in advanced FD-SOI processes,” said Thierry Bion, ST's Hardware Design Director, Aerospace Defense Legacy Division. “By facilitating IP reuse and sharing of design insights between engineers, ID-Xplore™ is helping our teams significantly accelerate new product introductions.” ID-Xplore uses the OpenAccess database standard and is fully integrated within the Cadence design environment. The designer’s implicit and explicit knowledge is expressed as technology-independent constraints, bringing the designers back to their core expertise and creativity. If you want to learn more, the folks over at semiwiki.com have made a number of posts on Intento Design recently. They're really helpful in understanding what the company does, how and why: CEO Interview: Ramy Iskander of Intento Design Edit (by Daniel Nenni) – good backgrounder on the company and product. The Intention View: Disruptive Innovation for Analog Design Edit (by Daniel Nenni) – an excellent interview with Dr. Caitlin Brandon about how the tool works and how it aligns with and supports the way analog designers work. A New Kind of Analog EDA Company Edit (by Daniel Payne) – Daniel Payne started his career as a circuit designer at Intel, and is now a well-known consultant/expert in the EDA world. Here he explores how ID-Xplore actually works and its “cool new automation features”.

Specialty foundry TowerJazz is ramping a 65nm version of its RF-SOI process on 300mm wafers at Fab 7 in Uozu, Japan. To support the ramp, the company has signed a contract with long-term partner, Soitec, guaranteeing a supply of tens of thousands of 300mm SOI silicon wafers, securing wafer prices for the next years and ensuring supply to its customers, despite a tight SOI wafer market. [caption id="attachment_12108" align="alignright" width="300"] The 300mm 65nm RF-SOI process will be offered at the Uozu, Japan fab, which is operated by the TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor Company (TPSCo). (Photo courtesy: TowerJazz)[/caption] Five of TJ's seven fabs do RF-SOI. LNA (low-noise amplifers) are a big market driver, and with RF-SOI they can integrate the LNA with the switch, CEO Russell Ellwanter said in his lead keynote at the SOI Consortium’s 5th International RF-SOI Workshop in Shanghai (spring, 2018). BTW, that was in fact a very inspirational talk about Value Creation, and the importance of treating your suppliers with respect. He credited his company’s close relationship with RF-SOI wafer-supplier Soitec for TJ’s claim to the world’s best linearity. “We are delighted to see the strong adoption of 300mm RF SOI through this large capacity and supply agreement with TowerJazz to augment our already significant 200mm RF-SOI partnership,” said Soitec CEO Paul Boudre. “TowerJazz was the first foundry to ramp our RFeSI products to high volume production in 200mm and continues as one of the industry leaders in innovation in this exciting RF market with advanced and differentiated offerings.” According to the TJ press release (you can read it here), with its best in class metrics the TowerJazz 65nm RF-SOI process enables the combination of low insertion loss and high power handling RF switches with options for high-performance low-noise amplifiers as well as digital integration. The process can reduce losses in an RF switch improving battery life and boosting data rates in handsets and IoT terminals. It's a high-growth market, to be sure. Market researchers Mobile Experts predict that the mobile RF front-end market will reach $22 billion in 2022 from an estimated $16 billion in 2018. TowerJazz says its breakthrough RF SOI technology continues to support this high-growth market and is well-poised to take advantage of next-generation 5G standards, which will boost data rates and provide further content growth opportunities in the coming years. Customers are already getting into position. For example, Maxscend (WuXi, China), a provider of RF components and IoT integrated circuits, is ramping in this new technology. “We chose TowerJazz for its advanced technology capabilities and its ability to deliver in high volume while continuously innovating with a strong roadmap. We specifically selected its 300mm 65nm RF SOI platform for our next-generation product line due to its superior performance, enabling low insertion loss and high power handling,” said Maxscend CEO Zhihan Xu. As longtime ASN readers will know, we've been covering the evolutions of TJ's RF-SOI platforms since the beginning of the decade. It's worth noting, too, that beyond RF, TowerJazz also offers foundry customers other SOI-based processes, such as the new 0.18μm BCD SOI, a 200V SOI technology platform (announced in 2017, press release here) for motor drivers, industrial tools, electric vehicles and more. The previous generation 0.18μm SOI for automotive power management also offers exceptional area savings and is well-suited for high temperature operation. Back in 2014, here at ASN we did a great interview with TJ SVP Dr. Marco Racanelli about when and why they use SOI – and while processes have advanced, the basic drivers are still there, so it's a still a good read. And finally, designers will want to know that the TJ Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) Shuttle Program offers the 65nm RF-SOI process, as well as other SOI-based processes. See the website for scheduling and details.

GlobalFoundries has announced that the company’s 22nm FD-SOI (22FDX®) technology has delivered more than two billion dollars of client design win revenue. With more than 50 client designs, 22FDX is being used in power-optimized chips across a broad range of high-growth applications such as automotive, 5G connectivity and IoT. Their clients chose it for the significant reductions in power and die size relative to a traditional bulk CMOS process, says the company. 22FDX offers the industry’s lowest operating voltage, delivering up to 500MHz frequencies at only 0.4 volts. The technology also delivers efficient single-chip integration of RF, transceiver, baseband, processor, and power management components, “...providing an unparalleled combination of high performance RF and mmWave functionality with low-power, high density logic for devices that require long-lasting battery life, increased processing capability, and connectivity.” 22FDX is in early production, with yields and performance matching client expectations. A recent VLSI Research survey indicated that FD-SOI technology is seen as a complementary technology to FinFET. It's gaining traction in application spaces such as IoT, where power consumption is important and the product life is relatively short. “We’re only just beginning,” said GF CEO Tom Caulfied. “We have found a way to separate ourselves from the pack by emphasizing our differentiated FD-SOI roadmap and client-focused offerings that are poised to enable connected intelligence. We will continue to build on our momentum and look for ways to expand our reach to address the evolving needs of the industry.” Here's a sampling of customer quotes from the press release (read more here): “At Synaptics, as we expand upon our industry-leading mobile and PC businesses to include delivering new and innovative products that address the booming IoT market, we require the best available technologies to enable us to deliver top-notch solutions including voice and multimedia processing capabilities for our customers,” said the company's CEO, Rick Bergman. “GF’s 22FDX technology delivers a potent mix of low static and dynamic power along with excellent performance to give us a great platform for our world-class products.” “As our customers increasingly demand more from their mobile experiences, our partnership with GF on its 22FDX technology is critical to differentiate ourselves in the competitive market and deliver powerful and efficient mobile SoCs,” said Rockchip CEO Min Li. “Our goal has always been to provide more secure, connected experiences for drivers. Combining our leadership in radar technology with GF's 22FDX automotive-qualified process, we are able to deliver a cost-effective, high performance, low power solution that opens new opportunities for car manufacturers to provide better experiences for drivers around the world," said Kobi Marenko, CEO of Arbe Robotics. “The automotive industry realizes that assisted driving solutions require more camera information besides Radar and Lidar, integrating information from multiple cameras. The resulting DreamChip multi-core vision processor platform, based on the 22FDX process is providing European auto makers and Tier 1 automotive component suppliers with a platform from which they can create custom derivatives with a massively reduced time to market," said Dream Chip Technologies CEO Jens Benndorf. “With 22FDX, the value proposition for us is the potential power and area savings, two key metrics for our highly optimized LTE NB-IoT and CAT-M chipsets. In addition, leveraging the growing ecosystems of IP available in the 22FDX process helps to accelerate time to market,” said Peter Wong, CEO at Riot Micro, which designs purpose-built silicon for wireless IoT applications. (Read more about that here.) GF adds that it is preparing to deliver 12FDX™ technology, which will provide a full node scaling benefit and improved power efficiency for a new generation of applications, from edge-node artificial intelligence and AR/VR to 5G networking and ADAS.

That FD-SOI can be a key to achieving near-threshold voltage design was an important point made during a #55 DAC expert panel. Entitled How Close to Threshold-Voltage Design Can We Go Without Getting our Fingers Burnt? the session was organized by Jan Willis of Calibre Consulting. Turnout was excellent. Btw, Jan (herself an EDA expert) was one of the original advisors in the formation of the SOI Consortium, and while this DAC panel was not meant to be about FD-SOI, it turned out be a focal point. Near-threshold voltage design* is an especially hot topic for IoT and edge-computing designers, for whom balancing performance, reliability and extremely low power is generally challenge #1. For them, the ability to get chips working at very low voltages translates into battery life savings. The original goal of the panel was “...to explore how far below nominal voltage we can design, in what applications it makes sense and in what ways it will cost us.” The description in the #55 DAC program noted that “Energy consumption is the driving design parameter for many systems that must meet 'always-on' market requirements and in IoT in general. For decades, the semiconductor industry has attempted to leverage the essential principle that lowering voltage is the quickest, biggest way to reduce energy for a SoC. Some today contend sub-threshold voltage design is viable while others argue for near-threshold voltage design as the minimum.” (Update 2 August 2018: a complete video of this panel is now available on YouTube -- click here to view it.) [caption id="attachment_12035" align="alignnone" width="958"] #55 DAC Expert Panel: How Close to Threshold-Voltage Design Can We Go Without Getting our Fingers Burnt? Left to right: Brian Fuller, Arm (moderator); Scott Hanson, Ambiq Micro; Lauri Koskinen, Minima Processor; Mahbub Rashed, GlobalFoundries; Paul Wells, sureCore. (Organized by Jan Willis of Calibre Consulting)[/caption] The panelists included: Scott Hanson - Ambiq Micro Mahbub Rashed - GLOBALFOUNDRIES Lauri Koskinen - Minima Processor Paul Wells - sureCore Ltd., Sheffield Brian Fuller of Arm served as moderator. [caption id="attachment_12033" align="alignright" width="200"] Panel organizer Jan Willis, Calibre Consulting[/caption] Following the panel Jan published the following excellent recap on LinkedIn. She graciously agreed for it to be reprinted here in ASN, for which we thank her. So without further ado, read on! #55DAC Expert Panel on Near-Threshold Voltage Sees Growing Opportunity Despite ChallengesFirst published on LinkedIn, June 27, 2018 by Jan Willis, Strategic Partnerships Marketing Executive Brian Fuller, Arm, skillfully guided a group of experts through the challenges of near-threshold design to conclude that the adoption is going to start gathering pace in a panel session at the 55th DAC in San Francisco on Monday, June 25. Scott Hanson, CTO of Ambiq Micro, led off by saying the list of what's not challenging is a much shorter list but that by taking an adaptive approach, they have been successful. It's required innovating throughout the design process including test where Scott said they had create their own "secret sauce" to make it work. Later on in the panel, Scott described designers in near-threshold as "picojoule fanatics" to overcome the limitations in design tools which are geared towards achieving performance goals. Lauri Koskinen, CTO of Minima Processor, agreed that adaptivity is key. Minima says it has to be done in situ in the design to make it robust for manufacturing while useful across more than one design. Later in the panel, Lauri indicated that FD-SOI is like having another knob available for optimizing energy in the Minima approach to near-threshold design. Mahbub Rashed, head of Design and Technology Co-Optimization at GlobalFoundries, highlighted the need for more collaboration between EDA, IP, and foundries to support near-threshold design but noted a lot of progress has been made on FD-SOI processes. Mahbub cited models down to 0.4V for FD-SOI processes are available now and GlobalFoundries is able to guarantee yield. Paul Wells, CEO of sureCore, validated that sureCore has bench marked their memories on GlobalFoundries FD-SOI with success. He reflected that FD-SOI has rapidly established itself as cost effective for a number of emerging markets. The panel all agreed that achieving quality on the memory at near-threshold voltage was much tougher than for digital IP. [Editor's note: sureCore's CTO wrote an excellent summary of their SRAM IP for FD-SOI in ASN back in 2016 – you can still read it here.] Paul went on to summarize at the end of the panel that near-threshold voltage is the way of the future and that it's gathering pace. Mahbub called upon the EDA community to step up to improve the tools for low energy design. Lauri and Scott both summarized that there were drivers emerging that will grow the addressable market for near-threshold voltage design. Lauri pointed to growth coming from the applications that require edge computing which he thinks will require near-threshold voltage design. Scott concluded the panel by pointing out that there's been a tremendous increase in performance of near-threshold voltage designs which will increase the addressable available market in the future. ~ ~ ~ This piece was first published by Jan Willis on LinkedIn, June 27, 2018. Here is the original. * As explained by Rich Collins of Synopsys in the TechDesign Forum: "Operating at near-threshold or sub-threshold voltages reduces static and dynamic power consumption, at the cost of design complexity. [...] A transistor’s threshold voltage (Vth) is the voltage at which the transistor turns on. Most transistor circuits use a supply voltage substantially greater than the threshold voltage, so that the point at which the transistors turn on is not affected by supply variations or noise. [...] In sub-threshold operation, the supply voltage is well below the Vth of the transistors. In this region, the transistors are partially On, but are never fully turned. Near-threshold operation happens between the sub-threshold region and the transistor threshold voltage Vth, or around 400 – 700mV for today’s processes.

Leti and Soitec have announced a new collaboration and five-year partnership agreement to drive the R D of advanced engineered substrates, including SOI and beyond. This agreement brings the traditional Leti-Soitec partnership to a whole new dimension and includes the launch of a world-class prototyping hub associating equipment partners to pioneer with new materials, The Substrate Innovation Center will feature access to shared Leti-Soitec expertise around a focused pilot line. Key benefits for partners include access to early exploratory sampling and prototyping, collaborative analysis, and early learning at the substrate level, eventually leading to streamlined product viability and roadmap planning at the system level. [caption id="attachment_12066" align="aligncenter" width="644"] CEOs Emmanuel Sabonnadière (Leti) and Paul Boudre (Soitec) announcing the new Substrate Innovation Center during Semicon West '18. (Image courtesy: Leti)[/caption] Leading chip makers and foundries worldwide use Soitec products to manufacture chips for consumer applications targeting performance, connectivity, and efficiency with extremely low energy consumption. Applications include smart phones, data centers, automotive, imagers, and medical and industrial equipment, but this list is always growing, along with the need for flexibility to explore new applications starting at the substrate level. At the Substrate Innovation Center, located on Leti’s campus, Leti and Soitec engineers will explore and develop innovative substrate features, expanding to new fields and applications with a special focus on 4G/5G connectivity, artificial intelligence, sensors and display, automotive, photonics, and edge computing. “Material innovation and substrate engineering make entire new horizons possible. The Substrate Innovation Center will unleash the power of substrate R D collaboration beyond the typical product road maps, beyond the typical constraints,” said Paul Boudre, Soitec CEO. “The Substrate Innovation Center is a one-of-a-kind opportunity open to all industry partners within the semiconductor value chain.” Whereas a typical manufacturing facility has limited flexibility to try new solutions and cannot afford to take risks with prototyping, the mission of the Substrate Innovation Center is to become the world’s preferred hub for evaluating and designing engineered substrate solutions to address the future needs of the industry, inclusive of all the key players, from compound suppliers to product designers. Using state of the art, quality-controlled clean room facilities, and the latest industry-grade equipment and materials, Leti and Soitec engineers will conduct testing and evaluation at all levels of advanced substrate R D. “Leti and Soitec’s collaboration on SOI and differentiated materials, which extends back to Soitec’s launch in 1992, has produced innovative technologies that are vital to a wide range of consumer and industrial products and components,” said Emmanuel Sabonnadière, Leti CEO. “This new common hub at Leti’s campus marks the next step in this ongoing partnership. By jointly working with foundries, fabless, and system companies, we provide our partners with a strong edge for their future products."