VeriSilicon provides platform-based, all-round, one-stop custom silicon services and semiconductor IP. For two years running, they’ve been the #1 Chinese IP provider and well into the Top 10 worldwide (per IPnest 2020). They’re also an FD-SOI design powerhouse. Founded in 2001, VeriSilicon first began work on FD-SOI in 2013. Now they’re headed for listing on the Shanghai STAR exchange. SOI News talked to President CEO Dr. Wayne Wei-Ming Dai about his company’s innovative business model, and opportunities for FD-SOI.SOI News (SN): You call the VeriSilicon business model “SiPaaS”, for Silicon Platform as a Service. Can you tell us what that means? Is it particularly well-suited to designs based on FD-SOI? Dr. Wayne Wei-Ming Dai (WD): We see SiPaaS as the third transformation in the semiconductor industry. If you take a minute to look at the evolution, first was the IDM model of the 1960’s and 70’s, largely based in the US and Japan and driven first by the US military, then home appliances and consumer electronics. The second transformation was the foundry model, driven heavily by the PC and cellular communication, with a geographic center heavily based in Taiwan and Korea. That solved the CAPEX challenge. Now with the IoT, we solve the OPEX – operational expenses – challenge. Although 60% of our business comes from outside China, we do see particularly good opportunities for China. With AI and AIoT, there’s a lot of custom designs. You have a new model with the chip as a system, with lots of IP – but it also is much more expensive. The VeriSilicon SiPaaS model covers everything from IP to final tape-out, delivers packaged and tested parts, and that accelerates time to market and saves money. If you consider the share of R D expenses as a percentage of chip revenue, for leading fabless companies, they can be 20-30%, and you need to have a gross margin of 50% and higher. But if your gross margin is 40% or below, you might out of business. The VeriSilicon model seeks to transform the design-heavy model, where designers use their own IP, to the next wave, which is design-lite. When you’ve got a design-lite model for A/IoT, you don’t need such a big team. This is the third transformation. You first saw this starting in a major way in Israel, where going to design-lite enabled fabless companies to move very quickly. But you still need IPs, and for those working under a traditional model, we have those. In SiPaaS, we offer IP platforms. Chip design is kind of like building a house. If you want, we can just give you the kitchen – so that’s some specific IP. But we can also give you the entire house. The IPs form the solutions. For each type of application, there are similar IPs that need to be integrated. Sets of IPs form subsystems for IoT, automotive, medical, wearables, audio, video, etc. There are no boundaries on the platforms, but each have typical elements. In this industrial transformation, and now especially for AIoT, you’ll need many more chips in many different places. We have a lot of IP that we created organically, but we also made some major acquisitions over the years. For example, 13 years ago we bought a Dallas based DSP division from LSI Logic. Our design-lite platform approach plays particularly well in FD-SOI, where designers want to maximize the advantages of the technology. Remember that much of the original IP for FD-SOI comes from ST or Samsung. When Samsung first licensed 28nm FD-SOI from ST, we got a whole set of 28nm FD-SOI IP from ST with modification rights. So we started to play with them. Then that IP went to Synopsys. We have modified, optimized and customized it for customers. And with GlobalFoundries’ 22nm FD-SOI, when the IP comes out, we're the first ones invited to test it. So we focus on those IPs. We do benchmarks on ARM and others. And we’ve designed our own IPs for RF and more. We’ve done the body biasing circuits and software control, so we support design methodologies. People often ask us to show them how good FD-SOI is. So we do a lot of benchmarking. At 28 bulk, we can do apple-to-apple comparisons. And 28 bulk or 22 FD-SOI, it’s the same team, so we can do those comparisons, so they can compare the two nodes. And we’re partnering with more 3rd party IP companies – including smaller players – providing FD-SOI IP, which is great. [bctt tweet="Our design-lite platform approach plays particularly well in #FDSOI, where designers want to maximize the advantages of the technology - @VeriSilicon CEO Wayne Dai #IoT #edgeAI #wearables" username="SOIConsortium"] SN: You have been a very vocal champion of FD-SOI. Why? WD: We’re not against FinFET – that a really big part of our business and we’re very advanced in it. We were the first to do a tape-out on Samsung’s 7nm UV FinFET test chip and are working on 5nm. While overall we tape out over 30-50 chips a year, we are foundry neutral. But we recognize that FinFETs are not for everything: there are some things that FD-SOI does much better. Integrating RF, for example – it’s not impossible but it’s not natural in FinFET. Yes, if you’ve got a big digital chip running at high speed most of time, FinFET is better. But if you’re running high speed some of time, say around 20%, especially integrating RF, FD-SOI is better. And back biasing is impossible in FinFET. In the end, we “walk on two legs”. SN: What do designers need to know about FD-SOI? WD: Body biasing can sound complicated, but the thing is, you don't play with each transistor. In theory, you can control each transistor with body bias, but in reality, you do it region by region. With body biasing, you can dynamically make different parts of the chip behave differently. This is key. Some parts are reverse biased. Some parts are forward biased. You play with this block by block, and kick it in as-needed by software after the chip comes back. So in IoT, for example, where it's very serious low power, you may want to shut down certain parts when you're not using them, while other parts always need to be on. If you choose one of our platforms, we’ve taken care of that. There may be parts you only need to bring up and run at high-speed for certain tasks. So body biasing gives you all sorts of controls. With FinFETs you can't do that, you can just play with voltage scaling. You can drive up the speed – the dynamic power – when needed with forward biasing. During that time, you're not really worrying about leakage power because when the task is done you can completely shut down those parts again. It also changes tape out. Typically designers do worst case. But you might not need to design for the worst case: you leave too much on the table. With body biasing, if you solve for typical, when the chip comes back, you can tune and make adjustments post-silicon. So you can do an aggressive tape-out, which is much more effective than starting off with a worst case. True, if you sign off worst case, your chip can always run very fast, but sometimes you don't need that. And in order to solve for worst-case, you put in a lot of buffers or whatever for timing closure, which is unnecessary effort. What's more, for different applications, the worst case can be different: some applications may need some higher speeds and sometimes less. If you solve for typical, then depending on the application you can software-tune the device. In the past, you never had that kind of thing. With body biasing in FD-SOI, you can solve for typical, so you can save a lot of area and a lot of design cycle in terms of timing closure, in terms of use of buffers. If silicon comes back, and it's missing something – say you need it to go a little faster – I’ve done body biasing, so I adjust the timing. Most times it's probably ok, it's good enough. Of course, some applications you need some combination of fast and slow, and you can leverage the body-biasing post silicon to change what's fast and what's slow on the fly. Like in wearables, power is very critical – some parts are always on, and some parts are sometimes on. For the parts that are always on, you need to reduce the leakage, and you do that with reverse body biasing. For other parts, you bring them up and you run as fast as you can for a short period of time – in this case leakage isn't as important because most of the time it's shut down. But dynamic power is important. High performance is important. For that part you need forward biasing. With different parts of the chip, you can play with different things. Before, you had to do this before tape-out, and sometimes had to do worst-case, which should never happen: you leave too much margin on the table, because after silicon you couldn’t do anything. But now with body biasing in FD-SOI, you have the capability – you don't need to do worst case – if needed you can always adjust. And for different applications in the chip, you might need a different kind of operating frequency, right? So you can create different chips from the same chip. With body biasing, you can always tune to whatever you want. If I’m short of something, I can do some body biasing bring up the speed. Now that's different from voltage scaling. You cannot dynamically achieve voltage scaling. You might have two voltages – one's high, one's low. But you cannot continuously change. In FD-SOI the same die maybe has different applications with different performance requirements, so we don't need to do worst case design. They can come up with different performance chips in the same silicon. SN: What do you see as the drivers? WD: IoT, AIoT and automotive. Also RF, mmWave and connectivity. And at the edge, where you need very low power. FinFET and FD-SOI both solve the leakage problem. But if you need sleep mode most of the time and high performance 20% of the time, it is more energy efficient to use FD-SOI. There are a lot of applications in this category. In 12nm FD-SOI, you’ll reach almost the same performance as 7nm FinFET at 14nm cost. [bctt tweet="#FinFET #FDSOI both solve the leakage problem. But if you need sleep mode most of the time and high performance 20% of the time, it is more energy efficient to use FD-SOI /@VeriSilicon CEO #edgecomputing" username="soiconsortium"] You’ve seen some stagnation of IoT at the 40/55nm process nodes because at those nodes the performance was not as good as expected. You needed two AA batteries. The value of the IoT data was not generated, collected or analyzed. What you need is AI at the edge to pre-process the raw data so you lower network capacity requirements. AI at the edge is a great opportunity for FD-SOI. SN: How do you see the role of the SOI Consortium? WD: We work with the consortium for these big forums; in particular VeriSilicon co-founded and has now co-sponsored the Shanghai FD-SOI Forum for seven years. They’re the most visible and high quality. The consortium knows the people that need to know each other. There are a lot of meetings during these events, and a lot of deals are sealed; one signature event is the river dinner cruise where “everyone is on the same boat”. ~ ~ ~ Related VeriSilicon press releases: VeriSilicon Releases Most Advanced FD-SOI Design IP Platform on GlobalFoundries 22FDX for Edge AI and IoT Applications (2019-10-24). The VeriSilicon 22FDX IP Platform includes over 30 low-power, low-leakage and high-density memory compiler IPs and various key mixed signal IPs. VeriSilicon provides a one-stop silicon design service to customers designing for AIoT with mature IPs to shorten custom design cycles and reduce their R D costs. FD-SOI Body-Bias technology allows the user to adjust device threshold even after silicon is manufactured: it can enable dynamic tuning between High-Performance and Low-Power, and enhance the design flexibility without extra cost. Advanced ATSC 3.0 Chip Launched for Mobile and Broadcast Applications (2019-01-08). The demodulator SoC was designed and developed by Saankhya Labs with ASIC turnkey design and manufacturing services from VeriSilicon, using Samsung Foundry’s state of the art 28FDS (its Fully Depleted SOI process technology), chosen for its unique low power capabilities offered by the back bias option. (See more in-depth coverage on this announcement from SOI News here.) VeriSilicon Announces Ultra Low Power BLE 5.0 RF IP based on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 22FDX FD-SOI Process for IoT Applications (2018-11-01). The IP includes a transceiver that is compliant with the BLE 5.0 specification and supports GFSK modulation and demodulation. The silicon measurement shows that the sensitivity can be tested up to -98dBm with less than 7mW power dissipation in typical conditions. It largely improves battery life for low power IoT applications. In addition, the RF transceiver saves 40% area compared to a similar implementation on 55nm bulk CMOS. Besides the RF transceiver, this IP integrates on-chip balun, TX/RX switch and 32K RC OSC driver to save the BOM. Moreover, high efficiency DC/DC and LDOs are also available for power management. “Wearable and IoT markets especially the wireless earplug market are growing rapidly, and it will surge through consumer use, hearing aids, personal care and other industrial applications.” said Dr. Wayne Dai, Founder, Chairman, President and CEO of VeriSilicon. “By taking advantage of integrated RF capabilities of FD-SOI, in particular GF’s 22FDX, our BLE 5.0 RF IP will significantly reduce the system cost and greatly boost the growth momentum of wearable products such as wireless earplugs.” GlobalFoundries and VeriSilicon to Enable Single-Chip Solution for Next-Gen IoT Networks (2017-07-13). The integrated solution leverages GF's 22FDX technology to decrease power, area, and cost for NB-IoT and LTE-M applications. VeriSilicon's Artificial Intelligence Engine Delivers Multi-Sensory Experiences in NXP's i.MX 8 Flagship Applications Processor. (2017-06-08).

On June 20, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) suspending the issuance of H-1B, H-2B, J-1 and L visas for applicants residing outside of the United States without an active work permit. The order took effect today and will be in force through the end of 2020. The suspension of H-1B and L-1 visas, in particular, likely will impact negatively the ability of U.S. companies in the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain and the broader technology community to recruit and retain global talent and to temporarily transfer international engineers and executives to support critical operations in the U.S.According to the administration, the issuance of visas for skilled temporary workers into the U.S. poses a “significant threat to employment opportunities for Americans affected by the extraordinary economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.” Although SEMI fully supports administration efforts to address economic disruptions and job losses caused by the pandemic, we believe blanket restrictions on high-skilled immigration will be counterproductive to government and industry initiatives supporting a broad-based economic recovery. Semiconductors are the foundation of all electronics and information technology (IT), enabling innovation and growth in countless other industries including medical devices and the IT solutions that enable remote work and the connectivity desperately needed in current economic times. Access to global engineering talent and the worldwide mobility of technology executives are central to supporting the industry’s efforts to contribute to economic recovery in fields ranging from healthcare and telecommunications to transportation infrastructure.The EO authorizes the Secretaries of State, Homeland Security and Labor to establish criteria for exceptions to the blanket ban, including employment categories that: are critical to the defense, law enforcement, diplomacy, or national security in the U.S. provide medical care to currently hospitalized COVID-19 patients provide medical research at facilities to help the U.S. combat COVID-19 are necessary to facilitate the immediate and continued U.S. economic recovery The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has classified workers in the semiconductor supply chain as essential to the effective operation of critical economic activity as the nation addresses the economic fallout of COVID-19. In lieu of rescinding the total ban on visa applications, SEMI urges the Secretaries to incorporate the CISA guidelines for semiconductor supply chain workers as they assess categories for application exceptions. SEMI will continue to advocate for programs and policies that enhance U.S. economic competitiveness, including immigration rules that ensure the U.S. can attract and retain the highest skilled talent from around the world without compromising employment opportunities for U.S. workers. As Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham noted following the issuance of the EO, “Legal immigration is a positive for the American economy, and visa programs allowing American companies to secure qualified, legal labor throughout the world have benefitted economic growth in the United States.”Karl Kailing is manager of Public Policy and Advocacy at SEMI.

In the first part of this double feature, we looked at the automotive industry’s transition toward a mobility ecosystem and the shifting business model perspective from selling vehicles to miles. At the core of these changing dynamics are four trends represented by the acronym ACES: Autonomous, Connected, Electric, and Shared mobility. Each of these trends is largely enabled by microelectronics through computer processors, sensor units, and communication architectures. Part 2 of this series explores the business opportunities at the transition from automotive to mobility, and the specific role SEMI can play as a natural bridge between the two ecosystems.Electronics and Software as Drivers for Automotive InnovationThe ACES trends represent an acceleration of the shift in automotive from the industry’s traditionally strong focus on mechanics and hardware toward electronics and software. This transition to electronics and software as drivers for automotive innovation already started in the 1970s with electronic fuel injection, anti-lock brakes, trip computers, and many other attributes that are now considered standard features. As a result, there are now hardly any automotive systems that are not computer-controlled. A vehicle without power windows and locks, electronic climate control, or MEMS-reliant airbags are basically unimaginable in many markets.As shown in the graphic[1] depicting the electronics share of total vehicle cost, the numbers paint a clear picture of the continued growth of electronics over time, with a 44% share today expected to grow to 50% by 2030. McKinsey Company estimates the automotive software and electrical/electronic (E/E) components markets combined will grow at a 7% CAGR from USD 238 billion in 2020 to US$469 billion by 2030[2].The assumption of continued and sustained growth presents a promising outlook for semiconductor and sensor content in vehicles over the next decade, which is particularly strong in the electrification space. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) already contain $900 worth of semiconductor content, and battery-based electric vehicles (EVs) contain $1,000 worth of semiconductors – much higher than the average of approximately $450 of content in conventional vehicles[2]. Other business opportunities in the mid-term (3-5 years) include software, battery technology, infrastructure (charging stations, other hardware components, etc.), as well as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-environment (V2X) communication. These technologies also demonstrate how the industry’s business focus is expanding beyond the confinement of an individual vehicle to increasingly contemplating the evolving ecosystem around it, resulting in real mobility solutions. Image credit: Continental AG This creates significant opportunities for a large number of SEMI members in the semiconductors and sensors business by connecting them with new customers and partners in the automotive and mobility supply chains, primarily vehicle manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers, and together realizing new business in new automotive applications such as: Autonomy, including ADAS (GPUs, LiDAR, radar, camera, accelerometers...) Connectivity (link to outside infrastructure and in-cabin devices, roadside units...) Electrification (power electronics, battery monitoring, H2 detection in fuel-cell...) Sharing (customizable vehicle interior, trackable mobility devices such as scooters...) In-cabin experience (media systems, displays, VR/AR, occupant detection...) Vehicle architecture (flex-ray, automotive ethernet, diagnostics, smart parts...) Safety and security (HW/SW firewall, parts authentication, upgradability...) In these partnerships, the vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers clearly benefit from leveraging semiconductor capabilities including: Device and system reliability/robustness/quality (“Zero Defect”), which creates opportunities for new SEMI Standards (e.g. wafer-to-device/system traceability) New design architectures for added functionality, safety and security New packaging solutions (automotive OEMs are already participating in the Heterogeneous Integration Roadmap, seeking to collaborate with device manufactures and Original Semiconductor Assembly Test (OSAT) companies to reduce costs and differentiate on automotive-grade solutions Sensors and imaging (cameras) SEMI Smart Mobility Initiative – Connecting Mobility and ElectronicsSEMI launched its Smart Mobility Initiative in 2018 based on the mandate of providing “SEMI members with access to new business opportunities and collaborative platforms in the automotive electronics supply chain.” The initiative is currently focused on synchronizing the automotive and microelectronics supply chains for automotive electronics innovation – in particular semiconductor devices, sensors, and related products manufactured for this space and sold to vehicle OEMs and Tier 1s. To facilitate closer dialogue among stakeholders from this combined ecosystem, SEMI formed the Global Automotive Advisory Council (GAAC) which now has five regional chapters and represents dozens of companies. Collectively, GAAC members discuss and act on a wide range of topics, from Silicon Carbide (SiC) standardization to new design architectures and closing the OEM requirement gap.While continuing to build on the strong automotive foundation, SEMI’s Smart Mobility Initiative is now expanding its reach and scope of activities to broader mobility themes, such as infrastructure and battery technology and Smart City, to infuse SEMI member communities and the GAAC with new stakeholders and new ideas. These are exciting times!Please contact Bettina Weiss, Chief of Staff at SEMI, at [email protected] for further information about SEMI’s Smart Mobility Initiative, the Global Automotive Advisory Council, and how SEMI can help your organization navigate electronics in the automotive industry to drive innovation in the mobility space.[1] see graphic, created with data from NXP / Freescale[2] Source: McKinsey Company, 2019Microelectronics Power the Future of Mobility – Part 1: Autonomous, Connected, Electric and SharedBettina Weiss is Chief of Staff and Global Smart Mobility Lead at SEMI. Sven Beiker is Smart Mobility Consultant at SEMI.

While the full contours of the next normal are still unclear, semiconductor companies largely acted decisively at the beginning of the crisis to build resilience and position the sector for future growth. To plan ahead, now is the time to think about the next normal and set the strategic direction needed to emerge even stronger from this humanitarian and economic crisis.Global GDP recoveryMcKinsey has developed nine GDP recovery scenarios, and as the economic situation has developed, we surveyed more than 2,000 global executives to discover that two of those scenarios are most likely. Both of those scenarios assume that the spread of coronavirus is eventually controlled and catastrophic economic damage is avoided. In the first scenario, global GDP is expected to recover in the first quarter of 2021; in the second, recovery is forecasted to be delayed until late 2022. The geographies of recovery will vary, as some industries and regions will recover faster than others.Semiconductor Demand Forecast for 2020 and 2021The COVID-19 crisis has created an unprecedented challenge for the semiconductor industry. During the 2007/2008 recession, consumer demand stagnated. This crisis, however, has affected both demand and supply, creating dual pressures. Our demand forecast is based on the two most likely McKinsey GDP recovery scenarios as well as on extensive surveys, expert interviews and research on the recovery in China. Charts 1 and 2 (below) show that the semiconductor market as a whole is expected to decline by up to 10% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting slowdown in the global economy. In 2021, however, most segments are expected to grow, with total market size surpassing 2019 value in the more positive scenario. The PC market segments will see the least growth, while the wireless communication and automotive segments should expect to be hit hardest by this crisis with a decline of as much as 21% and 27% respectively in 2020. However, they are expected to bounce back in 2021 with growth of up to 19% and 36% in the positive outlook scenario.It might take some time for the semiconductor market to fully recover. The timing of the industry’s recovery depends largely on the containment of the virus, government economic stabilization efforts, and the global economic recovery.1. Products include memory, micro components, logic, analog, discrete, optoelectronics, and sensors/actuators.2. 2020 estimates were calculated using 2019 baseline and percentages have been rounded.3. Gray values indicate 2020 growth forecast; blue values indicate growth forecast for 2021 only. Sources: IHS, Expert Interviews 1. Products include memory, micro components, logic, analog, discrete, optoelectronics, and sensors/actuators.2. 2020 estimates were calculated using 2019 baseline and percentages have been rounded.3. Gray values indicate 2020 growth forecast; blue values indicate growth forecast for 2021 only.Sources: IHS, Expert Interviews Emerging stronger from this crisisSemiconductor companies had already developed effective crisis-management strategies during past crisis and industry downturns. However, this situation is unique. Overall, we see three main activities that can help semiconductor players with through-cycle resilience and growth: Define the starting position: Creating a baseline can help inform future strategic decisions by providing a holistic view of the current strategy, internal capabilities and external position. Develop economic and political recovery scenarios: Developing and deciding which economic and political recovery scenarios to focus on will enable companies to create company specific scenarios. Therefore, it is important to analyze demand in the short and long terms, along with the effects of subsidies, stimulus packages and industry dynamics. Prepare for the next normal: To prepare for the next normal and emerge even stronger from this crisis, companies should focus on how to gain market share during the downturn. As competitors focus on resilience, companies who see themselves in a financially stable position can focus on increasing their company’s growth and market share. This mindset, however, is most effective when established across the entire organization. Opportunities to emerge even stronger include defining a strategic, systematic approach to investment and divestment as appropriate. This means that several smaller deals that accrue to a meaningful amount of market capitalization over the years often have a more positive impact than one large transaction. History tells us that finding pockets of growth and revising capex, R D and M A strategies are the building block to emerge stronger from a crisis. As Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel once said, "You can't save your way out of a recession." This translates into moderate capex and R D budget cuts with the focus on future growth drivers. These approaches are supported by insights from previous crises.Although the crisis has presented a major challenge, it also offers the chance for companies to set themselves apart from competitors. The semiconductor industry as a whole has been more resilient than many other industries. The global push toward digitization has also been a major tailwind that will likely be a key element of the global economic recovery.Ondrej Burkacky is a partner with McKinsey Company based in its Munich office. He leads McKinsey’s semiconductor and software work in Europe, as well as its global COVID-19 semiconductor task force. For McKinsey’s latest insights on the business implications of the coronavirus pandemic, visit its website, which is updated daily.

Included in this outlook is a discussion of the financial impact of the current pandemic and a forecast for GDP growth by major region for 2020 and 2021.

As the amount of electronics in automobiles continues to increase, it is becoming more common to hear a vehicle referred to as a “computer on wheels.” To that end, innovation occurs at the intersection of automotive and microelectronics so that leveraging synergies and contemplating joint initiatives becomes crucial in shaping the future of both fields. In this two-part article, we will discuss the current trends in the automotive industry, which are to a large extent driven by microelectronics, and will reflect on the transition from “just the vehicle” to “the mobility ecosystem.”SEMI encourages its members to partner in seizing opportunities in safe, efficient, and convenient mobility solutions. Before diving into specific opportunities that the automotive industry offers to electronics companies, we will start by taking a closer look at this sector and the current trends.Automotive or Mobility? Shaping the New EcosystemThe automotive industry and its supply chain of vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers has been evolving for decades around the sales of vehicles. The customer groups used to be fairly well established with individual consumers and commercial entities, the latter often as fleets. The automotive industry has grown in depth by vertically integrating design, manufacturing, sales, service, accessories, etc. More recently, the traditional players have also begun to venture into mobility services such as car sharing, showing their ambitions to become “mobility providers.”The term “mobility” has been used increasingly instead of “automotive” for about a decade now. This reflects the more recent transition to creating businesses and functionalities around the sales of miles. In line with this, the industry’s perspective is also shifting toward use-cases and experience rather than just focusing on the vehicle or plain transportation. Much of this transition from “vehicles to miles” is driven by key trends that require massive use of microelectronics, in particular autonomous driving and electric vehicles.One of the key questions to raise for SEMI members is: at which stages should the supply chains for the microelectronics and mobility industries interact with one another to shape the evolving ecosystem? In order to answer this question, we will examine the four main trends shaping the future of mobility represented in the acronym “ACES”: Autonomous, Connected, Electric, Shared.ACES – Autonomous, Connected, Electric, SharedThese four trends, together with the broader transition from “vehicle to miles,” also include newcomers “disrupting” the industry and changing it for good. Basically, every mobility player, traditional or new, is taking ACES (or CASE) into consideration at the moment.Autonomy: computers are taking over the task of driving from humans, first through advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and then at some point with complete self-driving. Following the levels of automation from zero to five, as defined by SAE International[1], the current market frontier is SAE Level 2, which means the vehicle can under certain situations (e.g. highway) drive itself but has to be monitored by the driver at all times. Many industry experts assume that artificial intelligence and computing power hold the key to higher levels of automation.Connectivity: vehicles are increasingly exchanging data with a central hub and with one another through cellular, WiFi, satellite, etc. At present, there are mostly entertainment and convenience offerings on the market, but maintenance and safety functionalities are emerging. One key differentiation between solutions is whether connectivity is “built-in” with embedded OEM solutions, “brought-in” (e.g. smartphone apps independent of vehicle or dashboard navigation systems), or “tethered” (e.g. smartphone used as communication gateway).Electrification: traditional mechanical and fossil-fuel-powered vehicle driveline components are increasingly being replaced by electrical components. The spectrum includes hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), plug-in HEV (PHEV), battery-based electric vehicles (EV), and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCV). The transition from traditional to electrified driveline technology requires more and more diverse electronics, such as more control systems, sensors and high-voltage systems. Ultimately though, the transition requires fewer systems, i.e. ignition, injection and multiple other systems being replaced by high-voltage power electronics and battery monitoring.Sharing: a growing number of consumers are seeking convenient access to mobility to get “from A to B” while viewing vehicle ownership as a burden rather than a benefit. Typical forms of this trend include car-sharing, ride-sharing, ride-hailing, micro-mobility, and micro-transit. Mobile computing enables much of the convenience that shared mobility offers, such as instant access, competitive and convenient payments, and flexible work opportunities (i.e. “gig economy”). Therefore, electronics, connectivity, and computing all play an important role in this trend.SEMI as the Natural Convener for Industry Exchange and ProgressClearly, for all four of the ACES trends, microelectronics play a crucial role in driving mobility innovation and making future solutions safe, efficient, and convenient. Based on this, mobility represents one of the largest opportunities for semiconductors: by 2025[2], a projected 14% of all integrated circuits produced globally will go into vehicles. As the trade association representing the complete microelectronics manufacturing and design supply chain, SEMI is positioned as a natural convener of experts for cross-industry and pre-competitive exchanges with the automotive supply chain. This positioning led to the foundation of the Smart Mobility initiative at SEMI, in part, to facilitate collaboration across these increasingly interdependent supply chains. The second part of this blog will present opportunities for electronics based on the ACES trends in the automotive industry, along with an overview of the Smart Mobility initiative.[1] © SAE International from SAE J3016™ Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to Driving Automation Systems for On-Road Motor Vehicles (2018-06-05), https://www.sae.org/standards/content/j3016_201806/ (retrieved 05/5/2020)[2] Source: IC InsightsMicroelectronics Power the Future of Mobility – Part 2: Opportunities for ElectronicsBettina Weiss is Chief of Staff and Global Smart Mobility Lead at SEMI. Sven Beiker is Smart Mobility Consultant at SEMI.

SkyWater Licenses Key FDSOI Technology From MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Moves Up Availability Of Its 90 Nm Strategic Rad-Hard By Process Offering. (press release, 11 June 2020) Transferring MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s proven 90 nm FDSOI process into SkyWater’s Trusted fab will enable accelerated delivery on a previously announced up to $170 million Department of Defense (DOD)-funded program at SkyWater to enhance microelectronics capabilities for the Department and develop a new 90 nm Strategic Rad-Hard by Process manufacturing flow.Green Hills Software Adds Support for the Heterogeneous NXP i.MX 8 Application Processors in Airborne Safety- and Security-Critical Systems (GHS press release, 19 May 2020). Per the release, “NXP i.MX 8 applications processors have several features that are useful for avionics, airborne mission computers, and cockpit displays. With four Cortex-A53 cores and two Cortex-A72 cores, the i.MX 8QuadMax enables power consumption optimization by matching the performance requirements of each application task to the performance capacities of the different cores. The low soft-error rate of i.MX 8 processors results from a robust 28 nm FDSOI manufacturing process, which has inherently high immunity to alpha particle flux and enables high MTBF. Along with many of NXP's product families, the i.MX 8 processors have a minimum of 10-15 years of product supply longevity.”IBM Power9: Digging Into the Architecture and Materials - 14 May 2020. EETimes article by Jeongdong Choe ofTechInsights. This article summarizes TechInsights' analysis of the IBM 14HP HKMG FinFET-on-SOI eDRAM cell architecture, process, and design recently used in the IBM Power9 processor, which is fabbed by GlobalFoundries. It includes a list of new GF innovations, especially in the areas of architecture, process, materials and design.A major advance in high-performance computing - Leti Press Release, 7 May 2020. ​CEA-Leti unveiled a state-of-the-art demonstrator chip for high-performance computing applications at ISSCC 2020. The low-cost, energy-efficient processor is built on an innovative multi-core system that is both modular and expandable. The 96-core demonstrator is arranged into six FDSOI chiplets 3D integrated onto the active 65 nm silicon interposer.Silicon Photonics: A Marriage of Optical and Digital on GF’s RF Process - GF's Foundry Files blog, May 07, 2020. GF and Ayar Labs collaborated on ways to optimize GF’s 45 RF SOI process for the optical structures and other functions. That technology, developed for the mmWave market, was modified to include photonic function and is now being used to build prototypes. RF SOI CMOS is an “enabling thing, because it allows us to build both transistors and optical devices in the same planar layer. And the SOI process enables extremely fast transistors, faster than most of the advanced nodes built today."Webcast interview with Maud Vinet (in French),Quantum hardware program manager at CEA-Leti - 6 May 2020. Maud Vinet was also a key driver in the research and development of FD-SOI, and was recently awarded the French Legion of Honor award.Dolphin Design Unveiling innovative Energy Efficient Platforms, complete turnkey solutions for competitive SoC designs - Dolphin Design announcement, 4 May 2020. The company is releasing 4 platforms in the coming weeks: SPEED Power Management, SPEED Processing MCU, SPEED ML/AI Processing and/or SPEED Audio.Silicon Catalyst Collaborates with Arm to Accelerate Semiconductor Startups - Silicon Catalyst press release, 29 April 2020.Arm joins as Strategic Partner and as In-Kind Partner - the first company to join the incubator in both roles. The partnership provides startups with no-cost access to a broad range of Arm® IP, tools and support.Mixel’s MIPI D-PHY IP Integrated into the Lattice CrossLink-NX FPGA - World’s first low-power FPGA to support D-PHY v1.2 with 2.5Gbps/lane. Mixel press release, 28 April 2020. The new CrossLink-NX FPGAs are built on Samsung’s 28nm FD-SOI technology.GlobalFoundries Dresden Certified to Manufacture Secure Products - GF Press release, 27 April 2020. The official BSI certification extends the ability to cost effectively manufacture secure, connected products to GlobalFoundries’ 22FDX (FD-SOI) technology.GlobalFoundries Qualifies Synopsys' IC Validator for Signoff Verification on 22FDX Platform - Synopsys press release, 16 April 2020. With IC Validator physical verification, customers striving to take advantage of the low-power and performance benefits of GF's FD-SOI technology can now quickly verify that their designs meet signoff requirements for manufacturability compliance and maximum yield. Signoff design rule check (DRC), design for manufacturability (DFM), layout vs schematic (LVS) and metal fill runsets and tech files are available today from GF.FDSOI and Migration - YouTube video by Thalia Design Automation, posted 14 April 2020. Founder/CTO Sowmyan Rajagopalan talks about why analog IP reuse is a big problem for semiconductor companies, who Thalia is and how they can help. RF SOI can Save $Billions in 5G mmWave Network Costs with Efficient PAs - cover story in Microwave Journal, 13 April 2020. Republished here in its entirety with permission. By GlobalFoundries, Mobile Experts Mixcomm. Compact Model Developed at CEA-Leti for FD-SOI Technologies Designated as a Chip-Industry Standard - Leti press release, 2 April 2020. This Is of Paramount Importance for Large Chipmakers And Positions CEA-Leti Among the Few Compact-Model Developer Teams Able to Develop and Support a Standard ModelLattice Semiconductor Joins Silicon Catalyst In-Kind Partner Ecosystem to Foster Broader Use of FPGAs - Silicon Catalyst press release, 2 April 2020.eNVM Technology Choices for Automotive, Industrial and Multi-market Solutions - Video posted April 2020 by GlobalFoundries and SemiWiki. Perceive Corporation Launches to Deliver Data Center-Class Accuracy and Performance at Ultra-Low Power for Consumer Devices - Perceive press release, 31 March 2020. Introduces breakthrough Ergo™️ edge inference processor, delivering 4+ TOPS sustainedand 55 TOPS/W, capable of processing large neural networks in 20mW. The company has partnered with the leading specialty foundry, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, to manufacture the Ergo chip on their 22FDX® platform.Photonic Solutions From Synopsys Support Advancements in Nanoscale Optics - Synopsys press release, 30 March 2020. This latest Photonic Solutions Portfolio accelerates design of AR/VR Systems, Optical Communications, and PICs. Additional details were given by Synopsys during the SOI Consortium's Japan Symposium.Casio Tips Its Hat to Renesas for Its Battery-Less, Solar-Powered Smartwatch. In All About Circuits, March 19, 2020. The GBD-H1000, a new member of Casio's G-SHOCK line of smartwatches, functions on harvested energy. It also features a heart rate monitor and GPS functionality. Casio says the new watch needs no battery since it can be completely solar powered. Casio Computer Co. chose the Renesas RE01 controller as the primary controller. Renesas’ RE01 Group products are extremely low-power devices based on SOTB (what Renesas calls their flavor of FD-SOI) process technology. (Note that Casio has been using FD-SOI based chips in their G-Shock watches since 2005.)Bluetooth IP migration and leveraging FDSOI back gate biasing feature - Thalia Design Automation blog, 16 March 2020. By Founder/CTO Sowmyan Rajagopalan. QuickLogic's eFPGA Qualified on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 22FDX® Platform for IoT and Edge AI Applications - QuickLogic press release, 11 March 2020.D R FDSOI IP SoC Day - Virtual IP Event - hosted by Design Reuse, 13 March 2020. View videos get presentations by SOI Consortium members ST, Soitec, Analog Bits, Dolphin Design, Leti and Thalia, as well as other industry experts.Analog FD-SOI : Body biasing techniques enable designers to trade speed and power - Thalia Design Automation blog, 9 March 2020. By Founder/CTO Sowmyan Rajagopalan. Soitec's engineered substrates for 5G - Soitec (press release, 4 March 2020)Working with GF: Why MixComm Chose GF's Industry Leading 45RFSOI Solution - GlobalFoundries, YouTube video posted 18 March 2020. TCAD Simulations of RF-SOI Switches with Trap-Rich Substrate - Silvaco, by Graham Bell, 2 March 2020. GlobalFoundries Delivers Industry’s First Production-ready eMRAM on 22FDX Platform for IoT and Automotive Applications - GlobalFoundries (press release, 27 February 2020)NXP Announces Availability of i.MX RT600 Crossover Family of Microcontrollers – NXP (press release 24 February 2020). The i.MX RT600 crossover microcontroller (MCU) family, an ideal solution for ultra-low power, secure edge applications including audio, voice and machine learning [...] manufactured [on Samsung’s] 28nm FD-SOI process, optimized for both active and leakage power.Presentation at ISSCC 2020 Shows Role FD-SOI Can Play in Embedding Qubit Arrays with Classic Electronics to Build Large-Scale Quantum Silicon Processors - Leti (press release, 18 February 2020)CEA-Leti Presents High-Performance Processor Breakthrough With Active Interposer and 3D Stacked Chiplets at ISSCC 2020 - from Design Re-use, 18 February 2020. The prototype's 96 computing cores are organized in six chiplets in 28nm FDSOI. Toshiba: Reduction of Loss by the Latest High-breakdown-voltage SOI Processes (website post, January 2020) and Toshiba Introduces Cutting-edge Generation SOI Process for RF Switches and Low-Noise Amplifier ICs for 5G Smartphones (Toshiba press release, 27 Feb. 2020) Mentor collaborates with Arm on unique eMRAM test solution using Samsung FDSOI technology (Mentor press release, 16 Dec. 2019) Lattice Announces New Low Power FPGA Platform - Lattice Nexus Platform on Samsung Foundry 28 nm FD-SOI Delivers Solution, Architecture and Circuit-Level Innovations to Enable Low Power Edge Applications - Lattice Semi press release, 10 December 2019. Clients Turn to the 22FDX® Platform for Next-Generation Automotive Radar - GlobalFoundries/Foundry Files Blog, Nov 07, 2019. By Mark Granger, VP Automotive Business Development.VeriSilicon Releases Most Advanced FD-SOI Design IP Platform on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 22FDX® for Edge AI and IoT Applications (press release, 24 October 2019) The IP Platform includes over 30 low-power, low-leakage and high-density memory compiler IPs and various key mixed signal IPs enabling VeriSilicon to provide a one-stop silicon design service to customers designing for AIoT with mature IPs to shorten custom design cycles and reduce R D costs. FD-SOI Body-Bias technology allows the user to adjust device threshold even after the silicon's been manufactured: it can enable dynamic tuning between High-Performance and Low-Power, and enhance the design flexibility without extra cost.Samsung-MOSIS Collaboration (MOSIS PR, Oct. 2019). USC Viterbi’s Information Sciences Institute and foundry business at Samsung Electronics announced a collaboration to design and fabricate integrated circuits through USC ISI’s The MOSIS Service using multi-project-wafer runs. The collaboration combines MOSIS’s industry-leading integrated circuit manufacturing expertise, with Samsung’s high-performance CMOS and FD-SOI fabrication technologies. It positions ISI and Samsung’s advanced technologies to lead a new era of high-performance microelectronic design and manufacturing for the U.S. and global integrated circuits community.sureCore PowerMiser Low Power SRAM IP Now on Samsung 28nm FDS Process Technology (Press Release, Oct. 16, 2019)Samsung Introduces Advanced Automotive Foundry Solutions Tailored to EMEA Market at Samsung Foundry Forum 2019 Munich - Samsung (press release, 10 October 2019)NXP Launches the GHz Microcontroller Era (press release, 2 Oct. '19). The NXP i.MX RT1170 family is built using advanced 28nm FD-SOI technology for lower active and static power requirements. It integrates a GHz Arm Cortex-M7 and power-efficient Cortex-M4, breaks the gigahertz barrier and accelerates advanced Machine Learning applications at the edge.The Fourth Annual FD-SOI Forum: MosChip stands out as the future of silicon solutions (MosChip PR, 22 Sept. 2019). MosChip has multiple SOC designs ongoing in multiple markets (IOT and Vision Processing) where FD-SOI technology is being adopted.Making New Memories: 22nm eMRAM is Ready to Displace eFlash - By Martin Mason, August 29, 2019, in GlobalFoundries' Foundry Files.Samsung Electronics’ Leadership in Advanced Foundry Technology Showcased with Latest Silicon Innovations and Ecosystem Platform - Samsung (press release, 15 May 2019)Samsung Electronics Starts Commercial Shipment of eMRAM Product Based on 28nm FD-SOI Process - Samsung (press release 6 March 2019)Soitec and Simgui Announce Enhanced Partnership and Increased Production Capacity of 200mm SOI Wafers in China, Securing Future Growth - Soitec (press release, 19 February 2019). Companies redefine their manufacturing and licensing relationship to better serve the growing global market for RF-SOI and Power-SOI productsRF SOI Shines for 5G Power Amps - by David Lammers for GlobalFoundries' Foundry Files, February 11, 2019.FD-SOI: How Body Bias Creates Unique Differentiation - by Manuel Sellier (Soitec), in GlobalFoundries' Foundry Files, October 17, 2018.