Cypress Semiconductor and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) have produced working silicon on a new 65nm SONOS (silicon oxide nitride oxide silicon) technology for embedded flash memory, the companies jointly announced on July 27.
Dubbed S65, the new process offers major advantages including high endurance, low power, and resistance to soft errors. It only requires three additional mask layers to a standard CMOS process, as compared to 7-12 additional masks for other embedded flash technology approaches.
The S65 process also offers intrinsically high yields and low test costs. Using Cypress products as a reference, the new process is expected to provide a 75% reduction in array size and 50% power reduction compared to products manufactured on the current 130nm S8 process, according to the joint statement.
UMC will manufacture next-generation PSoC (programmable system-on-chip) products for Cypress on the S65 process, along with NVSRAM and other products, the companies revealed. UMC will also make the technology available to other companies under a licensing agreement with Cypress.
The S65 is now integrated into UMC's standard LL65 process. Existing or new designs using the LL65 process can now easily add embedded flash memory with fast time-to-market, low development cost and minimum design disturbance to other IP.
The UMC S65 process is scheduled for availability to foundry customers in the third quarter of 2011, according to the companies.
Article translated by Jessie Shen
