TPSCO HIGHLIGHTS
TPSCo—Production and Technology Updates
Guy Eristoff, TPSCo CEO
2016 is the year that TPSCo truly “breaks out” and establishes itself as a fully operational International Specialty Foundry.
We are full of promise for increased business, excitement and challenges. Our market acceptance and associated production ramp is currently proceeding very well. Production volume has increased by approximately 65% as compared to the start of TPSCo’s establishment. We have many more contracts with new 3rd party customers than we forecasted two years ago.
Our major areas of focus include RFSOI and RFCMOS in 300mm 65nm, Low Rdson scalable BCDmos Power Management and Trenchmos discrete in 200mm and CIS at both 300mm and 200mm to include Global Shutter and high sensitivity NIR sensors for Automotive and Industrial applications.
Overview of TPSCo’s Three Fabs
At our 300mm Uozu fab, we are utilizing cutting edge technologies and process techniques from 28nm and above to develop best in world Ron x Coff RFSOI of > 90fs, 110GHz characterized RFCMOS, and world leading imaging products. At our 200mm Cu fab, (Arai), we are introducing customer-customized processes as well as finishing up 110nm Global Shutter. At the large capacity 200mm Tonami fab, we are producing many customized products for our fab-light and IDM customers. Our 0.18um BCDmos process (known as TS18PM), all reliability data is completed in January, and we are already delivering many proto products to lead customers. The number of Active Foundry customer engagements has surpassed 100 in Q4 2015, and number of Customer Production Masksets doubled in the second half of this year alone.
CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) Offering
TPSCo has provided many CIS products with extremely high quality pixels in a very wide range of end market applications such as surveillance, automotive, Digital Still Camera, Industrial, and Medical. For customers who require high dynamic range sensors, we offer configurable pixels capable of enhanced full well capacity while displaying minimal blooming. NIR sensors for the security sector are currently a growing market. TPSCo currently provides pixels with 20% QE at 850nm and low cross-talk characteristics with a 110nm CIS process, and will provide our customers with >25% QE pixels with a 65nm CIS process by mid-2016. A 6T global-shutter pixel with superior low noise characteristics for industrial applications will also be qualified and available to our customers in mid-2016.
RFSOI/RFCMOS Technology
As announced in a press release on 2 September last year, TPSCo has achieved a world leading Ron x Coff performance of ~90 femtoseconds for RFSOI, and a 2.5V RF switch process design kit (PDK) has been released. In Q2 2016 we plan to release a dual gate 1.2V/2.5V PDK for integrated RF front-end solutions. We have also released a mm-wave PDK for our 65nm RFCMOS technology PDK supporting Inductor Tool Box with 3.3um thick metal, Transmission Line, and 2.5 fF/um2 MIM that is modeled up to a working frequency of 110GHz.
Power Management Platform
A low Rdson, low mask count high voltage 0.18um scalable BCDmos technology was transferred from the TowerJazz to TPSCo in 2014/2015. A large amount of prototyping and some initial volume production has already started. High volume production has begun in Q4 2015. The Main process has 2 flavors, a non-isolated Epi process for medium voltages and a fully isolated NBL / inline Epi version for higher voltage operations and negative voltage applications such as LED drivers and high side drivers. The PDK is identical to the TowerJazz PDK and offers a rich suite of features. This process provides business community for our customers as the same processes can be run at TowerJazz fabs on 2 continents. This process currently available for industrial and commercial applications, but will be automotive qualified in TPSCo by Q2/2016.
We are also introducing the TS18SL, which is tuned for logic applications, as well as the TS16SL, which is a 10% shrink of the TS18SL process. Additionally, we introduced TS18HV with an 18V HVCMOS device and core Tr of 1.8V or 3.3V in a dual gate platform for high voltage source driver applications. In this year, we will introduce an enhanced 0.18um Power Process with lower Rdson Ldmos devices.
Quality Status
TPSCo is committed to provide exceptional quality, an environment with high IP security, and total customer satisfaction through our focused production activity. TPSCo has developed a robust manufacturing process based around ISO 9001 and ISO/TS 16949 quality and automotive management systems, and 35 years of continuous automotive electronic device production. Additionally we maintain a secure manufacturing environment for our customers who manufacture cryptographic and e-money devices in accordance with ISO 27001 & IEC 15408.
Technical Global Symposium
TPSCo cohosted the TowerJazz Technical Global Symposium (TGS) 2015 in Korea, Japan and the US At each location we had the opportunity to introduce our advanced technology solutions and manufacturing excellence metrics to many customers and potential customers. Through hosting this symposium we learned that our customers have high expectations for our future growth. We are determined to make an effort to meet these expectations and requirements in order to delight our foundry customers. TPSCo is transforming into a solid international semiconductor foundry that strives to maximize customer value. We will do our best to live up to your expectations!