Sarnoff Claims Technology Shrinks
Die Size, I/O, ESD
Our Friend
Koen Verhaege has been busy "over there"
click
here for Sarnoff Data Sheets
Sarnoff
Corp., the company that pioneered CMOS process technology, unveiled
its TakeCharge! technology for IC design.
Sarnoff claims the technology reduces die size, which allows for more
dies to be placed on a silicon wafer.
Princeton, N.J.-based Sarnoff claims the technology will allow semiconductor
manufacturers to realize revenue increases of hundreds of dollars per
wafer. Sarnoff is licensing the technology through its Gistel, Belgium-based
subsidiary Sarnoff Europe. Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp. and Seoul, South
Korea-based Hynix Semiconductor Inc. have already licensed the technology,
Sarnoff said.
"TakeCharge! typically allows $100
in extra parts to be placed on a wafer, and often several times that
figure, with no additional masks or process line changes," said
Koen G. Verhaege, technical director of device design at Sarnoff, and
executive director of Sarnoff Europe. "We've found a way to shrink
an area of the IC chip, the I/O and ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection
area, that's been stuck at the same size for years. We reduce it at
least 30 percent, while improving device performance."
Sarnoff's TakeCharge! technology has been
proven at 0.25-, 0.18-, and 0.13-micron CMOS and is being customized
in 0.35- and 0.11-micron processes, the company said.
The core functional areas of ICs have shrunk over the years, Verhaege
said; however, the I/O and ESD segments surrounding the chip cores have
not gotten smaller because the threat of ESD damage to the cores has
been the same.
"TakeCharge! solves that problem through
fundamental changes in three ESD technology areas: device design, circuit
design and circuit layout," Verhaege said in a statement. "Sarnoff's
decades of experience in ESD and I/O design produced a whole new approach
that increases ESD performance by 30 percent to 60 percent while achieving
the 30 percent cut in the silicon area needed for driver and ESD transistors.
The result is a significant reduction in overall die size."
Sarnoff said the technology has been proven to protect against repeated
8KV discharges for up to 10,000 repetitions with no failures. The TakeCharge!
technology is available now for licensing.
