austriamicrosystems' Design for Manufacturability (DFM) / Design for Yield (DFY) Services Boost Yield of Your High-Performance Analog Products


First foundry worldwide offering comprehensive DMY/DFM reference design flow for its specialty technologies

Unterpremstaetten, Austria (October 11, 2006) - austriamicrosystems' business unit Full Service Foundry announced today at the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) Supplier Expo in San Jose the availability of its comprehensive DFM/DFY reference design flow for its advanced CMOS, High Voltage CMOS, High Voltage Embedded Flash and SiGe- BiCMOS process technologies.

austriamicrosystems' analog specialty processes are a new generation of advanced analog and mixed-signal technologies, ideally suited for a wide variety of applications such as WLAN, ZigBee and Bluetooth applications, GPS receivers, power management, motor control, printer head drivers, DC/DC converters, switched power supplies, LCD drivers and backlight controllers.

Design for Manufacturing/Design for Yield (DFM/DFY) is a highly demanded necessity in order to ensure fast yield rampup and stable volume production. In addition to the support of simulation based parametric yield optimization, austriamicrosystems' DFM reference design flow also includes layout-related analog DFM utilities such as advanced antenna rule checks, fill pattern generation utilities and a DFM layout check utility. The verification routines are based on analog DFM rules defined on top of the standard design rules and are tailored to the needs of austriamicrosystems specialty processes. In addition to the standard DFM utility set for CMOS technologies, special high-voltage extensions including parasitic modeling, Safe Operating Area Check (SOAC) and leakage verification routines are available. Finally, as an additional service, austriamicrosystems offers full design support including analog High-Voltage CMOS design guidelines and DFM design reviews to its foundry customers.

"Offering high performance analog DFM/DFY utilities for all our advanced process technologies is a further step in the continuous improvement of austriamicrosystems' DFM/DFY reference design flow", said Peter Gasteiner, Senior Vice President and General Manager of austriamicrosystems' business unit Full Service Foundry. "Our DFM/DFY utilities support our customers to achieve fantastic production yield for their highly complex analog circuits at levels only possible for pure digital designs in the past. This is a clear advantage and strengthens our position as a leading supplier of specialty process technologies and extended foundry services."

austriamicrosystems' benchmark process design kit "HIT-Kit" fully integrates all the mentioned DFM features and ensures optimization towards yield and robustness of the design during the whole design process. It comes complete with fully silicon qualified standard cells, periphery cells and general purpose analog cells such as comparators, operational amplifiers, low power A/D and D/A converters. Custom analog and RF devices, physical verification rule sets for Assura and Calibre as well as excellent characterized circuit simulation models enable rapid design starts of complex high
performance mixed-signal ICs.

About austriamicrosystems
austriamicrosystems' business unit Full Service Foundry has successfully positioned itself in the mixed-signal foundry market offering well-established RF CMOS, High-Voltage CMOS, BiCMOS and SiGe-BiCMOS processes. With superior support during the design phase, high-end tools and experienced engineers, austriamicrosystems succeeds to be an attractive analog/mixed-signal foundry partner especially for fabless design houses. austriamicrosystems is a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance analog ICs, combining more than 25 years of analog design capabilities and system know-how with its own state-of-the-art manufacturing and test facilities.

austriamicrosystems leverages its expertise in low power and high accuracy to provide industry-leading customized and standard analog products. Operating worldwide with more than 950 employees, austriamicrosystems focuses on the areas of power management, sensors & sensor interfaces, portable audio and car access in its markets Communications, Industry & Medical and Automotive, complemented by its Full Service Foundry activities. austriamicrosystems is listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange in Zurich (ticker symbol: AMS). For more information visit www.austriamicrosystems.com

For information contact
austriamicrosystems AG
Media Relations
Sonja Pieber-Hascher
Tel: +43 (0) 3136 500 5968
Fax: +43 (0) 3136 500 5420
press@austriamicrosystems.com
www.austriamicrosystems.com

All Topics