KeyFoundry (CEO Taejong Lee), Korea's only pure foundry semiconductor company, is collaborating with Above Semiconductor on the production of automotive semiconductors.


Keyfoundry announced on the 16th that it will provide Above Semiconductor with a 0.13 micron BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) process with second-generation flash memory suitable for automotive power semiconductors.

Power semiconductors are semiconductors that convert, distribute, and control the power supplied from a power source to fit the systems of various devices such as TVs, lights, laptops, and smartphones.

Recently, power components are increasingly used in applications related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and autonomous vehicles, and the demand for power semiconductors continues to increase, making their role increasingly important.

To manufacture these power semiconductors, BCD process technology is required, which implements a bipolar process for analog signal control, a CMOS process for digital signal control, and a DMOS process for high power management on a single chip.

Keyfoundry has been producing a variety of power semiconductors, from low-voltage products below 40 V to high-voltage products of 200 V, using its own developed BCD process.

Through continuous technological development, Keyfoundry has secured best-in-class BCD characteristics such as high BV (breakdown voltage), low on-resistance, and low switching loss.

Also, self-developed DTI (Deep Trench Isolation) It is receiving a good response in the market by improving the performance of power semiconductors by minimizing interference generated in high-voltage products through the process.

Keyfoundry's second-generation 0.13 micron BCD process with embedded flash memory offers 1.5 V high-density logic, 8-40 V power LDMOS, and 64 Kbyte embedded flash memory. Notably, all components have achieved Grade 1 qualification under AEC-Q100, the automotive electronics reliability standard.

Above Semiconductor has developed a vehicle-use UFC (Universal Fast Charger) MCU product using KeyFoundry's second-generation flash memory-embedded 0.13 micron BCD process.

This product incorporates power LDMOS devices and high-density flash memory, and supports USB PD (Power Delivery) 3.0 and Legacy fast charging.

This is the first automotive semiconductor product using KeyFoundry's second-generation flash memory embedded 0.13 micron BCD process, and KeyFoundry expects that this process will be expanded to produce various types of automotive power semiconductors, such as motor driver ICs, BMS (Battery Management System), DC-DC ICs, and wireless charging ICs in the future.

“We are honored to be able to utilize Keyfoundry’s 0.13 micron BCD process to develop automotive products,” said Won Choi, CEO of Above Semiconductor. “Above Semiconductor is actively promoting automotive MCU products starting this year, in addition to its flagship home appliance MCUs.” “We expect to expand our presence in the automotive MCU market, which has been dominated by overseas companies, in the mid- to long-term, and we plan to continue to cooperate with key foundries to accelerate the development of general-purpose automotive MCUs,” he said.

“With the automotive semiconductor market growing rapidly, we are pleased to offer a 0.13 micron BCD process with second-generation flash memory embedded, which is suitable for automotive power semiconductors,” said Lee Tae-jong, CEO of Keyfoundry. “Keyfoundry will continue to provide foundry services that enable the design of various products, and based on this, we plan to continuously increase the proportion of automotive semiconductor products.”