First suitable design support in analog 180nm CMOS technology
Provides a new “hitkit” design environment, high-density libraries, and enhanced transistor sets

ams (Korea Branch Representative Lee Jong-deok) announced a new version of its industrial benchmark process design kit (PDK).

The newly announced PDK is based on ams’s 180nm CMOS specialty process technology and is currently being manufactured at ams’s 200mm fab facility in Austria. The new PDK not only significantly enhances analog capabilities and device performance but also provides product developers with highly precise simulation models as a plug-and-play tool. Utilizing the first-ever fit design, this product supports the achievement of industry-required mission capabilities by continuously shortening development schedules.

ams’ “hitkit” design environment provides fully characterized passives, including 1.8V and 5.0V NMOS and PMOS devices (substrate-based, floating, low leakage, high threshold voltage options) and various capacitors. It includes an area-optimized high-density and low-power digital library with a gate density of up to 152 kGates/mm², an updated digital and analog I/O library with six metal layers, and an ESD protection cell with a maximum 8 kV HBM level.

It provides online memory generation services for OTP (One-Time Programmable) memory, RAM, and ROM, as well as complete configuration of Zero-Mask-Level-Adder EEPROM IP blocks (up to 8kbit).

A new hitkit based on Cadence®’s Virtuoso® Custom IC 6.1.6 supports design teams in significantly reducing time-to-market for highly competitive products in analog-intensive mixed-signal fields. Featuring high-precision simulation models as well as extraction and verification action sets for Calibre, Assura, and flexible SKILL-based PCells, this new hitkit provides a comprehensive design environment and a verified route for semiconductors. The 0.18 nm CMOS special process (“aC18”) is manufactured at ams’s state-of-the-art 200 mm fab facility in Austria, ensuring a very low defect rate and excellent yield.

"The implementation of aC18 technology in the manufacturing process at ams's Austrian fab has been a significant milestone," said Markus Wuchse, General Manager of ams's Full Service Foundry business unit. "Just as we have achieved with the 350nm process family in the past, with the announcement of the new hitkit, ams is now able to support foundry customers with rapid prototyping and high-quality production quantities of complex analog semiconductors in the 180nm process."

ams’s aC18 specialty process is ideally suited for sensors and sensor interface devices in various applications such as wearables, healthcare, home automation, smart cars, and Industry 4.0. This process enables the development of innovative solutions suitable for consumer electronics and industrial equipment for the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities. Prototype operation can begin immediately. Mass production is scheduled for July 2016.