180nm process family now online at ams OSRAM wafer fab in Central Europe

Were you aware that ams OSRAM offers foundry manufacture and support services on advanced analog and mixed-signal technologies – built on three decades of expertise? We now add our advanced 180nm CMOS process technology to our Full-Service-Foundry offerings. This is the latest step in our efforts to offer a state-of-the-art one-stop-shop for turn-key high-performance analog/mixed signal IC solutions. Beyond wafer fabrication and process customization, we also offer: Design & engineering support, IP cells, packaging and IC integration, wafer probing and final test.

The new C18 180nm CMOS specialty technology, which will be manufactured in ams OSRAM’s 200mm fabrication facility in Austria, is ideally suited for sensors and sensor interface devices in an ever-growing variety of applications – in industrial, medical, and automotive, as well as consumer markets. The process will also be qualified for automotive or medical applications. Designs can begin immediately. Volume production release on C18 180nm technology is scheduled for the upcoming quarter. This is based on industry-standard technology from one of the world's leading semiconductor contract manufacturers, ensuring second-source capability with 100% electrical compatibility.
 

A high-performance process for analog and mixed-signal devices

The introduction of the C18 180nm CMOS process technology offers customers additional analog and mixed-signal device manufacturing options: 

• Low-leakage/high-density digital library 
• Extended analog wafer acceptance data (WAT) parameters
• Extensive set of high-quality devices:
• 1.8V/3.3V with 1.8V/5.0V planned for introduction 
• Dual-gate oxide and triple-well options
• From three to six metal layers
• Native, isolated CMOS transistors
• NPN and PNP bipolar transistors
• Single MIM (2fF/µm2) 
• Several resistor types: poly, 1k high-resolution poly, precision poly
• One-time-programmable (OTP) memory

The process also supports advanced ams OSRAM production technologies such as optical coating – which may be used to implement on-wafer optical filters – and through-silicon vias (TSVs) for optimized routing of sensitive or critical signals. We aim to make the process easy and seamless. The C18 180nm CMOS process is backed by a rich set of tools, resources and services. Our Process Development Kit (PDK) provides chip designers with a plug-and-play toolset for C18 implementations. It offers improved analog and mixed-signal features and device performance as well as highly accurate simulation models. Crucially, it facilitates the development of right-first-time designs, helping customers to deliver fast with ever shorter product development schedules.

Design productivity is enhanced by the latest version of the hitkit design environment. This comes with 1.8V and 3.3V NMOS and PMOS devices (substrate based, floating, low-leakage and high-threshold voltage options) and fully characterized passives including various capacitors. Area-optimized high-density and low-power digital libraries support gate densities up to 125k gates/mm2. 

Updated digital and analog I/O libraries with up to six metal layers as well as ESD protection cells rated for up to 4kV (human body model) are included. A memory generation service for RAMs and ROMs, as well as zero-mask-level-adder EEPROM IP blocks, complete the offering. 

“Based on the Virtuoso® Custom IC Technology from Cadence, the new hitkit helps design teams to reduce time-to-market. Offering highly accurate simulation models for Spectre Simulation Platform, extraction for Quantus and verification run sets for both Calibre and PVS/Pegasus, and flexible SKILL-based PCells, the new hitkit provides a comprehensive design environment and a proven route to silicon.”
 

Multiple ways to take advantage of C18

The C18 180nm CMOS process technology in place in ams OSRAM’s Austrian fab/manufacturing facility is available to all customers and will be used for different products, ranging from customer designs produced by our foundry service to application-specific products and open-market products. Foundry customers will use the C18 process technology for the fabrication of their advanced device designs, especially for high-performance mixed-signal products.

The foundry’s core wafer-fabrication service can be supplemented with a range of other services to speed time-to-market and offload engineering development. The ams OSRAM foundry can perform device assembly, specialty engineering development, testing, and device qualification.  The addition of this process to our portfolio also enables the company to create state-of-the-art mixed-signal devices for our ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) customers, giving them a competitive edge. Delivering a one-stop-shop service, ams OSRAM makes it easy for ASIC customers to stay ahead of their competition.
Finally, ams OSRAM will also use this process and its capabilities for open-market standard products, in which its advantages will be a key ingredient in many applications.
 

C18 status

The start of prototyping and production runs on the C18 line is possible at any time. Regular multi-product wafer (MPW) prototyping services on the C18 line will start in November 2023. 
In addition to the 1.8V / 3.3 V variant of the process, there will be a 1.8V / 5.0V version released in 2024. A BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) based high-voltage version up to 70V will follow thereafter.