Andes, Rockchip to Join FD-SOI Club

　　Design engineers living in Silicon Valley have long viewed fully-depleted silicon on insulator (FD-SOI) like the story of the boy who cried wolf. Its massive adoption is always around the corner but never really here — at least not in the Valley.

　　In contrast to conventional bulk CMOS technology that chip giants like Intel continue to use for each process node, FD-SOI is something “new” and “foreign” for many U.S. designers. The absence of an FD-SOI ecosystem was always a reason for the naysayers to dismiss the technology. They would certainly never gamble on it.

　　Nonetheless, FD-SOI has champions like NXP Semiconductors and STMicroelectronics in Europe. Earlier this year, NXP revealed plans to go all in with FD-SOI, starting with its lowest power general-purpose applications processors, called i.MX 7ULP.

　　Common thread: IoT

　　Meanwhile, new developments are unfolding in Asia, with Globalfoundries naming names among those embracing FD-SOI.

　　Companies fingered by Globalfoundries as its FD-SOI partners include Taiwan’s Andes Technology Corp., China’s RockChip, Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics Group and Hunan Goke Microelectronics. The common thread? None other than IoT chips.

　　In particular, Andes Technology’s decision to go with FD-SOI is significant.

　　Andes and Globalfoundries recently announced that Andes Technology's 32-bit CPU IP cores have been implemented on GF's 22nm FD-SOI (22FDX) technology. GF's 22FDX offers “the optimum combination of performance, power consumption and cost for IoT, mainstream mobile, RF connectivity and networking applications,” according to the foundry.

　　In an interview with EE Times, Frankwell Lin, president of Andes Technology, said, FD-SOI “will benefit from our promotion in ultra-low power application such as IoT, mobile, low power 5G, battery-backed consumer electronics and more.”

　　Andes, aided by a minority investment from MediaTek, focuses on the embedded market, with its CPU licensees finding enough niches to get around ARM’s stranglehold. Andes CPU cores apply to touch-panel controllers, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, GPS controllers, and now sensor hubs targeted at the IoT segment. Incidentally, MediaTek, which is shifting toward IoT chips, is also a licensee of Andes’ IP.

　　Lin told us that FD-SOI “coincidentally fits Andes Technology’s product development direction.” He said, “Our cores focused on low power and high efficiency have been widely adopted to wireless connectivity fields such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth, BT audio, IoT.”

　　For example, Andes has been addressing connectivity applications with N9 and N13. Additionally, N10/D10 has been used for image processing. Andes’ N7, N8, N9, N10 have been applied to various IoT devices including wearables, smart sensors, Lin said.

　　“Now with our next generation new cores N25 (32bit), NX25 (64bit) supporting RISC-V, together with Globalfoundries, we will bring more benefit to worldwide customers,” he said.

　　How so Lin said, “In consumer electronics, FD-SOI can provide a wide range of performance and power consumption options using body bias. This is particularly true for battery-powered devices.” He said the same applies to touch-panel controllers, because “while a touch controller has a very short duty cycle, it requires significant computing power when it is active doing multi-finger gestures. It also requires very low-power consumption most of the time due to the nature of the end devices.”

　　Lin concluded: “It happens that the end market for FD-SOI aligns to our product line pretty well. A lot of our lower to mid-end IPs are already adopted in this market including N7, N8 and N9. We’ll see more adoption of Andes cores in the FD-SOI process in the very near future.”

　　Globalfoundries bets on China

　　Meanwhile, Globalfoundries, whose growth plan depends on China, unveiled last week three Chinese customers adopting its new 22FDX technology.

　　Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics Group will adopt the 22FDX platform to design and develop highly reliable servers, AI and smart IoT intelligent products in 2018, according to Globalfoundries. Rockchip will use 22FDX to design ultra-low power WiFi smart hardware SoC and high-performance AI processers. Hunan Goke Microelectronics is planning to adopt 22FDX in its next generation of IoT chips.

　　As previously reported, Globalfoundries is building an advanced 300mm semiconductor fab in Chengdu. Construction is said to be on track for completion in early 2018.

　　Soitec to quadruple FD-SOI wafer production

　　Separately, Soitec, a leading supplier of SOI and FD-SOI wafers, recently updated its capital expenditure plan to invest 40 million euros (about $46.5 million) — spread between fiscal years 2018 and 2019 — so it can quadruple FD-SOI production to 400,000 FD-SOI wafers (300mm) per year.

　　In September, Soitec announced plans to launch a pilot production line for FD-SOI wafers in its Singapore fab. Describing its decision as based on “direct customer demand,” the French company called the move “the first stage in beginning FD-SOI production in Singapore and providing multi-site FD-SOI substrate sourcing to the global semiconductor market in order to address long-term demand for FD-SOI wafers.”

　　Soitec also announced a five-year agreement with Globalfoundries to ensure the volume supply of state-of-the-art fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) wafers.

　　eMRAM, RF options for FD-SOI

　　FD-SOI proponents see its ecosystem building steadily and solidly, while the technology adds more options.

　　Globalfoundries and Samsung are both working to integrate more options to enable the combination of data processing (FD-SOI) with connectivity (RF option) and memory (eMRAM function) on a single FD-SOI-based chip.

　　More specifically, Globalfoundries is making available its radio frequency/analog PDK for next-generation wireless and IoT chipsets. It is offering its mmWave PDK for emerging high-volume applications such as 5G, automotive radar, WiGig, SatComm and wireless backhaul. Globalfoundries also said eMRAM technology is available on its 22nm FD-SOI platform, offering an embedded memory solution for broad consumer and industrial applications.

　　Samsung Electronics also announced derivatives that include RF and eMRAM, taped out its first eMRAM test chip based on 28FDS process technology. So far, Samsung has taped out more than 40 products based on the FD-SOI process for various customers in connection with applications dedicated to IT networks and servers, consumer goods, IoT and automotive.