United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) has approved the SONOS (Silicon Oxide Nitride Oxide Silicon) embedded Flash memory intellectual property (IP) for the 55nm process technology node from Cypress. SONOS delivers an easy-to-integrate nonvolatile memory cell with unmatched scalability for future development. The primary applications include wearables, Internet of Things (IoT) applications, microcontrollers, and logic-dominated products.

Cypress' 55nm SONOS embedded nonvolatile memory (NVM) process provides significant advantages over other embedded NVM offerings. SONOS requires fewer additional mask layers to insert it into a standard CMOS process, specifically, three to four additional masks compared with the 11 to 12 additional masks generally needed for other embedded Flash technologies. SONOS does not alter standard device characteristics or models when added to baseline CMOS process, preserving existing design IP. SONOS delivers intrinsically high yields and reliability, 10 years of data retention, 100,000 program/erase endurance cycles, and robust resistance to soft errors.

UMC qualified Cypress' S65 65nm SONOS process technology back in 2013. Cypress and UMC have demonstrated the ability to scale SONOS to smaller nodes, expediting future IP development.

"With support from our semiconductor IP ecosystem partners, UMC plans to establish more value-added technology platforms to serve future low power, highly integrated IC designs, such as IoT and wearables," said S.C. Chien, VP of Specialty Technology Development at UMC. "Based on UMC's previous success for speciality processes such as RF, BCD, HV, CIS, and eFlash technologies, we plan to leverage Cypress's easily integrated nonvolatile memory IP at 55nm to fulfil different application requirements for nonvolatile memory IP specifications."

By: DocMemory
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