At the recent DATE Conference in Grenoble (DATE is like DAC, but in Europe, alternating yearly between Grenoble and Dresden), STMicroelectronics, CEA-Leti & Mentor Graphics joined forces for a FD-SOI presentation organized by CMP and sponsored by Mentor. Here are some of the highlights (the complete presentations are all available from the CMP website). FD-SOI: …

Two important FD-SOI wins for STMicroelectronics have just been announced: The EETimes ACE Award for Energy Technology; Customers. The Energy Technology Award was presented at a ceremony for the 2013 Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards. It is given by EETimes and EDN, two of the most prominent trade-media sources in electronics. The ACE Awards …

Fully-depleted transistor technologies, both planar and fin-type, are now in the mainstream for product designs. One of the many interesting topics in the new 3D FinFET technology is the approach to isolation. In this article, key elements that differentiate junction-isolated (bulk) and dielectric-isolated (SOI) FinFET transistors are discussed, encompassing aspects of process integration, device design, …

Hearing the news that GlobalFoundries would be offering two flavors of FD-SOI, ASN asked the company to explain the strategy further. Here are the responses provided by Subi Kengeri, Vice President of Advanced Technology Architecture. What do you see as the FD-SOI benefits for chip designers? Lower SRAM Vmin for retention and lower operating Vmin …

You saw the video of the STMicroelectronics demo at the recent CES in Las Vegas – the one of the ST-Ericsson 28nm FD-SOI NovaThor L8580, right? It’s billed as a 2.5GHz chip – an industry best, but the video showed it clocking at 2.8GHz. Well now the ST-E & ST folks are saying they can …

The YouTube video Introduction to FD-SOI by STMicroelectronics and ST-Ericsson has generated enormous coverage in the press as well as in-depth discussions across various user groups in LinkedIn.  In its first two weeks, it had over 3000 YouTube views, and LinkedIn postings of it generated over 50 Likes and Comments in a single group. As …

Just Posted: FD-SOI video & white paper. Just as this blog was going online, ST-Ericsson posted an excellent, in-depth white paper; and in partnership with STMicroelectroics, a YouTube video detailing the how’s and why’s of FD-SOI.Here are the links — you really don’t want to miss these: • Multiprocessing in Mobile Platforms: the Marketing and …

What a great start to 2013: at CES in Las Vegas, ST-Ericsson announced the NovaThor™ L8580 ModAp, “the world’s fastest and lowest-power integrated LTE smartphone platform.” This is the one that’s on STMicroelectronics’ 28nm FD-SOI, with sampling set for Q1 2013. And it’s a game changer – for users, for designers, for foundries, and for …

STMicroeletronics announced its 28nm FD-SOI Technology is ready for manufacturing in its leading-edge Crolles fab.  At the SOI Consortium FD Symposium,  ST presented silicon-verified process technology that delivers 30% higher speed and up to 50% improvement in power.  ST’s FD-SOI Technology Platform encompasses the availability of a feature-complete and silicon-verified Design Platform, including the full …

The SOI Industry Consortium is actively engaged in supporting the industry’s transition to fully-depleted (FD) technologies. FD technologies offer: better electrostatics, so you’ve got stronger gate control; and lower channel doping, which enables better SRAMs that can operate stably at lower supply voltages – resulting in power savings of up to 40%. There are two …