Today Globalfoundries launched its 12nm FD-SOI semiconductor technology, called 12FDX, offering the industry’s first multi-node FD-SOI roadmap.

“In a world where everyone is going to Finfet, FD-SOI is the alternative offering equivalent performance with lower-power and cost,” Rutger Wijburg, svp and general manager of GloFo’s Fab 1 at Dresden, told EW.

GLoFo’s Dresden fab is the company’s lead fab for FD-SOI development and production.

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“Our 12nm FD-SOI process delivers the same performance as 14/16nm Finfet and with back bias it is equivalent to 10nm Finfet”, added Wijburg.

The process development is six months ahead of schedule and the 12nm process is slated for production in early 2019.

Wijburg reckons FD-SOI will be necessary for 5G. “You can’t get to the higher RF frequencies with Finfet,” he said, “FD-SOI is best for high frequencies.”

The 12nm process can be achieved without triple or quadruple patterning. It uses double patterning and 40% fewer masks than Finfet.

The process can integrate RF, analogue, embedded memory, and advanced logic on a chip.

The technology also provides the industry’s widest range of dynamic voltage scaling and unmatched design flexibility via software-controlled transistors—capable of delivering peak performance when and where it is needed, while balancing static and dynamic power for the ultimate in energy efficiency.

“Some applications require the unsurpassed performance of Finfet transistors, but the vast majority of connected devices need high levels of integration and more flexibility for performance and power consumption, at costs FinFET cannot achieve,” says GloFo CEO Sanjay Jha, “our 22FDX and 12FDX technologies fill a gap in the industry’s roadmap by providing an alternative path for the next generation of connected intelligent systems. And with our FDX platforms, the cost of design is significantly lower, reopening the door for advanced node migration and spurring increased innovation across the ecosystem.”

The platform offers a full node of scaling benefit, delivering a 15 percent performance boost over today’s FinFET technologies and as much as 50% lower power consumption.

“Chip manufacturing is no longer one-shrink-fits-all. While Finfet is the technology of choice for the highest-performance products, the industry roadmap is less clear for many cost-sensitive mobile and IoT products, which require the lowest possible power while still delivering adequate clock speeds,” said Linley Gwennap, founder and principal analyst of the Linley Group. “GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 22FDX and 12FDX technologies are well positioned to fill this gap by offering an alternative migration path for advanced node designs, particularly those seeking to reduce power without increasing die cost. Today, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is the only purveyor of FD-SOI at 22nm and below, giving it a clear differentiation.”

GLoFo’s Dresden Fab 1 is currently putting the conditions in place to enable the site’s 12FDX development activities and subsequent manufacturing. Customer product tape-outs are expected to begin in the first half of 2019.

“12FDX development will deliver another breakthrough in power, performance, and intelligent scaling as 12nm is best for double patterning and delivers best system performance and power at the lowest process complexity,” said Marie Semeria, CEO of Leti, “wwe are pleased to see the results of the collaboration between the Leti teams and GLOBALFOUNDRIES in the U.S. and Germany extending the roadmap for FD-SOI technology, which will become the best platform for full system on chip integration of connected devices.”

GloFo has 50 customers engaged on 22nm FD-SOI projects. Wafers are running at Dresden and yields are good, said Wijburg.

The company has no current plans to share the 22nm or 12nm processes with Samsung and ST which are running 28nm FD-SOI processes.

GloFo has announced a new partner program, called FDXcelerator, an ecosystem designed to facilitate 22FDX system-on-chip (SoC) design and reduce time-to-market for its customers.

Together with GLoFo’s and FDXcelerator Partner solutions, customers will be able to build innovative 22FDX SoC solutions as well as ease migration to FD-SOI from bulk nodes such as 40nm and 28nm. Initial FDXcelerator Partners have committed a set of key offerings to the program, including:

• tools (EDA) that complement industry leading design flows by adding specific modules to easily leverage FDSOI body-bias differentiated features,

• a comprehensive library of design elements (IP), including foundation IP, interfaces and complex IP to enable foundry customers to start their designs from validated IP elements,

• platforms (ASIC), which allow a customer to build an complete ASIC offering on 22FDX,

• reference solutions (reference designs, system IP), whereby the Partner brings system level expertise in Emerging application areas, enabling customers to speed-up time to market,

• resources (design consultation, services), whereby Partners have trained dedicated resources to support 22FDX technology, and;

• product packaging and test (OSAT) solutions.

The FDXcelerator Partner Program creates an open framework to allow selected Partners to integrate their products or services into a validated, plug and play catalog of design solutions.

This level of integration allows customers to create high performance designs while minimising development costs through access to a broad set of quality offerings, specific to 22FDX technology.