On January 15th local time, Silicon Storage Technology (SST), a subsidiary of Microchip, and UMC, a semiconductor foundry, announced that they have completed the SST embedded SuperFlash ® The Gen 4 (ESF4) is fully certified and has been put into production on UMC's 28HPC+OEM process platform. The product has complete automotive grade level 1 (AG1) performance.
SST has collaborated closely with UMC to develop ESF4, aimed at providing enhanced embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) performance and reliability for automotive controllers, while significantly reducing the additional masking steps required compared to other foundries' 28nm high k/metal gate stack (HKMG) eFlash products, thereby bringing cost advantages and higher manufacturing efficiency to customers.
We encourage customers who are currently using the 40nm ESF3 AG1 platform from our OEM factory to explore the UMC 28nm ESF4 AG1 platform as they seek to expand to the next process node.
Mark Reiten, Vice President of Microchip's Authorization Business Unit, stated, "With the growing demand in the automotive industry, developers need solutions that can improve efficiency, accelerate product launch, and meet strict industry standards. To meet these demands, UMC and SST have jointly launched a powerful 28nm AG1 solution, which is now ready for production of customer designs. UMC has always been an important partner for SST and SuperFlash innovation, and the two companies will continue to work together to respond to rapidly changing market demands and provide technologically and economically leading products. ”
Xu Zhiqiang, Vice President of Development at UMC Technology, said, "With the rapid development of the automotive industry towards interconnectivity, autonomous driving, and shared cars, the demand for high reliability data storage and large capacity data updates continues to grow. This has driven customers' demand for SuperFlash to expand to 28nm processes. Through close collaboration with SST, we have successfully launched the ESF4 solution, which has been fully integrated into the widely used 28HPC+platform. This enables our customers to leverage the rich models and IPs in our product portfolio to meet the needs of key markets, while expanding to more advanced process nodes。
The key performance and reliability indicators of SuperFlash on the UMC 28HPC+ESF4 AG1 platform include:
The Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) Q-100 Level 1 certification is applicable to a temperature range of -40 ° C to+150 ° C (T j)
•Read access time<12.5ns
•100000+endurance cycles
•Data can be stored for more than 10 years at 125 ° C
•Only 1 ECC is required
•Qualification authentication of 32Mb macro under automatic level 1 conditions:
• Zero bit error (error correction code not applied)
•Peak production reaches 100%
With the increasing demand for innovative solutions in the transportation industry, the shipment volume of automotive controllers continues to grow rapidly. Embedding high-performance and high reliability eNVM (non-volatile memory) inside the controller for code and data storage is crucial for effectively serving this expanding market. The SST ESF4 solution based on the UMC 28HPC+AG1 platform is designed to provide support for customers seeking support for high-capacity controller firmware and requiring over the air (OTA) updates.
Price and supply situation
For customers interested in SST's SuperFlash technology, please visit the SST website or contact the SST sales manager in your region for more information. For customers interested in UMC's technology and products, please visit the UMC website.
