Richtek licenses Virage Logic’s AEON MTP family of NVM IP

FREMONT, USA: Virage Logic Corp. announced that Taiwan-based Richtek Technology Corp., a leading Asia-based power management IC provider has taken a license for Virage Logic’s AEON MTP (Multi-time Programmable) family of NVM (non-volatile memory) IP. Richtek selected Virage Logic’s AEON MTP NVM IP for the following reasons:

* AEON MTP is available in analog process nodes including high voltage and BCD processes.
* AEON MTP offers the industry leading performance and reliability demanded by analog and power management applications.
* AEON MTP reprogrammable NVM allows advanced features and functionality to be added into analog and power management ICs.

The market for power management chips (PMCs), especially in China, is strong and growing according to market research firm Beijing Market Avenue Consulting Co., Ltd.

In a report published last year, the research firm predicted PMCs for China's Internet and telephony infrastructure equipment will experience a 25 percent CAGR. The market research firm also predicted strong demand for consumer digital products driven by short design cycles.

“We chose the Virage Logic solution because it had a strong reputation for quality and met both our performance and cost targets,” said Honda Su, deputy director of technology engineering for Richtek.

“Other factors that attracted us included support for Bipolar/CMOS/DMOS (BCD) processes as it allows us to integrate non-volatile memory IP with high voltage devices in a single IC using a standard CMOS process with no additional masks or processing steps required. A nice additional capability was having all the required high voltage generated from within the IP block itself.”

“We are delighted that Richtek, one of the world’s leading power management IC design houses—among six Taiwan companies ranked in the 2009 top-25 fabless IC suppliers worldwide according to IC Insights—has chosen our AEON MTP family of NVM IP,” said Craig Zajac, director of product marketing, NVM at Virage Logic.

“Because Virage Logic’s NVM IP product line is qualified up to 150oC operation with up to 100k write cycles and 10-year data retention, it enables customers like Richtek to proceed with confidence on even their most demanding designs.”