TowerJazz licenses Kilopass' one-time programmable NVM IP

MIGDAL HAEMEK, ISRAEL & SANTA CLARA, USA: TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, and Kilopass Technology, a leading provider of semiconductor logic non-volatile memory (NVM) intellectual property (IP), announced that TowerJazz has licensed Kilopass’ one-time programmable (OTP) memory intellectual property (IP) for its 0.13μm CMOS process.

Kilopass XPM OTP technology is built using standard, commercially available CMOS logic process technologies and is silicon proven to deliver high density, high performance, and highly reliable, electrically field-programmable embedded NVM solutions at a low cost.

Kilopass was the first to pioneer antifuse technology, which is used to permanently program integrated circuits (ICs) in a standard CMOS process without extra mask steps. Antifuse is known to provide the highest degree of physical security for the permanent storage of sensitive information and is ideal for design IP protection.

OTP devices can store data even during power shutdown. The data is programmed during production and stored forever. These types of devices frequently are used in video game consoles, mobile phones, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, implantable medical devices, high-definition multimedia interfaces (HDMI) and in many other consumer and automotive electronics products.

“Kilopass is a proven leader in OTP IP and we are pleased to offer their solution to benefit our customers and enable them with the design advantages offered by this technology,” said Ori Galzur, VP, VLSI Design Center at TowerJazz.

“In addition to using it for 0.13μm CMOS designs, we have the flexibility to transfer it to other advanced nodes. By offering Kilopass OTP, we continue to expand the world-class services we provide to our customers for the cost-effective manufacture of their differentiated products and this expands our addressable market by approximately $100 million.”

“We are excited that TowerJazz, a specialty foundry leader with deep NVM expertise, has chosen our XPM OTP solution to offer their customers high-reliability designs at a lower cost,” said Linh Hong, VP of Marketing at Kilopass.

“Because our patented XPM technology doesn’t require any changes to the masks, manufacturing steps, or equipment used, foundries such as TowerJazz are able to keep manufacturing costs low while providing high-value designs.”