UMC delivers high endurance, variable voltage range embedded EEPROM solution

HSINCHU, TAIWAN: United Microelectronics Corp. announced that the company has achieved breakthroughs in its development of embedded electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (eEEPROM) solutions, delivering an I/O voltage range of 1.8V-5V and endurance at 1 million program erase cycles. The milestones follow several years of successful eEEPROM development at the foundry. Embedded EEPROM applications include banking cards, smart cards, ID cards, and microcontrollers.

UMC's eEEPROM I/O voltage range of 1.8V-5V achieves a breakthrough in battery life extension for mobile systems. Standard 2.5V/3.3V or 1.8V/3.3V inputs require dual devices and a regulator to reach beyond these fixed voltages. UMC's best-in-class eEEPROM solution offers a 1.8V-5V variable voltage range via a single device without the need for additional circuitry, which in conventional designs consumes extra chip real estate. This flexible and efficient SoC process facilitates longer battery life while occupying less space on the platform.

For endurance, UMC now offers 1 million program erase cycles compared to the standard 100K program erase cycles for alternative eEEPROM solutions. This high-performance technology enables UMC's customers to deliver devices with high reliability embedded memory that enable a much longer product life.

"Our success with eEEPROM, a challenging technology, underscores UMC's commitment to specialty technologies that offer customers a full range of innovative, high-performance, and compact solutions," said Anchor Chen, senior director of Special Technology Development at UMC. "UMC is delighted to make major strides in battery life extension and program erase cycles that enable customers to meet the diversified and demanding requirements of today's cutting-edge applications."

UMC's eEEPROM technologies are currently in mass production at 0.35um and 0.25um nodes and in pilot production at the 0.18um node. The 0.11um node is in development and is expected to be available early next year. Fundamental IPs, such as eEEPROM macros, standard cell library, and SRAM, are included in the offerings to enable customers to optimize their microsystem designs and accelerate design-in.