X-FAB extends high-temperature foundry offering to enable emerging power management apps

ERFURT, GERMANY: Addressing its customer needs, X-FAB Silicon Foundries today announced its enhanced XA035 high-temperature 0.35 micrometer foundry process with 28 new devices. It is the industry’s first fully characterized process to simultaneously support operating voltages up to 100V and operating temperatures of 175 degrees Celsius.

This unique combination enables the design and manufacture of new-generation integrated circuits (ICs) that require highly efficient power management for harsh environments. It is ideally suited for charge balancing applications such as in batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles.

The extended temperature range also makes it applicable for control devices inside the combustion or electric engine housing. The technology can be used for motor control and power management or power conversion applications for a wide range of voltages in industrial, medical or consumer systems.

All devices in the XA035 process will be delivered in line with the quality standard defined by the Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) AEC-Q100. A 45 percent reduction in on-resistance of the new N-type and P-type DMOS transistors reduces overall system costs. The XA035 process design kit covers all major electronic design automation (EDA) platforms and includes exact models for all high-voltage transistors.

It features a variety of dense standard cell libraries, each optimized for area, speed, low power or low noise. I/O libraries, including support for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices, complete the comprehensive design support.

According to Sebastian Schmidt, Business Line Manager of Analog/High-Voltage at X-FAB: “Our customers need a foundry process that meets the extreme high-temperature and high-voltage conditions found in charge balancing and other automotive devices. For these applications, robustness, high reliability and long lifetime are critical.”

Added to the technology are 28 new fully characterized devices, including 13 high-voltage devices with reduced Ron, bipolar devices, and OTP programming capability. An additional 5V gate oxide option covers operating voltages of 5V, 45V, 70V and 100V and provides a good match for power management and automotive applications. All of the devices are precisely modelled and documented with detailed model guide descriptions.

The support package includes a reliability lifetime calculator tool that predicts the lifetime vs. temperature trade-off for a given mission profile in temperature and operating conditions. In addition, the XA035 technology includes a new library providing components for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, meeting the constantly increasing ESD requirements.

The XA035 technology for high-temperature applications with its new primitive devices and additional options is available now for tape-ins.