TowerJazz and Triune Systems announce nanoSmart products

APEC 2012, NEWPORT BEACH & RICHARDSON, USA: TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, and Triune Systems LLC, an IC design and test development provider, have announced that Triune has developed a proprietary analog/power management technology using the TowerJazz TS35PM process on its state of the art 0.18um based power management platform.

Triune has trademarked this energy saving green technology, called nanoSmart, and is releasing two products currently ramping to volume production showcasing this technology, the TS14001 and TS12001.

Triune’s TS14001 is an ultra-low-power LDO regulator which provides regulated output with best-in-class ultra-low quiescent current losses of 20nA under no-load conditions which helps reduce energy and heat. The TS12001 is an ultra-low-power under voltage load protect switch that utilizes off-active technology. Off-active provides active control of turning off, and then on, the control of the load with only 200pA losses, increasing efficiencies and resulting in less power wasted.

In addition to these two products, several more energy saving products are planned to be launched this year to meet growing market demands. According to IDTechEx, the energy harvesting device market is projected to grow exponentially this decade; 10B+ energy harvesting devices are forecast to ship by 2019 – a 20x increase over ~500 million units that shipped in 2009.

nanoSmart technology has been designed to target portable and low power applications for the consumer, industrial and medical markets as well as energy harvesting systems, off-grid autonomous systems such as solar panels for electricity, and SmartCard applications. Advantages of nanoSmart technology include ultra-low power loss for light load conditions, flexibility to work with a wide range of output loads, and a minimized bill of materials (BOM) while still providing high-efficiency operation.

Triune’s nanoSmart and MPPT-lite technologies have also been leveraged for novel portable solar harvesting solutions through a National Science Foundation small business innovation and research (SBIR) grant award (No. 1113400). In addition, nanoSmart technology can eliminate standby power losses for many systems and extend battery life on portable products. It expands the utility of alternate energy harvesting sources such as micro-solar and enables new autonomous systems.

“We chose to develop this ultra-low power technology for analog and power management applications with TowerJazz because they offered the best process for our needs, and were willing to work with us on differentiated out-of-the-box solutions,” said Ross Teggatz, president of Triune Systems. “Our nanoSmart technology further leverages TowerJazz’s processes to provide truly unique solutions that can virtually eliminate the carbon footprint of any product while in standby mode, and we look forward to developing several new and exciting products around this.”

“TowerJazz continually draws on our customers’ needs to drive our technology offerings. And, the fact that power management experts such as Triune’s engineers chose TowerJazz’s power platform is proof of our technology superiority. Triune has been a valued partner for several years and their inputs have contributed to the best-in-class power management technology we have today. The device performance capability of nanoSmart demonstrates what cooperation and flexibility can achieve in implementing new ideas,” said Dr. Avi Strum, VP and GM of the Specialty Business Unit at TowerJazz.