|
Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) have announced that they will be working together in the development of future-proof nanometre chips. The agreement will see both companies sharing their IP pools. Further to this co-operation the companies have been co-operating on new research and development projects since the beginning of 2010 which have been aimed at multimedia, image processing and navigation applications in the automotive, industrial and telecommunications markets.
Fujitsu is making available its analogue and digital nanometre technology libraries, IP (intellectual property) pool and expertise. Fraunhofer IIS is complementing this with its own IP and expertise in IC and system design. Chip designs, right up to the GDSII data, are developed and evaluated together with customers. Fujitsu is producing prototypes in 90 nm and 65 nm CMOS technologies on multi-project wafers (MPW) at significantly reduced mask costs.
The agreement means that the technology partners of Fujitsu and the IC developers at Fraunhofer IIS can implement fast and highly efficient solutions. There is potential for business models from prototypes (MPWs) via small series through to series production.
“Industry, research and training all benefit from this co-operation. It grants cost-effective and dependable access to the latest nanometre technology for research projects, pilot series and products”, comments Josef Sauerer, Head of IC Design at Fraunhofer IIS.
Norbert Schuhmann, Group Manager for Digital Systems, adds: “Particularly worth noting is the quality of the analogue and digital Fujitsu libraries, the easy access to their IP pool and their professional and smooth approach”.
Mark Ellins, Director for ASIC and Foundry Services at Fujitsu Semiconductor Europe said “We are very pleased to be able to work together with such an experienced design partner as Fraunhofer IIS, and believe our co-operation will provide signficant benefits to developers requiring access to advanced process technologies“.
