Soitec (Euronext Paris), a designer and manufacturer of semiconductor materials, announced today an expanded collaboration with Samsung Foundry to ensure the volume supply of fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) wafers. This agreement extends the current partnership and provides a solid foundation for both companies to strengthen the FD-SOI supply chain and guarantee high-volume manufacturing for customers.
With the leadership from the two companies, today FD-SOI is one of the standard technologies for cost-effective, low-power devices used in high-volume consumer, 4G/5G smartphones, IoT, and automotive applications. The agreement is built on the existing close relationship between the companies and guarantees wafer supply for Samsung’s FD-SOI platform starting with 28FDS process.
“This strategic agreement validates today’s high-volume manufacturing adoption of FD-SOI,” said Christophe Maleville, Soitec’s Executive Vice President, Digital Electronics Business Unit. “Soitec is ready to support Samsung’s current and long-term growth for ultra-low power, performance-on-demand FD-SOI solutions.”
FD-SOI relies on a very unique substrate whose layer thickness is controlled at the atomic scale. FD-SOI offers remarkable transistor performance in terms of power, performance, area and cost tradeoffs (PPAC), making it possible to cover low-power to high-performance digital applications with a single technology platform. FD-SOI delivers numerous unique advantages including the ability to mitigate process, temperature, voltage and aging variations through body bias, near-threshold supply capability, ultra-low sensitivity to radiation, and very high intrinsic transistor speed, making it most likely the fastest RF-CMOS technology on the market.
“Samsung has been committed to delivering transformative industry leading technologies. FD-SOI is currently setting a new standard in many high-growth applications including IoT with ultra-low-power devices, automotive systems such as vision processors for ADAS and infotainment, and mobile connectivity from 5G smartphones to wearable electronics,” said Ryan Lee, Vice President of Foundry Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “Through this agreement with Soitec, our long-term strategic partner, we hope to lay the foundation for steady supply to meet high-volume demands of current and future customers.”