April 20, 2007 – austriamicrosystems has signed a deal to add its high-voltage module to IBM’s 0.18-micron RF CMOS process technology, a migration from austriamicrosystems’ 0.35-micron HV CMOS process. Design kits are expected to be released in early 2008, with production slated to start in 2009 at IBM’s 200mm facility in Essex Junction, VT, and transferred back to austriamicrosystems’ facilities at a later time.

The new process targets designs for a wide range of applications, including power management ICs for cell phones, PDAs, and notebooks, as well as low-cost integrated controllers in automotive, industrial and medical industries.

“Leveraging our long-term process development know-how in high-voltage CMOS, we complement IBM’s expertise in advanced CMOS process technology in order to enable a very fast development cycle and a top performing process technology,” said John Heugle, CEO of austriamicrosystems, in a statement.

“We are seeing an increasing demand in specialty processes for applications like power management,” noted Tom Reeves, VP of semiconductor and technology services, IBM Global Engineering Solutions. austriamicrosystems cited data from Gartner projecting customized power management ICs in mobile devices to nearly triple to $3.4 billion by 2010.