Infineon Licenses Embedded Flash Process To IBM

Infineon Technologies has licensed its 130-nm high-volume embedded flash process to IBM. The process, which has been in volume production at Infineon plants since early 2006, will be available for new chip designs manufactured by IBM in North America. Additionally, Infineon will use IBM foundry services for future products based on the process. Integration and qualification of the process in IBM’s 200-mm semiconductor fab in Burlington, Vt. has already begun, and preliminary design kit availability is scheduled for the second half of 2008. The process is used for advanced microcontroller chips across applications ranging from automotive systems to low-power chip card devices. Along with related non-volatile memory intellectual property also licensed to IBM, the 130-nm embedded flash process expands IBM’s foundry capability to address applications requiring custom logic and high-density flash memory on a single chip. "With this collaboration, Infineon leverages the value of its own manufacturing IP, gains a new source for volume manufacturing, and strengthens its working relationship with a long-term partner," Peter Bauer, head of the Automotive, Industrial & Multimarket business group at Infineon, said in a statement.