United Microelectronics (UMC) has certified Ansys' multiphysics solutions to simulate the foundry's latest 3D-IC WoW stacked technology, which will improve the power, efficiency, and performance of edge AI, graphic processing, and wireless communication systems, according to the EDA company.
The certification gives chip designers greater access to Ansys' semiconductor simulation solutions, which facilitate successful design by performing multi-die co-analysis, the company said.
WoW technology is made up of vertically stacked silicon wafers, or dies, rather than horizontally placed across a board. Built on cloud-optimized infrastructure, Ansys RedHawk-SC and Ansys RedHawk-SC Electrothermal have the speed, capacity, and predictive accuracy to handle full-chip analysis, including multi-die packages and interconnects for power and signal integrity, thermal profiling, and other tasks. These 3D-IC solutions for multiphysics analysis fit into a larger set of comprehensive Ansys solutions for board and system electrothermal analysis, including Ansys SIwave and Ansys Icepak.
"We're pleased with the result of our collaboration with Ansys in the delivery of UMC technology reference flow, which empowers customers to address growing performance, reliability, and power demands for cloud and data center applications," said Osbert Cheng, VP of device technology development and design support at UMC, in Ansys' statement. "The collaborative efforts combining Ansys' comprehensive chip-package co-analysis solutions with UMC's advanced chip-stacking technology address complex multiphysics challenges in 3D-IC packaging technologies."
In addition, UMC announced that its 40nm ultra-low-power (40ULP) process has been qualified for Infineon's SONOS eFlash solution by Faraday Technology, UMC's IC design service partner. With SONOS eFlash macro, Faraday's Ariel SoC has successfully completed the endurance test with over 100,000 cycles, data retention characterization at 125 degrees Celsius, and reliability test with HTOL of 1000 hours at 125 degrees Celsius. After rigorous testing on real silicon, Infineon's SONOS eFlash has been validated as a qualified eNVM solution on UMC's 40ULP.
"SONOS eFlash has been market-proven in various applications on UMC's 40ULP process," said Vineet Agrawal, director of memory solutions at Infineon, in a statement. "Faraday's comprehensive SONOS eFlash solution enables customers to effortlessly meet cost, power, and performance requirements for SoC designs across a wide range of IoT products and applications."
