http://www.lfoundry.com/ Latest News from Landshut Silicon Foundry GmbH en http://www.lfoundry.com/EXT:tt_news/ext_icon.gif http://www.lfoundry.com/ Latest News from Landshut Silicon Foundry GmbH TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:49:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=95&cHash=adebbcf935 Landshut, Germany, 23. June 2010 - LFoundry GmbH, a leading dedicated analog mixed signal and...
As of the closing, over 750 former Atmel employees at the Rousset wafer fabrication operation have now become part of LFoundry, thus expanding its foundry operations technological capabilities while tripling its production capacity to over 30,000 wafer starts per month. As part of this acquisition, LFoundry and Atmel jointly entered into an approximately 4 years wafer supply agreement, thus securing Atmel as a long-term customer of LFoundry.

“With this capacity expansion and the perfect fit of the installed technology base at our Landshut and Rousset sites, we can now demonstrate even more to our worldwide customer base the sustainability of our flexible foundry manufacturing and technology offering” says Michael Lehnert, LFoundry’s Chief Executive Officer. “In addition, this strategic positioning in the two largest European markets – Germany and France – positions us to provide exceptional service to the automotive, medical, aerospace and smart card security markets that dominate in Europe. Strategically, the combined company is now well positioned to drive towards expanding our market presence by working towards gaining a strong foothold in the U.S. Along this line, our record of customer engagements and technology excellence has been built on a strong commitment for reliable service and protection of our customer’s intellectual property.”

Contact person: Dr. Rainer Kaesmaier]]> Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:49:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=91&cHash=be2d35eac6 Enhanced mixed-signal IC design flow support announced for Nangate’s Integrated digital cell... Nangate Library Creator^TM Platform. The new module extends support for OpenAccess enabled EDA tools and iPDK developments and is used for LFoundry’s OpenAccess based LF150 PDK.

Nangate has extended the functionality of Library Creator with the OpenAccess database integration module that streamlines the exporting of digital library data to external layout tools used in mixed-signal IC design such as Cadence’s Virtuoso^TM. The OpenAccess database is the electronics industries first open, standard database which aims to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of EDA tool flows through improved interoperability.

The Nangate Library Creator is the industry’s most versatile, fully integrated and easy-to-use solution for digital cell library creation and optimization for its ability to greatly improve productivity and throughput in building a wide range of digital cell library IP.
The tool suite constitutes a revolutionary new class of EDA solutions that increases the efficiency of digital CMOS ICs to levels that were previously only achievable with extensive manual efforts and very large design teams – leading to lower IC power consumption, reduced manufacturing costs and shorter time-to-market.

“LFoundry  adopted Nangate’s Library Creator for the development of its own digital cell library IP. Tool setup was achieved quickly enabling high quality library IP to be generated for the LF150 process. The tool set continues to prove high flexibility, enabling our design group to react very responsively to new customer requests” said Gerhard Spitzlsperger, LFoundry CTO. “The additional tool functionality provided by the OpenAccess database integration is a good fit with LFoundry’s present and future library IP needs, mixed-signal technology customization and iPDK support roadmap”.

“The OpenAccess database integration further strengthens Library Creator’s capabilities as the best-in-class tool for digital library development with more support for widely used mixed-signal design flows” said Ole Christian Andersen, President and CEO at Nangate. “LFoundry is a highly innovative European silicon foundry and we are excited to be working with them, supporting their growth strategy and technology development requirements through the use of Nangate tools.”  

Contact person: Dr. Rainer Kaesmaier]]> Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=87&cHash=f8910a541a Landshut/Backnang, Germany, 20. April 2010 Landshut Silicon Foundry GmbH (LFoundry) and...

With first silicon proven tests of Tesat-Spacecom in the LFoundry production line, the radiation hardness could be proven on transistor level with values of zero leakage up to tested TID of 300krad as example for the 0,15µm 1.8V LFoundry process.

The basis for high quality production is set through the automotive certification of the manufacturing plant.

Furthermore, the RF characteristics up to 85GHz of LFoundries 0.15µm process is well suited for Tesat’s active RF products working at frequencies between 1.5GHz and 60GHz. The recently released HV options through the LDMOS technology is another benefit where LFoundry can support Tesat-Spacecom product designs.

As leading semiconductor manufacturing service provider in Europe, LFoundry’s goal is to support strategically important industrial areas. Having Tesat-Spacecom, a global player for RF products in the spacecom market, as our new partner and customer, we are proud to support a leading European microelectronics provider with our local service and in addition show our strong technology capability by being approved through Tesat’s thorough quality regulation process,” said Michael Lehnert, CEO of LFoundry.

For our products we need a high performance in reliability – up to 15 years lifetime in orbit – and a semiconductor device with proven radiation hardness. With an automotive certified manufacturing line, LFoundry has a proven record for the basic reliability requirement of our products and has already passed first radiation hardness tests. The dedicated customer commitment, fast reaction time towards our needs and flexible cooperation approach during our initial joint testing program has convinced us to further proceed with LFoundry in developing our next generation products with their foundry manufacturing process,” said Erich Auer, CTO of Tesat-Spacecom.

Contact person: Dr. Rainer Kaesmaier]]> Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:00:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=85&cHash=8c2810dedc Landshut, 2010-03-08 - Landshut Silicon Foundry GmbH (LFoundry) has reached a key milestone in its...
The first products to be manufactured by LFoundry using its advanced 200-mm, 0.15 µm analog mixed signal technology will be miniature RF-MEMS-based tunable matching networks for advanced mobile phones. These new RF-MEMS products are used between the transmit/receive unit and the antenna to adaptively keep the impedance of the antenna in the optimal range. In addition the partnership will include a cooperation for the associated CMOS ASICs.

“LFoundry’s expertise especially in the area of CMOS processing and analog circuits is an ideal complement to our strength in RF and module technology,” comments Christian Block, CTO of EPCOS’ Systems, Acoustics, Waves (SAW) Business Group. “The cooperation enables us to increase the integration level and value-added of our products even further. Our customers thus will profit from modules that not only combine the functions of passive electronic components and semiconductors, but now also CMOS-based technology applications, which in turn will reduce development and logistics costs.”

LFoundry offers an extremely flexible and state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for the new RF-MEMS products and will allow EPCOS to optimize the time to market. Within the scope of the cooperation, EPCOS will benefit from LFoundry’s LF150 high voltage and RF CMOS technology in the design and production of the necessary ASICs.

“With this collaboration LFoundry will have a partner who will utilize all three segments of our manufacturing and technology business model: CMOS foundry, custom process installation and joint development of new technologies,” comments Michael Lehnert, CEO LFoundry.



Contact person: Michael Hoesl]]> Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:56:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=94&cHash=999cac8c5b Landshut, 2010-03-08 - High-tech company LFoundry enjoyed the opportunity to welcome prominent...
The delegation from research and politics was able to get an impression of the capabilities of the globally operating Bavarian company on-site. Based on its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and engineering expertise, the company is playing a leading role in Europe and abroad as a foundry for micro chips.

To further expand its position of international technology leadership LFoundry has initiated numerous research and development projects. One project focusses on the development of new high-performance components, so-called „High-Q-Inductors“ with significantly higher Q values as currently available on the market. This co-operation project of LFoundry, the Fraunhofer Institutes IIS Erlangen and IZM Munich and the University of Applied Sciences, Deggendorf.combines Bavarian expertise in the field of semiconductor technology with industrial engineering knowledge. Consequently, the consortium could convince the Bavarian Research Foundation to subsidize this innovative project. State Minister of Economics, Martin Zeil, delivered the official subsidy approval letter for the project „High-Q-Inductors“ to LFoundry’s management in person.

“We feel very honoured that Mr. Zeil and his delegation of the Ministry of Economics, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology and of the Bavarian Research Foundation have taken the time to visit LFoundry”, said Michael Lehnert, CEO, in his speech to the staff. “The semiconductor technology is a market of strategic importance for Europe. The visit of the Bavarian Minister of Economics and the support of our research activities through the Bavarian Research Foundation acknowledge our results so far and our further mission to expand LFoundry from Landshut to a leading player in the semiconductor industry globally.”

From left to right: Prof. Dr. Dr. Joachim Heinzl, Michael Lehnert, Martin Zeil, Dorothea Leonhardt]]> Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:14:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=84&cHash=4185e5ebda Landshut, 2010-03-02 - LFoundry GmbH, a leading analog / mixed signal silicon foundry, today...
“We are pleased that the employees in Rousset have voted in favour of the fab acquisition through LFoundry and that the Atmel Board of Directors subsequently approved to enter in an agreement with LFoundry for the sale,” said Michael Lehnert, LFoundry CEO. “With this achieved milestone we are on track with our mission of rapidly growing our foundry business and providing unparalleled flexibility to our customers”



Contact person: Dr. Rainer Kaesmaier]]> Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:11:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=80&cHash=1ee48fbe1d Landshut, 2009-01-11 - The silicon intellectual property (IP) provider, Evatronix SA, and Landshut...
“Thanks to this agreement, Evatronix is able to offer a full range of ASIC development services to its customers,” said Wojciech Sakowski, Evatronix President and CEO. “Evatronix and LFoundry can now leverage on each other’s experience and guide the customer through the whole product design and development process, instead of taking or leaving him half way. The designer can focus on the added value of his chip and can pick third party IP to complete his design, which is already proven to work in the target technology.”

Evatronix made a decision to include most of its IP in LFoundry’s PDK libraries. LFoundry customers will be offered such popular components as the fastest and the smallest 8051 microcontrollers, USB 2.0 High Speed, NAND Flash and SDIO memory controllers as well as the Gigabit Ethernet MAC. Upon customer’s request, any other Evatronix IP can be customized to a desired LFoundry process.

LFoundry provides two analog / mixed signal technology platforms based on 350 nm and an advanced 150 nm process. Especially the leading 150 nm process offers excellent performance when applied to the RF application, with results comparable with 130 nm technologies. This enables the customers to process cost effective products with high performance values. Evatronix IP will be available in both these technologies, and in all available service schemes - Full Mask Sets, Multi Layer Masks and Multi Project Wafers. “With our focus on giving our customers best flexibility and early synergies between design and process development, including the European IP provider Evatronix in our libraries is one further step enabling our customers cut time-to-market even more than before,” said Michael Lehnert, LFoundry CEO. “With this partnership we can further strengthen the analog / mixed signal industry by providing to our customers IP service for their SoCs through Evatronix and also fast and reliable foundry manufacturing by LFoundry.”



Contact person: Dr. Rainer Kaesmaier]]> Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:24:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=79&cHash=42e00ee70a Landshut, 2009-12-17 - LFoundry GmbH today announced that LFoundry GmbH has entered into an...
“We are very pleased and excited about the opportunity to acquire a state-of-the-art manufacturing operation that advances our technical capabilities as a leading-edge analog and mixed signal silicon foundry,” said Michael Lehnert, LFoundry Chief Executive Officer. “This proposed acquisition positions the combined company as the largest analog and mixed signal pure play foundry in Europe and is very strategic to our mission of rapidly growing our foundry business and providing unparalleled flexibility and support to the large European need for analog and mixed signal manufacturing service and to our global customer base.”

“We are excited by the potential combination of LFoundry and our Rousset, France wafer fab operations which establishes Europe’s largest analog and mixed-signal foundry and provides a socially responsible transition plan and continuation of employment opportunities for our workers in Rousset,” said Steven Laub, Atmel’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are impressed by LFoundry’s track record and look forward to a long-term partnership as Atmel plans to enter into a multi-year supply agreement with LFoundry.



Contact person: Dr. Rainer Kaesmaier]]> Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:59:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=78&cHash=ee76041c93 Landshut, 2009-12-15 - Landshut Silicon Foundry GmbH (LFoundry) today announced its successful...
The Finnish fabless semiconductor company MAS with its over more than 25 years proven operations of process technology is utilizing the modularized LFoundry PDK currently for their new product developments which need flexible modular process setups and fast development cycles.

“For our current product qualifications we need a manufacturing line with highest quality certifications, flexible process setups and fast cycle times. With the LFoundry Multi-Project-Wafer (MPW) setups we can achieve our aggressive development times by also being cost efficient. For the interface with our experienced design team, the flexible customer interface setup of LFoundry engineering team with its fast reaction time on technical support is an additional value for reaching our quick development turn around times, said Juha Majakulma, CEO of MAS.

“With our strategic positioning as leading semiconductor foundry service provider in Europe, we want to enable our customers to develop their special solution through fruitful interfaces between their design and our engineering experience. MAS, being located in Europe on the one hand and having well established distribution business worldwide fits perfect to our philosophy of a European based foundry with global customer approach”, said Michael Lehnert, CEO of LFoundry. “With our monthly multi-project-wafer shuttle starts on fast cycle times we see special advantages for customers, like MAS, also focusing on low volume manufacturing service with high quality output”, Lehnert states.

Contact person: Dr. Rainer Kaesmaier]]> Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:15:00 +0000 http://www.lfoundry.com/index.php?id=24&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=77&cHash=5c90aaaff7 Landshut, 2009-12-15 - Landshut Silicon Foundry GmbH (LFoundry) today announced that it is...
LFoundry iPDKs will enable designers to have quick and flexible access to an advanced 0.15-micron (µm) foundry platform. The 0.15 µm platform, with I/O voltages of 1.8V, 3.3V and 5.0V on PMOS and NMOS for high-speed and low-leakage applications, was recently expanded with a modular LDMOS designed for RF and HV applications. Further enhancements include one time programmable (OTP) memory, SRAM, EEPROM and area-optimized Flash, an 8-bit microcontroller, a 10-bit ADC (analog-to-digital converter) and several more modular IP options for advanced system-on-chip (SoC) designs. Galaxy Custom Designer is Synopsys’ modern-era mixed-signal implementation solution that provides customers with increased productivity and fully supports iPDKs. To accelerate time to market and improve their customers’ productivity, LFoundry and Synopsys are collaborating to develop iPDKs that are based on standards proven and established by the IPL Alliance. Benefits of iPDKs over traditional proprietary PDKs include increased performance, increased reuse and portability through use of standards and broader EDA tool support.

“It is extremely important for us to help improve our customers’ productivity. The iPDK standard allows us to provide our customers accelerated access to our recently expanded advanced technologies in a flexible way, resulting in fast product design timelines,” said Michael Lehnert, CEO of LFoundry.

“Customers rely on their key suppliers to offer verified solutions in today’s competitive environment,” said Bijan Kiani, vice president of product marketing for design and manufacturing tools at Synopsys. “By collaborating with LFoundry, we can provide our mutual customers with an optimized solution that increases productivity and extends the lifespan of their IP investment through design reuse.” Contact LFoundry for iPDK availability.

Contact person: Dr. Rainer Kaesmaier]]> Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:00:00 +0000