Texas Instruments Qualifies 65 Nanometer Chip Process and is Moving to Volume Manufacturing7 December 2005
Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) (TI) announced it has qualified its advanced 65-nm process technology only eight months after delivering first samples of a wireless device and is moving to volume manufacturing. The TI 65-nm process delivers more processing performance for advanced applications in a smaller space without increasing power consumption. TI is leading the volume ramp to production for 65-nm process technology with volume product delivery across its targeted markets, including wireless communications.
"TI's model of driving our own in-house process technology development and initial production ramp in one TI fab and then fanning out to multiple fabs and foundries allows us to quickly achieve very high volumes for our customers," said Dr. Hans Stork, chief technology officer, Texas Instruments. "In this business, building some sample parts is good, but the competitive advantage goes to the supplier who can first deliver millions of high quality products."
TI first disclosed details around its advanced 65-nm CMOS process in early 2004, and announced sampling of the wireless digital baseband processor in March 2005. The process technology doubles transistor density over the company's 90nm process, shrinking equivalent designs by half and boosting transistor performance by up to 40 percent. In addition, TI's technology significantly reduces leakage power from idle transistors while simultaneously integrating hundreds of millions of transistors that support both analog and digital functions in System on Chip (SoC) configurations.
"Our relationship with Texas Instruments is based on close technology collaboration," said Tommi Uhari, VP, Wireless Platforms, Nokia. "Early access to such solutions as TI's 65-nm process helps Nokia get to market faster with the most advanced products and capabilities that our customers require."
Managing Power Through SmartReflex(TM) Technologies
Today's advanced multimedia and high-end digital consumer electronics have increased processing demands and the focus on low power semiconductor technology development. To address the challenge, TI has implemented its SmartReflex(TM) power and performance management technologies in its 65-nm platform in order to offer a combination of intelligent and adaptive silicon, circuit design and software designed to solve power and performance management challenges at smaller process nodes.
By closely monitoring circuit speed, SmartReflex technologies can dynamically adjust voltages to meet exact performance requirements without sacrificing overall system performance. As a result, minimum power is used for each operating frequency, extending battery life and reducing the amount of heat produced by the device.
Other techniques at 65-nm reduce power consumed by transistors when they are idle, including times when mobile phones are in standby mode waiting to receive calls. These innovations include back-biasing of SRAM memory blocks and retention flip-flop circuitry that allows voltages to drop extremely low without requiring a rewrite of logic or memory content. Together, these SmartReflex advancements can deliver up to a 1000 times reduction in power leakage.
Delivering Design Flexibility and System Optimization
TI continues to offer several process technology recipes, optimized to balance the unique needs of end products or applications. This includes the very low power offering that extends battery life in a range of portable products such as 3G mobile devices, digital cameras and audio players with increasingly sophisticated multimedia features. A mid-range offering supports DSP-based products and TI's high performance ASIC library geared toward communications infrastructure products. The highest performance version of TI's 65-nm process supports server-class microprocessors.
The 65-nm process includes up to 11 layers of copper interconnect integrated with a low k dielectric, OSG, with a k of 2.8 - 2.9. Other improvements include an induced strain on the transistor channel during chip processing to increase electron and hole mobility; nickel silicide to lower both gate and source / drain resistance, and ultra-shallow source / drain junctions.
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com .
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements contained in this news release regarding TI product availability and other statements of management's beliefs, goals and expectations may be considered forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. The following factors and the factors discussed in TI's most recent Form 10-K could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements contained in this news release: actual market demand for 54nm products and TI products specifically, and actual test results relating to TI products. TI disclaims an intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of development occurring after the date of this news release.
Trademarks
SmartReflex is a trademark of Texas Instruments. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Source: prnewswire
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