Key Foundry, the only pure-play foundry in Korea, announced today that it has begun the mass production using its 0.18 micron high voltage BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) process.
BCD is a process technology that integrates bipolar for analog signal control, CMOS for digital signal control and DMOS for high voltage processing on a single chip. It applies to various power semiconductor products with advantages such as high voltage, high reliability and low electronic interference. As the decrease in size of electronic device systems and the increase in power efficiency have become more important recently, the need for suitable power semiconductors is increasing and the demand for BCD is increasing accordingly.
Key Foundry offers 0.18 micron BCD process for power devices operative at a broad range of voltages from 8V to 150V. In particular, 100V or 150V level HV power devices are suitable to improve the performance of battery charging ICs in smartphones or laptops. Battery charging with USB type C connectors as an example, the power transfer of a charger IC designed with the previous 60V BCD process can be 100 watts at best, but the transfer can increase up to 240 watts if the charger IC is designed with the 150V BCD process. These HV devices can also be utilized to design driver ICs for high-power industrial motors. Key Foundry plans to continue sophisticating its HV device technology to offer 200V level HV devices applicable to high-power voltage converter ICs for communications and industrial equipment in the second half of the year.
Key Foundry provides low ON-resistance devices in the 0.18 micron 150V BCD to help its fabless customers to achieve chip size reduction while improving power efficiency. For power supply control and output trimming, Key Foundry also provides optional memory devices such as SRAM (Static Random Access Memory), ROM (Read-Only Memory), MTP (Multi-Time Programmable memory) and OTP (One-Time Programmable memory). Key Foundry also offers customers with Hall sensor devices necessary for precision motor control to enable high-performance motor driver IC designs.
Key Foundry supports fabless customers to develop and mass-produce Quick Charger ICs, AC-DC ICs, DC-DC ICs, Motor Driver ICs and Power over Ethernet (PoE) ICs for smartphones, laptops and many home appliances using this BCD process. In addition, this BCD process satisfies Grade-0 of the AEC-Q100, the international standard for reliability test of automotive electronic parts, and it can also be used for automotive motor driver ICs, DC-DC ICs and LED driver ICs.
“Demand for 100V or higher voltage BCD technology is increasing recently in the power semiconductor market in order to achieve high-speed power transmission and high power efficiency. In particular, with few foundries offering 100V or higher voltage BCD process using bulk-type silicon wafers available, launching mass production of 0.18 micron 150V BCD technology without using SOI substrates has a significant meaning,” said Dr. Tae Jong Lee, CEO of Key Foundry. “Key Foundry will continue to develop process technologies to satisfy the needs of power semiconductor designing companies.”
