SkyWater Technology today announced the Department of Defense (DOD) is investing $12 million to expand the intellectual property (IP) ecosystem for the company’s 90 nm radiation-hardened (rad-hard) by process offering, as part of the previously announced $27 million investment. SkyWater has been making considerable and measurable progress with its RH90 technology roadmap to broaden onshore production capabilities for strategic rad-hard electronics.
SkyWater previously announced partnerships with Trusted Semiconductor Solutions and CAES to develop the RH90 process design kit (PDK), and to support qualification for the rad-hard by process platform. Both partners will continue support on this platform by designing and validating critical IP building blocks. By having validated IP building blocks already inside a platform, it is faster and more efficient to design a chip. It also reduces the risk of having to redesign due to the use of unvalidated building blocks – redesigning takes much longer to get chips deployed in mission critical systems.
SkyWater established an Early Access Program (EAP) providing customers with an opportunity to evaluate the increased circuit density and improved speed, power, and performance capabilities of this next generation technology. SkyWater has released its initial PDK and launched its first multi-project wafer (MPW) shuttles for RH90 as part of the EAP with support from Trusted Semiconductor Solutions, a proven expert in rad-hard microelectronics and advanced system-on-chip and system-in-package solutions for military, space and industrial markets. As part of the MPW shuttle run, customers had the opportunity to test and validate their own IP as well as evaluate the RH90 PDK, IP blocks and design features prior to technology qualification.
Subsequently, SkyWater partnered with CAES to leverage their expertise in the design, testing, qualification and manufacturing of rad-hard high reliability integrated circuits and system-in-package solutions to enable ecosystem partners to collaborate on furthering U.S. national security missions. CAES will lead SkyWater through qualification; a very rigorous effort including radiation testing and reliability testing. Productization and qualification of SkyWater’s RH90 and the development of IP design libraries will enable CAES and ecosystem design and manufacturing partners to produce processors, security engines, memory, interface devices application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and other strategic applications for mil/aero and commercial markets.
“Trusted Semiconductor Solutions and CAES are each invaluable ecosystem partners for the evolution of our rad-hard by process offering,” said Dr. Steven Kosier, SkyWater CTO. “Trusted Semi was instrumental in the development of the RH90 PDK and IP libraries which readied us to launch our MPW shuttle in a move toward customer engagement. CAES’ 90 nm process qualification expertise for the U.S. Government is unique in the industry and will help accelerate productization of our RH90 process to strengthen the Trusted supply chain and meet the demands of mission critical strategic products.”
“Next generation systems will need to operate in very complex, demanding radiation environments, and we are proud to partner with SkyWater on their development for aerospace and defense markets. CAES brings decades of radiation hardening expertise and combining our technical capabilities with SkyWater’s RH90 platform will provide the industry with solutions to meet the demands of the future,” said Mike Kahn, CEO, CAES.
“We are impressed with the strides SkyWater has made in a short time – from expediting its DOD-backed facility expansion to successfully completing the base prototype project,” said Allan Hurst Jr., president and CEO of Trusted Semiconductor Solutions. “Working together, we were able to quickly create the PDK to set the stage for developing the RH90 offering and achieving important milestones.”