X-Fab updates 180nm SOI process for automotive and industrial applications

X-Fab Silicon Foundries has updated a 180nm SOI process it launched in 2012 to add devices for use in automotive and industrial applications, such as monolithic motor controllers and integrated LIN/CAN physical-layer transceivers.

The XT018 process can support devices with operating voltages of up to 200v and operating temperatures of up to 175°C. This iteration of the process adds 40V and 60V devices with low On-resistances for use in automotive applications.

X-Fab argues that combining SOI wafers, deep trench isolation and a six-metal-layer 180nm CMOS process gives a useful set of benefits. Using SOI wafers eliminates parasitic bipolar effects to the substrate, reducing latch-up risk. It also enables the development of highly isolated devices, such as diodes, which provide protection against reversed supply voltages that the company says are difficult to achieve with bulk CMOS or BCD technologies.

The use of deep trench isolation on SOI should also enable more compact designs than those using conventional junction isolation on bulk. X-Fab gives the example of using the process to provide more area-efficient lateral isolation against cross-coupling between adjacent output drivers and sense inputs.

Volker Herbig, product marketing director at X-Fab, said: “Our XT018 SOI technology offsets the added cost of SOI with a smaller chip size, higher performance, and easier design.”

The ability to integrate such isolated devices should ease the development of complex SoCs for automotive and industrial applications that need to include HV devices.

X-Fab says the process, inducing PDKs for each of the major EDA vendors, device characterization and modelling data, and analog, digital and memory IP, is now available. It has developed new devices for this process, including depletion transistors, Zener diodes, high-performance BJTs and a 200V IGBT.