austriamicrosystems' industry leading CMOS High Voltage process now available for foundry customers

October 6, 2004 - austriamicrosystems business unit Full Service Foundry announced today, at the Fabless Supplier EXPO in San Jose, the availability of its fully automotive qualified CMOS 50V High Voltage process for the 0.35µm technology platform. This process is a modular extension of the 0.35µm CMOS licensed from TSMC permitting reuse of digital design.

"Our new 'H35' High Voltage process offers 20V and 50V HV MOS devices with very low 'on resistances' of down to 0.04 Ohm mm2. These are best-in-class values for a purely CMOS-based HV process being typically two times lower than for competitive processes and matching even the performance of much more expensive BCD (Bipolar CMOS DMOS) processes. The high performance of the process was achieved with a completely new device concept in record development time utilizing our industry-leading predictive HV TCAD (Technology CAD) capabilities", explains Martin Schrems, austriamicrosystems' Director of Process Development & Implementation.

"The new 0.35µm CMOS-HV process is the 5th generation of the continuously improved High Voltage processes from our company and is produced in austriamicrosystems state-of-the-art 8-inch wafer fabrication. As only two mask level adders on top of CMOS are required it also makes H35 the process with the lowest complexity in the market. All of this makes H35 the optimum choice for achieving smallest possible die sizes at very competitive cost for a voltage range from 20V to 50V. For the future we plan to fully characterize HV devices for 120V or even beyond," states Peter Gasteiner, Senior Vice President and General Manger of austriamicrosystems' business unit Full Service Foundry.

The 0.35µm CMOS based HV process featuring extensively characterized and modeled 20V and 50V CMOS-HV and bipolar devices is complemented with a full set of analog modules, capacitors, and a high resistive poly option. Full design support including digital, analog and high-voltage libraries, and peripheral cells with high driving capability is available as part of the austriamicrosystems' mixed signal high-voltage HIT-Kit. austriamicrosystems offers quarterly MPW-Shuttle as well as assembly and test services for all of its High Voltage processes.

About austriamicrosystems
austriamicrosystems Full Service Foundry has successfully positioned itself in the mixed signal foundry market offering well-established RF CMOS, high-voltage CMOS, BiCMOS and SiGe-BiCMOS processes. With superior support during the design phase, with high-end tools and experienced engineers, austriamicrosystems succeeds to be an attractive analog mixed signal foundry partner especially for fabless design houses.

austriamicrosystems AG is a leading designer and manufacturer of highly integrated analog intensive mixed signal ICs. austriamicrosystems combines more than 20 years of design capabilities, product and marketing know-how with its own cutting edge analog manufacturing and test facilities. Operating worldwide with more than 800 employees, austriamicrosystems serves four strategic markets: Communications, Industry & Medical, Automotive and Full Service Foundry. austriamicrosystems is listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange in Zurich (ticker symbol: AMS).