AMS shrinks 35nm analog process to 30nm

Article By : Peter Clarke

AMS has announced shrinking of its 0.35µm analog manufacturing process down to 30nm, saving 20% total area in active circuitry.

AMS has announced a shrink of its 0.35-micron analog manufacturing process to a nominal 30nm, providing an estimated 20% area saving in active circuitry.

The analog low-noise process is dubbed A30 and has been created by an optical shrink by a factor of 0.9 from the AMS 0.35µm high-voltage CMOS process family. This shrink to 0.9 of linear dimensions implies 81% of the area consumed and a cost saving of 19% in mass production.

The A30 manufacturing process technology features isolated 3.3V NMOS and PMOS transistors, isolated 3.3V low threshold voltage devices, an isolated high voltage device with thin gate oxide (NMOSI20T), vertical bipolar transistors (VERTN1 and VERTPH) as well as an isolated 3.3V low-noise transistor. This enables flicker noise reduction by a factor of between 4 and 10 for high drain currents compared to H35 process. Passive devices such as various capacitors and resistors complete the device offering.

The A30 process is ideal for sensing applications, analog read-out ICs in consumer electronics, automotive, medical and IoT devices. The process has been qualified in AMS' 200mm wafer fab in Austria. The elements have been verified as 0.35-micron devices and then optically shrunk in the mask shop using completed GDSII data.

"Foundry customers benefit twice when using the A30 process for their complex ICs: our super low noise transistor with industry-benchmark flicker noise figures boost performance whereas the optical shrink notably reduces die area of noise sensitive applications," said Markus Wuchse, general manager of the foundry division at AMS.

The A30 process is supported by hitkit v4.15 based on Virtuoso IC design suite from Cadence Design Systems. The hitkit provides simulation models, and parametre extraction and verification run sets for both Calibre and Assura and flexible parameterised PCells.

First published on EE Times Europe.