Winchester, UK - austriamicrosystems' Full Service Foundry has announced the availability of its H18 advanced 0.18um High-Voltage CMOS process technology.

Jointly developed with IBM, the High-Voltage CMOS process is the 6th generation of continuously improved High-Voltage CMOS technologies developed at austriamicrosystems and is now ready to be distributed to lead customers.

The new H18 process offers high integration density enabling SoC applications (System-on-Chip) as well as best-in-class power-on resistance (Rdson) which directly results in a silicon area reduction in driver applications. Additionally, the process allows the integration of 1.8V, 5V, 20V and 50V devices on a single chip without any process modifications. Process features such as Shottky barrier diode, high-resistive and precision poly-, single-, dual and HiK metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors and up to 7 metal layers complete the state-of-the art High-Voltage CMOS process.

As only a few mask level adders on top of the CMOS base process are required to implement high-voltage capabilities, the H18 process is one of the most cost competitive 0.18um High-Voltage CMOS technologies in the market. The H18 technology is an ideal solution for fabless design houses and IDMs creating power management products, display drivers, sensors, capacitive actuators, printer and MEMS driver ICs for applications in the industrial, medical, communications and automotive markets, supporting robust applications even in harsh environments.

"Leveraging our leading process development know-how in High-Voltage CMOS technologies, austriamicrosystems complements IBM's expertise in advanced CMOS process technology manufacturing." said Thomas Riener, General Manager Full Service Foundry. "The joint development of the next generation High-Voltage technology node enables IBM to enter new markets and to serve their customers requirements in developing power management, MEMS interface or medical products. Achieving smallest possible die sizes and highest performance at very competitive costs makes the new H18 process a very attractive solution for austriamicrosystems' foundry customers."