NXP shows first FD-SOI chips

Samsung is shipping now, but GlobalFoundries not yet.

NXP will ship this year as many as five SoCs made in Samsung's 28nm FD-SOI process, including one that has been sampling for recent months. Samsung is expected to announce its FD-SOI roadmap in May and is already working on RF and in-house embedded MRAM for it.

An NXP executive showed the first samples of the products at an event in Sta. Clara, California, a key milestone in a long journey for FD-SOI. The next big step is finding an embedded nonvolatile memory for the process, given embedded flash is expected to hit limits at 14nm.

A GlobalFoundries executive declined to say when it expects to ship the first commercial chip in its 22nm FD-SOI or how many tapeouts it has completed in the process. The company announced its first FD-SOI tapeout last year and said it now has 70 customer engagements.

"Our FD-SOI business is small right now, but it will be mainstream," said Ryan Lee, a vice president of foundry marketing for Samsung.

One chip designer at the event said his company has been interested in FD-SOI for a long time. It made a test chip at STMicroelectronics but chose to work on commercial designs with Samsung because GlobalFoundries was not ready until Sanjay Jha became the its CEO, after the fabless company made its decision.

To read the full article, go to EETimes.