[EE Times]Samsung Endorses FD-SOI

[Homeles]

Samsung brings reliable production capacity to 28nm FD-SOI, which the companies hope will encourage designers to adopt the process. While ST is already qualified for volume production at its Crolles facility, they needed more production volume. "ST couldn't support it [28nm FD-SOI] so they needed a partner," said Len Jelinek, IHS's research director for semiconductor manufacturing, in an interview with EE Times. "Choosing Samsung was a logical move."

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322353

Looks like FD-SOI finally found a home.

 

[Phynaz]

I like the EETimes article, they go into details of what products will be produced.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322353

 

[Homeles]

I like EETime article, they go into details of what products will be produced.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322353

I like it better too. Semiwiki doesn't really deserve the traffic anyway

Anyway, FD-SOI just seems too late. Might make a good 20nm node, though.

 

[Idontcare]

ST has been shopping this around for some time now. Glad they finally found a taker.

Doubtful that this will have any effect on anyone outside of ST though, they wanted access to 28nm FDSOI capacity but weren't willing to invest in building that capacity themselves. We are at least a year away from finding out if Samsung followed through on building out the capacity that ST is looking for, but for now it makes for some nice news.

 

[witeken]

Who is ST?

I guess STM(icroelectronics). Strange abbreviation.

 

[Idontcare]

Who is ST?

I guess STM(icroelectronics). Strange abbreviation.

Same company. People in the industry call them ST out of habit because it is shorter than saying "STM" or "STMicro" all the time, and everyone knows who you are talking about when you say "ST". Same as "xtor" as an abbreviation for "transistor", the abbr doesn't actually translate correctly (as that would be crosstor in this case) but everyone who deals with xtors on a daily basis knows what it means so the communication is effective nonetheless.

 

[NostaSeronx]

The awkward part of the story is that ST Microelectronics isn't the one who owns the nodes.

IBM owns ST Microelectronics 28nm FDSOI process.
IBM created the foundation for the 14nm FDSOI, with their 22nm ETSOI.

The ones tweaking the 14nm FDSOI node is GlobalFoundries' ex-AMD ASTA engineers.

It's a weird path;
IBM (Foundation)
GlobalFoundries / IBM / CEA-Leti (Research)
GlobalFoundries (Direction of Research)
CEA-Leti / ST Microelectronics (First Implementation)
GlobalFoundries / Samsung / UMC / IBM / ST Microelectronics (Production)