Process Enhancements Reduce R_DS(ON) in High-Voltage Mixed-Signal ASICs

Mar 30, 2005 2:40 PM

AMI Semiconductor, a designer and manufacturer of integrated mixed-signal and structured digital products, has enhanced its I2T100 Smart Power mixed-signal semiconductor technology, reducing transistor on-resistance performance (R_DS(ON)) by up to 25%. This improvement allows AMIS to improve transistor efficiency, enabling higher power capabilities or lower transistor size and facilitating further reductions to the size of mixed-signal ASICs and ASSPs employed in a variety of applications.

AMI Semiconductor's I2T100 (Intelligent Interface Technology) mixed-signal semiconductor technology includes 40-V, 60-V and 100-V high-voltage transistors based on 0.7-µm mixed-mode CMOS technology. It allows low-, medium- and high-voltage circuitry, high-precision analog circuitry, non-volatile memory, and some medium complexity digital circuitry to be integrated into a single IC. As a result, the I2T100 is suitable for automotive, industrial and computer peripheral applications such as sensor interfaces, transceivers and actuators, and motor drivers.

In the latest version of its I2T100 technology, AMIS has been able to reduce the pitch of the most used DMOS transistors by introducing new features in its back-end process. This has helped to reduce transistor size for 40-V and 60-V implementations by approximately 25%. Alternatively, for an equivalent transistor area, the new version can consume significantly less power. Embedded power switches, H-bridge circuitry and other applications requiring higher current draw (up to 5 A) will benefit most from this new enhanced transistor technology.

The I2T100 devices are created using two to three metal layers, floating NMOS and PDMOS transistors and low-, medium- and high-voltage bipolar transistors. The technology allows for integration of medium- and high-resistivity polysilicon resistors, medium- and high-voltage floating capacitors and deep, N+ doped guard rings. Using the technology, ASICs and ASSPs can integrate low-, medium- and high-voltage circuitry such as motor controller drivers and dc-dc converters alongside high-precision analog circuits, including bandgap filters, ADCs and DACs.

For more information, visit www.amis.com.

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