Nov 22 2012
United Microelectronics Corporation ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today introduced an 80nm SDDI (Small-panel Display Driver IC) foundry process with the most competitive SDDI SRAM bitcell in the foundry industry. The low power, advanced SRAM solution applies aggressive foundry design rules to shrink the bitcell size down to 0.714 um square to enable HD720/WXGA smartphone resolutions, far less than the typical 0.81um square size used in current 80nm SDDI processes. The process is ready for mass production, with several Tier-1 customers engaged for HD720/WXGA smartphone resolution applications.
Yau Kae Sheu, senior director of UMC's 12-inch Specialty Technology Development division, said, "With the proliferation of today's smartphones, UMC has stayed at the forefront of specialty technology development to help the industry consistently introduce newer, feature-enhanced products. Our available 80nm and upcoming 55nm SDDI process will help new and existing display driver customers realize higher resolution with lower power consumption for upcoming generations of smartphone displays."
The 80nm process leverages UMC's position as the worldwide foundry leader in SDDI, having shipped over 300 million SDDI chips at 0.13um for today's mainstream smartphone using WVGA and qHD resolutions. In addition to the 0.13um and 80nm SDDI processes, the foundry is also targeting next generation smartphone displays featuring full-HD with the industry's first 55nm SDDI process, which will be ready for customer design-in this quarter.