~Offered in two types, for 28 GHz and 80 GHz~

Yokohama, Japan, January 11, 2018 – Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited today announced that, in collaboration with Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., it has developed and launched a 55nm CMOS process design kit (PDK) capable of high precision circuit design aimed at the millimeter wave market, such as automobile radars and 5G mobile communication systems. Using this PDK, customers can design large-scale circuits efficiently and with high precision, including multiple millimeter wave circuits, such as amplifiers and frequency conversion circuits.

Background

In the effort to create essential systems at low cost, such as 5G mobile communications systems that can handle the sudden and massive increase in mobile traffic of recent years, or automobile radar systems that can support future self-driving cars, attention is being drawn to CMOS circuits that can operate in the millimeter waveband (30-300 GHz) with high performance and low consumption of power. Because of the difficulty in creating highly precise element models, due to the shortness of the signal wavelength in the millimeter waveband (less than a few millimeters on the surface of a semiconductor substrate), it was previously necessary to repeatedly make numerous prototype circuits to ultimately achieve the desired level of performance, significantly increasing development time and chip prototyping costs.

Features of the Millimeter Wave PDK

Now,a PDK optimized for millimeter waveband design has been launched that uses both C55LP (low power) 55nm CMOS process technology and C55DDC (deeply depleted channel), which is Fujitsu’s proprietary ultra-low power consumption technology. This PDK, jointly developed with Fujitsu Laboratories, can design large-scale transceiver circuits for frequency bands below 100 GHz with high precision, including features such as transmission circuits and transistors with element parameters and structural layouts optimized for the millimeter waveband.

Features of the Newly Launched PDK

• SPICE model for use with millimeter waves, with silicon tested for up to 110 GHz
• Pcells and elements with optimized characteristics
  • Transistors for use with millimeter waves
  • Transmission circuits
  • Inductors, MIM/MOM capacity, varactors, resistors and diodes
  • Pads
• Supports tools from major EDA vendors
• Supported technologies: C55LP, C55DDC
• Supported frequency bands: 28 GHz, 80 GHz

Use Cases and Results

The receiver circuit example below consists of a multi-stage amplifier, which amplifies millimeter waveband signals with high gain, and a quadrature demodulator, which can separate and demodulate two multiplexed signals with high accuracy. Multi-stage amplifiers, in particular, were often difficult to design with high precision for the millimeter waveband, because each time a stage was added, the deviation between designed values and measured values widened. With this newly launched PDK, however, it is now possible to design multi-stage amplifiers with extremely high precision (Figure 1).

Using this PDK, customers can increase their design precision, not just for amplifiers, but for a whole range of millimeter wave circuits, including broadband quadrature demodulators, frequency converters, and voltage controlled oscillators, enabling them to develop large-scale millimeter waveband transceiver circuits in a short timeframe.

Figure 1: Example of multi-stage amplifier design and designed values vs. measured values

Future Plans

In order to contribute to lower development man-hours and further product improvements for customers with regard to millimeter wave applications, Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor is continuing to prepare millimeter wave PDKs that even take packaging into consideration. It plans to launch these PDKs sequentially in fiscal 2018, including related services, such as analog circuit macros and millimeter waveband element evaluation.

About Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor

Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor is a pure-play foundry company based on 300mm wafer manufacturing facilities located in Kuwana city, Mie, Japan. Headquartered in Yokohama, it was established as a subsidiary of Fujitsu Semiconductor Limited on December 1, 2014. UMC became its minority shareholder in March 2015. Mie Fujitsu Semiconductor provides high-quality technology and services, with wide-ranging expertise focusing on Ultra-Low-Power, Non-Volatile Memory and RF Technology. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/jp/mifs/en/