Leading Flash and Foundry Suppliers Partner to Supplement Manufacturing for Spansion's 110 Nanometer MirrorBitTM Technology
Spansion LLC, the Flash memory venture of AMD and Fujitsu Limited, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced a manufacturing agreement that will augment Spansion's internal production of its 110 nanometer (nm) MirrorBitTM technology. Pursuant to the agreement, TSMC will supply foundry manufacturing capabilities for Spansion's family of GL, PL and WS wireless products and GL embedded products based on 110nm MirrorBit technology.TSMC will phase Spansion's 110nm process technologies into its production lines exclusively for use in Spansion's products. Initially, Spansion's 110nm MirrorBit technology will be fabricated on 200mm wafers. The target production ramp date at TSMC is the second quarter of 2006.
About MirrorBitTM Technology
Spansion's award-winning MirrorBitTM technology is a proprietary technology, which stores two bits of data in a single memory cell, doubling the density of each memory cell. MirrorBit technology requires fewer manufacturing steps, resulting in higher yields and lower costs, eliminating at least 10 percent of the total manufacturing steps and 40 percent of the most critical manufacturing steps, as compared to floating gate MLC NOR technology.
The Spansion wireless GL product family, with a 1.8-volt and/or 3-volt interface, enables code and data applications in low-end, mid-range and higher-end mobile phones. The Spansion wireless PL product family, with a 3-volt interface, is used for a broad range of mobile phones, from entry level, basic audio-only handsets to audio and data capable phones with higher resolution color displays.
Spansion's wireless WS product family is optimized for higher-end mobile phones with capabilities such as polyphonic ring tones, enhanced color displays, higher resolution cameras, and larger internal storage for multimedia content including music, videos and pictures. The WS family combines a high-performance burst-mode 1.8-volt interface with Simultaneous Read Write and Advanced Sector Protection features at 64-megabit to 256-megabit densities for code and data requirements.
The Spansion GL-N product family for the embedded market combines expanded storage capacity with high performance and security to enable the next generation of home and automotive electronics, telecom and networking equipment. The GL-N family also includes compatible 512-, 256- and 128-megabit devices to aid customers who design numerous products based on a single platform. Software, pinout and package compatibility allows designers to upgrade, cost-reduce or otherwise modify existing products quickly and easily, without redesigning circuit boards and re-architecting software.
The 256-megabit densities of the WS family and the GL-N family are currently manufactured in volume at the company's JV-3 manufacturing facility in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan; and are planned for manufacture with TSMC.
