September 12, 2012 -- X-FAB Silicon Foundries AG today announced the industry's first open-platform MEMS 3D inertial sensor process available directly from a high-volume pure-play foundry. With access to the new 3D inertial-sensor process, fabless and other companies will be able to apply their own designs or use X-FAB's design partner, and immediately run wafer volumes without long and costly process development.

The new MEMS technology is suitable for a wide range of applications such as mobile devices, consumer goods, games and toys, automotive, robotics, industrial and medical equipment that use 3D accelerometers or gyroscopes. One-axis and 2-axis designs can be produced with the same process. Accelerometer and gyroscope designs also can be placed side-by-side on a single chip made with the same process, enabling the manufacture of 6DoF IMU.

X-FAB's new technology features robust, single-crystal silicon for inertial masses and drive-combs, proprietary buried contact technology that supports complex metal interconnects using a single metal layer, low parasitic capacitance and EMI protection. The 3D inertial-sensor process complements X-FAB's established 1D/2D inertial sensor, pressure sensor and infra-red thermopile open-platform processes, and its ready-made IP blocks for 2G, 10G and 100G accelerometers. The new 3D inertial-sensor technology was developed using X-FAB's step-by-step qualification procedures to ensure the process is characterized, stable, and high-yielding. All X-FAB manufacturing sites are ISO 9001 and ISO TS16949 qualified.

Availability

The technology is available now for engineering services and early access prototyping, with full qualification and complete design rule access coming early in 2013.

Posted by: John Miklosz