June 18, 2007 -- Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Ltd. and Tezzaron Semiconductor, a specialist in high-speed memory solutions and 3D wafer stacking processes, announced that Chartered is beginning to ramp production of Tezzaron’s unique ultra high-speed memory chips. In addition, the two companies are working on the manufacture of Tezzaron’s 3D devices.

Chartered is manufacturing Tezzaron’s 3T-iRAM family of two-dimensional 72-Mbit memory devices. These parts use proprietary technology that mimics SRAM but provides even greater speed and higher reliability while drawing less power. The devices will be packaged with industry-standard interfaces so that equipment suppliers can swap them into their current products with no design changes. Chartered worked closely with Tezzaron to support the development of this product to improve its manufacturability and reduce manufacturing costs. The devices, built on Chartered’s 0.13-micron process, are well-suited for applications such as telecom and datacom equipment.

"Chartered has shown a willingness to work with us and push the envelope on some new approaches that we believe hold great potential for the entire IC industry," said J.T. Ayers, CEO of Tezzaron. "We are very pleased with the results achieved with our 3T-iRAM family of SRAM replacement devices. Chartered’s capabilities have been instrumental in implementing them with the reliability and cost model we require. We believe 3D technology can directly address the growing interconnect and real estate issue in today’s complex chips, and it’s assuring to have a partner like Chartered to demonstrate its commercial viability in volume production."

With Tezzaron’s FaStack technology, device circuitry is divided into sections that are built onto separate wafers using standard processing. Chartered enables 3D stacking of these wafers by building hundreds of thousands of Tezzaron’s embedded thru-silicon interconnections, called Super-Contacts, into the circuitry on each wafer. The wafers are then aligned with a precision of 0.5-micron, bonded, thinned, and diced into individual devices. Unlike many 3D solutions that connect only at the I/O pads, a FaStack chip functions as a single device due to its abundant internal Super-Contacts.

The first products manufactured at Chartered using this approach will be the proven 72-Mbit memory device, currently in production, which will be double stacked to create a 144-Mbit SRAM replacement product. The increased density of this product will allow system developers to use fewer components, create simpler designs, reduce cost and power requirements, make testing easier, and still keep pace with the ever-accelerating demand for more computer memory.