Jazz Semiconductor Announces Advanced Modeling Tool for Analog and RF Foundry Customers

Jazz Process Control Model Tool (PCMT) Allows Designers to Close the Loop Between Circuit Simulation and Actual Product Designs

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., June 1, 2006 -- Jazz Semiconductor, an independent wafer foundry focused primarily on specialty CMOS process technologies, today announced it is offering an innovative Process Control Model Tool (PCMT) to its customers through its eBizz Web interface. Jazz Semiconductor's PCMT allows designers to close the loop between simulated results from their silicon models and actual results for their product designs at the lot, wafer, or die level. The PCMT efficiently allows designers to correlate wafer measurements to simulations, serving as an effective tool for design optimization and cycle time reduction.

The difficulties encountered in RF and analog design can be minimized if a foundry can offer a design and modeling environment tailored to address the specific hurdles encountered in increasingly complex designs. The PCMT supplements an extensive modeling infrastructure already in place at Jazz and underscores the company's continued efforts to provide its customers with a design environment optimized for analog and RF designs. Jazz currently offers Monte Carlo, mismatch and statistical models for its processes as well as fully scalable models for up front design optimization. This front end modeling infrastructure used during the design phase, coupled with the PCMT, allows circuit designers to bridge the gap between circuit and silicon.

The PCMT generates a model library where the process related model parameters are extracted based on measured PCM (Process Control Monitors) data. The PCMT model is in effect a single statistical model run that corresponds to the specific die, wafer or lot. The PCMT engine uses the nominal model distributed with the Jazz design kit and adjusts it through a modified Backward Propagation of Variances (BPV) infrastructure to match specific PCM data sets. The tool is completely automated through the Jazz eBizz site, through which registered customers can launch PCMT runs on their foundry material. Once requested through eBizz, the model libraries are delivered to the customer electronically, and are immediately accessible through the Jazz Process Design Kits (PDKs). Jazz PCMT models are also available for multi-project wafer (MPWs) for customers who are looking for low cost prototyping solutions to debug their data without having to execute several mask spins.

"Jazz strives to deliver modeling platforms that enable our customers to successfully design for manufacturability. With PCMT, we have augmented our statistical modeling platform with an automated and direct feedback mechanism for our customers, closing the loop between design to specification and silicon performance," said Dr. James Victory, RF Modeling and Characterization Manager at Jazz Semiconductor.

"The Jazz PCMT is a significant enhancement to an already impressive modeling and design platform. The PCMT allowed Airoha to take our own PCM data from actual silicon that ran in the Jazz fab, and build it back into our designs real time. This allowed us to simulate design performance based on real measured data, which allowed us to shorten the debug time and ultimately achieve quicker time to market," said Michael Lu, president at Airoha.

Availability
PCMT is currently available to Jazz customers through eBizz on the company's website for SBC35, CA18, and SBC18.

About Jazz Semiconductor
Jazz Semiconductor is an independent wafer foundry primarily focused on specialty CMOS process technologies, including High Voltage CMOS, SiGe BiCMOS and RFCMOS for the manufacture of highly integrated analog and mixed-signal semiconductor devices. The company's specialty process technologies are designed for customers who seek to produce analog and mixed-signal semiconductor devices that are smaller and more highly integrated, power-efficient, feature-rich and cost-effective than those produced using standard process technologies. Jazz customers target the wireless and high-speed wireline communications, consumer electronics, automotive and industrial end markets. Jazz's executive offices and its U.S. wafer fabrication facilities are located in Newport Beach, CA. For more information, please visit www.jazzsemi.com.