Kilopass and UMC Sign Long Term Technology Roadmap Agreement

Update: Synopsys Expands DesignWare IP Portfolio with Acquisition of Kilopass Technology (Jan. 10, 2018)

Kilopass’ Logic NVM Leadership & Customer Adoption Combine with UMC’s Strong Technology and Customer Composition to Expand Business in Asia for Both

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and Hsinchu, Taiwan November 30, 2011– Kilopass Technology Inc., a leading provider of semiconductor logic non-volatile memory (NVM) intellectual property (IP), and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303), a leading global semiconductor company, today jointly announced that they have expanded their existing manufacturing license agreement. In addition to the 40nm low-power process in the current agreement, the extension will cover UMC technology processes spanning from 55nm to 130nm. Future plans include UMC’s 28nm High-K metal gate (HKMG) and Poly/SiOn processes, based upon customer demand.  This technology roadmap supports the companies’ mutual customers to achieve leading edge SoCs with Kilopass’ XPM, GustoM, and Itera NVM products for a wide range of UMC process nodes. 

This agreement broadens UMC’s engagement with Kilopass’ based on increased customer adoption and the leadership position Kilopass has in embedded logic NVM technology. Kilopass perceives design activity in greater China has increased rapidly, and that UMC’s dominance has become a significant factor to Kilopass’ continued growth. 

“We are pleased to add Kilopass as another member of UMC’s circle of strategic partners,” said S.C. Chien, Vice President of Customer Engineering & IP Development & design Support at UMC.  “We see Kilopass’ OTP (One Time Programmable) roadmap, customer adoption, and broad portfolio of unique offerings as convincing factors for an ideal OTP partner for UMC.  Their logic NVM solutions will nicely complement UMC’s existing embedded NVM portfolio, which includes eFlash, eE2PROM, eMTP, eOTP and eFuse.  We look forward to Kilopass continuing the excellent support it has delivered thus far.”

“I am very excited that Kilopass has won UMC to our anti-fuse NVM technology,” said Charlie Cheng, president and CEO of Kilopass Technology, Inc.  “Finally, we have achieved our strategic initiative of covering the broad range of UMC product line so we can be truly successful in greater China, where customers appreciate UMC’s focus on best price/performance and customer-first business approach.”

About the Partnership

The initial partnership started in 2010 with UMC’s 40LP process, which is available now.  With customer demand increasing for other technology nodes, both companies decided to provide anti-fuse embedded NVM as an off-the-shelf ready product at 130/110/55nm processes with future plans to include HKMG processes.

The agreement will start with the foundry’s 55SP (Standard Performance 55-nanometer) process, a sweet spot for several consumer infotainment projects. Both companies expect to start delivering 55SP solutions in Q4, 2011 with the rest of the roadmap delivered in 2012.  UMC’s 55SP delivers competitive price/performance and turnaround time while Kilopass offers these customers an embedded NVM solution that can provide a broad product range from 4Kb to 4Mb, covering an extensive ecosystem.

About UMC

UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced technology and manufacturing services for applications spanning every major sector of the IC industry. UMC's customer-driven foundry solutions allow chip designers to leverage the strength of the company's leading-edge processes, which include production proven 40nm, mixed signal/RFCMOS, and a wide range of specialty technologies. Production is supported through 10 wafer manufacturing facilities that include two advanced 300mm fabs; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based Fab 12i are both in volume production for a variety of customer products. The company employs over 13,000 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com

About Kilopass

Kilopass Technology, Inc., a leading supplier of embedded NVM intellectual property, leverages standard logic CMOS processes to deliver one-time programmable (OTP) and many-time programmable (MTP) memory. With 58 patents granted or pending and more than 800,000 wafers shipped from a dozen foundries and Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs), Kilopass has more than 100 customers in applications ranging from storage of firmware and security codes to calibration data and other application-critical information.  The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif.  For more information, visit www.kilopass.com or email info@kilopass.com.