TowerJazz Licenses Kilopass’ One-Time Programmable Non-Volatile Memory IP
Offers customers high performance and secure storage at reduced cost
MIGDAL HAEMEK, Israel, and SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 15, 2010 – TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, and Kilopass Technology, a leading provider of semiconductor logic non-volatile memory (NVM) intellectual property (IP), today announced that TowerJazz has licensed Kilopass’ one-time programmable (OTP) memory intellectual property (IP) for its 0.13μm CMOS process. Kilopass XPM™ OTP technology is built using standard, commercially available CMOS logic process technologies and is silicon proven to deliver high density, high performance, and highly reliable, electrically field-programmable embedded NVM solutions at a low cost.
Kilopass was the first to pioneer antifuse technology, which is used to permanently program integrated circuits (ICs) in a standard CMOS process without extra mask steps. Antifuse is known to provide the highest degree of physical security for the permanent storage of sensitive information and is ideal for design IP protection. OTP devices can store data even during power shutdown. The data is programmed during production and stored forever. These types of devices frequently are used in video game consoles, mobile phones, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, implantable medical devices, high-definition multimedia interfaces (HDMI) and in many other consumer and automotive electronics products.
“Kilopass is a proven leader in OTP IP and we are pleased to offer their solution to benefit our customers and enable them with the design advantages offered by this technology,” said Ori Galzur, Vice President, VLSI Design Center at TowerJazz. “In addition to using it for 0.13μm CMOS designs, we have the flexibility to transfer it to other advanced nodes. By offering Kilopass OTP, we continue to expand the world-class services we provide to our customers for the cost-effective manufacture of their differentiated products and this expands our addressable market by approximately $100 million.”
“We are excited that TowerJazz, a specialty foundry leader with deep NVM expertise, has chosen our XPM OTP solution to offer their customers high-reliability designs at a lower cost,” said Linh Hong, Vice President of Marketing at Kilopass. “Because our patented XPM technology doesn’t require any changes to the masks, manufacturing steps, or equipment used, foundries such as TowerJazz are able to keep manufacturing costs low while providing high-value designs.”
Availability
For availability, please contact TowerJazz at info_general@towerjazz.com.
About TowerJazz
Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (NASDAQ: TSEM, TASE: TSEM), the global specialty
foundry leader and its fully owned U.S. subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor, operate collectively under the brand name TowerJazz, manufacturing integrated circuits with geometries ranging from 1.0 to 0.13-micron. TowerJazz provides industry leading design enablement tools to allow complex designs to be achieved quickly and more accurately and offers a broad range of customizable process technologies including SiGe, BiCMOS, Mixed-Signal and RFCMOS, CMOS Image Sensor, Power Management (BCD), and Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) as well as MEMS capabilities. To provide world-class customer service, TowerJazz maintains two manufacturing facilities in Israel and one in the U.S. with additional capacity available in China through manufacturing partnerships. For more information, please visit www.towerjazz.com.
Safe Harbor Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary from those projected or implied by such forward-looking statements. A complete discussion of risks and uncertainties that may affect the accuracy of forward-looking statements included in this press release or which may otherwise affect Tower and/or Jazz’s business is included under the heading “Risk Factors” in Tower’s most recent filings on Forms 20-F, F-3, F-4 and 6-K, as were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and the Israel Securities Authority and Jazz’s most recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, as were filed with the SEC, respectively. Tower and Jazz do not intend to update, and expressly disclaim any obligation to update, the information contained in this release
For TowerJazz
Company Contact:
Melinda Jarrell
949/435-8181
melinda.jarrell@towerjazz.com
Media Contact:
Lauri Julian
949/715-3049
lauri.julian@towerjazz.com
Investor Relations Contact:
Levi Noit
+972 4 604 7066
noit.levi@towerjazz.com