Technology has become indispensable part of MCUs and secure smart cards

Microchip, through its SST subsidiary, has enabled the shipment of more than 75 billion semiconductor devices with embedded SuperFlash technology. Through their strong ecosystem of foundry, fabless and IDM partners, SuperFlash memory has become an important source of innovation and has helped original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) differentiate their automotive, consumer, industrial and medical products throughout the past three decades. “As the semiconductor industry has gone fabless, more and more semiconductor companies are taking advantage of our differentiated nonvolatile memory IP solution through SST’s flexible licensing model,” said Mark Reiten, vice president of Technology Licensing for SST. “As we have enabled a series of foundry, IDM and fabless partners, SuperFlash technology has become the hidden gem of innovation in the semiconductor industry. This technology is quietly reaching a majority of the world’s population through electronic devices and machines they depend on.” SuperFlash technology was first introduced in high-volume production in 1995 with ESF-1 (the first generation of Embedded SuperFlash). The latest generation in development is ESF-3 for 28nm process nodes. From ESF-1 to ESF-3 the technology has proven to be scalable, compatible with standard manufacturing processes and highly reliable. It also contributes to reducing costs associated with high-volume production through high-yielding, area-optimised IP and low mask count foundry processes.