Lattice and UMC announce strategic partnership

Lattice Semiconductor Corp. has entered a long term technology partnership with the semiconductor foundry (UMC) United Microelectronics Corporation, and both will continue work, already underway, on non-volatile products based on advanced technology nodes, expanding their efforts to include other Lattice product lines. "As Lattice has pursued increasingly price- and power-sensitive markets, from communications infrastructure to consumer mobile devices, we have recognized that having a scalable non-volatile technology is a key success factor," said Darin G. Billerbeck, Lattice Semiconductor President and CEO. "Our acquisition of SiliconBlue in December 2011 provided that technology, and our announcement with UMC gives us a foundry partner that is committed to deliver innovative products quickly using that technology. Lattice is already actively engaged with UMC, and we plan to release 40nm non-volatile products manufactured by UMC by the end of 2012; we are also targeting future generations of our key product lines at the 28nm node." Lattice most recent product announcement has been the introduction of their Power Manager II that simplifies and increases the reliability of power failure protection circuitry in Solid State Drives (SSD). The device integrates the charging and power switchover circuit of the hold-up capacitor. In the case of tantalum hold-up capacitor applications, it eliminates the need for a voltage boost converter. Dr. Shih-Wei Sun, CEO of UMC, said, "We are pleased to expand our relationship with Lattice Semiconductor to bring their upcoming 40nm and 28nm products to market. UMC's 28nm HLP (Hybrid Laser Plasma) process is engineered to meet performance targets while maintaining low power and cost efficiency, which will enable Lattice to gain competitive advantages in the low power FPGA market. "Furthermore, our ongoing capacity expansion and recent groundbreaking of Phases 5 & 6 at the 300mm Fab 12A will serve Lattice's long-term advanced manufacturing requirements. We look forward to a productive and fruitful partnership." www.latticesemi.com www.umc.com