SK keyfoundry, an 8-inch pure-play foundry in Korea, announced today the launch of its Multi-Level Thick IMD (Inter-Metal Dielectric) process for capacitors, which features high breakdown voltage characteristics.
High breakdown voltage characteristics of digital insulators enhance the safety and reliability of semiconductor devices, and also improve their lifespan and noise immunity. The new Multi-Level Thick IMD process enables the stacking of up to three inter-metal dielectric (IMD) layers, each with a maximum thickness of 6μm, creating a total thickness of up to 18μm in a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure. This provides high breakdown voltage characteristics of up to 19,000V along with high capacitance performance. The process is expected to be used in the manufacturing of capacitors for digital isolation and for suppressing capacitive coupling in electronic circuits.
Capacitors manufactured with this process have successfully passed major customers’ TDDB (Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown) evaluations and have met the AEC-Q100 international automotive semiconductor quality standard for high-reliability operation in harsh environments. In particular, the process can be integrated into 0.13µm and 0.18µm BCD process technologies, making it highly applicable to the automotive semiconductor field.
Additionally design support tools, including PDK (Process Design Kit), DRC, LPE, LVS, and Pcell, are provided to help customers accelerate product development.
SK keyfoundry highlighted that this digital isolation technology will offer a competitive advantage in performance, reliability, integration, and cost-efficiency for electronic devices that require high noise immunity in the fields of EVs, industry, telecommunications, and healthcare, compared to devices based on conventional optical isolators.
“We are pleased to introduce our industry-leading Multi-Level Thick IMD process technology for digital insulators, which is gaining attention across the electronics industry, including EVs,” said Derek D. Lee, CEO of SK keyfoundry. “SK keyfoundry will continue to develop highly reliable isolation technologies that meet diverse customer needs by providing world-class process technologies not only to domestic customers but also to overseas customers, including in the United States, China, and Taiwan, leveraging our outstanding mass production experience compared to competitors.”
