HIT-Kit News, vol. 23

Welcome to the 23rd edition of HIT-Kit NEWS our e-mail newsletter issued by the austriamicrosystems Full Service Foundry Dept. containing news, facts and information to help you to get the best out of our design kits. In this edition you will find news about:

• HIT-Kit Patch Files
• EMC Consulting Service at austriamicrosystems
• Did you know...
• Updated Design Documents
• Updated Circuit Simulation Parameters
• Short Cuts
• austriamicrosystems in the News

We have released new HIT-Kit patch files recently on our Download Area to keep the latest HIT-Kit versions up to date. These patches are available for the 0.35µm technologies C35 and S35 and:

• Solve a problem with Diva Macro LVS when using cells from CORELIB and CORELIB_3B
• Include dummy SPIRALS libraries which are needed for customers not having access to the full Mixed-Signal HIT-Kit (solving the "view not found" problem during extraction of a layout).
• Include updated license management programs "amslmd" and "lmgrd" (for Linux users only)

In order to have a most actual HIT-Kit installation be sure that all patches for the relevant technologies are installed in the appropriate HIT-Kit environment. Please note that the patch files are decrypted and your HIT-Kit license file is required for the installation.

EMC Consulting Service: Integrated Circuits themselves do not produce high electromagnetic emissions but they are often found to be one of the emission sources of the electronic product in which they are integrated. Therefore, Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) has even become an issue for chip designers.

austriamicrosystems is the only foundry worldwide offering a customer specific consulting on EMC. One of the characterization methods offered to our customers is the so-called "IEC 61967-3 Surface Scan Method". It enables the visualization of the actual magnetic- as well as the electric-field distribution at the surface of an IC-package as well as at the surface of a die.

More detailed information to the EMC consulting services offered by austriamicrosystems AG is available at http://www.austriamicrosystems.com/05foundry/emc_consulting.htm

Did you know that there is a Revision Block Generator included in our HIT-Kits? This tool allows you to automatically generate a Revision Block which must be placed in the layout of every design submitted to austriamicrosystems AG for production. The generated Revision Block includes:

• Device Number: A required, unique 5-digit project identifier provided by your local sales office.
• Overlay Number: An optional 3-digit number which is appended to the device number. Normally it is used to distinguish between different mask options.
• Mask Revision and GDSII Layer Number: All information about a layer must appear on that specific layer. Different revisions of masks are signified by the corresponding revision letter in the Mask Revision.

This identifier has to be placed on the layout to assign the different masks and different revisions of masks to the associated design.
Example:

For more details please refer to the related documentation.

The following Design Documents have been revised or newly released. Please download the updated documents from our Download Area:

Cadence HIT-Kit v3.60: austriamicrosystems' Design Support team is currently working on a new version of the Cadence HIT-Kit. The new release will include the high performance 0.35µm process technologies C35 (CMOS) and S35 (SiGe-BiCMOS) and the 0.8µm technologies CXQ (CMOS), CXZ (CMOS High Voltage), BYQ (BiCMOS) and BYR (SiGe-BiCMOS). The new HIT-Kit will be qualified for the latest release of Cadence design tools and may be used within Solaris, HP-UX and Linux operating systems. It is planned to be released and distributed to you in July.

Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment: austriamicrosystems AG has implemented a Pb-free/RoHS compliance program to ban the use of lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd) and hexavalent chromium (Cr 6) in soldering material from its products. Read more detailed information available at here...

April 2, 2004: New Cell Phone with austriamicrosystems' Mobile Music Chip: One of the world's top three mobile phone manufacturers has chosen austriamicrosystems' AS3521 mobile entertainment IC as the basis for the audio section of a new cell phone model with sophisticated music and audio features. The AS3521 is a totally self-contained digital audio system-on-a-chip, fitting easily into the baseband architecture of different GSM/EDGE and CDMA chipsets. >> Press Release

March 22, 2004: Flarion Technologies selects austriamicrosystems power management unit for FLASH-OFDM« wireless broadband technology: The AS3603 PMU integrates multiple functions for portable devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. austriamicrosystems' AS3603 power management unit has been selected by mobile broadband communications leader, Flarion Technologies, for integration into its IP-friendly FLASH (Fast Low-latency Access with Seamless Hand-off) OFDM« (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) mobile broadband system. Flarion's FLASH-OFDM technology supports secure Internet access, broadband speed and cellular mobility. >> Press Release

March 9, 2004: AS8444/46 PWM DC motor driver/controller IC reduces component count up to 50%à  Programmable motor driver/controller IC from austriamicrosystems eliminates EMC filters for automotive applications. Providing automotive electronics engineers with a means to implement programmable PWM (pulse-width modulated) motor control without external EMC filters, international semiconductor manufacturer austriamicrosystems has developed a fully programmable IC specifically designed for high current electric motor applications. >> Press Release

March 2, 2004: austriamicrosystems signs development contract with POLAR Electro, the world's leading producer of heart rate monitors. austriamicrosystems signed a development contract for the design and supply of an ultra-low power heart-rate receiver ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) with POLAR Electro OY, the world's leading producer of heart-rate monitors (HRMs). The agreement underscores austriamicrosystems' commitment to the healthcare sector, expanding its products into the personal healthcare and well being segments of the healthcare industry. >> Press Release

February 11, 2004: austriamicrosystems unveils new single-chip ICs for telephone wireline applications. Fully featured, the AS2523 and AS2524 are ideal for both handset and handsfree designs. austriamicrosystems has launched two new telephone line interface and speakerphone CMOS ICs that are ideal for both handset and handsfree applications. >> Press Release

February 6, 2004: austriamicrosystems expands Multi Product Wafer Service for CMOS, High-Voltage and RF Processes for its Foundry Customer. austriamicrosystems provides a cost-efficient and fast ASIC prototyping service by combining several designs from different customers onto one wafer. This approach, known as Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) or shuttle run, allows to share the costs for wafer and masks among a number of customers. >> Press Release

January 16, 2004: austriamicrosystems announces enhanced power management unit for handheld devices. New AS3603 IC is ideal for mobile applications including cell phones, PDAs and digital cameras. austriamicrosystems has unveiled the AS3603, an enhanced version of its outstanding AS3601 power management platform. Providing mobile device manufacturers with a truly versatile power management IC, this integrated real-time programmable power management IC significantly reduces the bill of materials for mobile devices and consumes 60% less PCB space. >> Press Release