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SkyWater and Applied Novel Devices Sign Si Power MOSFETs License

March 11, 2020 by Paul Shepard

SkyWater Technology and Applied Novel Devices Inc. (AND) have entered into a licensing and manufacturing agreement to offer an improved standard process flow for silicon power MOSFETs.  The partnership will enable AND to bring new power device products to market based on its proprietary and patented technologies and SkyWater’s high volume manufacturing capabilities.

The licensing agreement will also enable SkyWater to offer the technology as a standard foundry process flow to improve system-level performance for low-voltage (12V to 30V) applications such as wireless and battery-powered connected devices.

AND’s high-performance Si power MOSFETs are based on novel channel and substrate engineering to improve critical power MOSFET figures of merit. These products offer low RDS(on) combined with low output capacitance/charge, low gate drive down to 2.5V and an industry-first near zero reverse recovery charge enabling low switching losses in applications.

Low RDS(on) and reverse recovery will enable improved efficiency and, in some cases, reduced part counts, yielding lower cost and higher efficiency switching systems in applications such as power supplies and motor controls.

The combination of low RDS(on), low gate drive, and low output charge will also enable performance improvements in soft/resonant switching applications. Further, the thin body design makes the devices more robust against temperature variations and is anticipated to provide inherent radiation hardened characteristics.

“We were attracted to SkyWater as a partner due to the flexibility and strength of their process development organization which enables us to rapidly bring our unique products to market,” said Leo Mathew, Co-Founder & CEO, Applied Novel Devices. “After working for several years on this novel device technology, we are very excited to bring it to realization in an IP secure manufacturing environment.”

“As we build our portfolio of power management solutions, this partnership with AND is making highly relevant U.S. manufactured technology available to our foundry customers,” said Dr. Brad Ferguson, Chief Technology Officer. “This engagement is the exact type in which the Technology Foundry model excels – we’re taking a new technology, creating a standard process flow, and delivering it to the market on a commercial scale.”

In addition to MOSFETs, SkyWater also supports power management applications with IGBT and TVS diode manufacturing services as well as high-voltage CMOS for PMICs. Near the end of 2020 the company will be releasing a 130nm BCD (Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) with NVM (non-volatile memory) process flow to enable power management SoCs critical for enabling smart devices across multiple categories.