SOI Sauce

Why do I raise these questions? Simply to address the naysayers who - with their heads in the sand - persist in the view that SOI cannot become a mainstream process technology.

Clearly they are wrong. SOI is already in the mainstream. Last year alone SOI chips worth $8Bn were produced. While that only represents a little over three percent of the total chips sold, the growth rate is phenomenal: in 2005 only $4Bn SOI devices were shipped. More, it is the newer, more complex, challenging designs that are turning to SOI.

So for those of you wondering where all these SOI applications are, let me enlighten you:

The most often quoted SOI application is games. That's right, your kids are ahead of you - they are already using applications based on SOI everyday (and quite probably all night!) The chips that power the Sony Playstation, Microsoft's X-box and the wonderful Wii from Nintendo are all SOI devices.

One other application that most SOI watchers quote is AMD's range of microprocessors - way back from the introduction of the Opteron server processor in 2003 to the latest 65nm dual core device, AMD's devices have been produced using SOI. And then of course, how can we forget about IBM, whose PowerPC products are produced on SOI wafers processed in their own fabs and at Chartered Semi.

Is that it? Not hardly - here are some you may not have heard of:

 Smart power devices may actually be biggest user of SOI technology. At a prestigious forum on SOI last year, a Philips spokesperson commented that SOI provides Philips with a "clear performance advantage in Smart Power Technologies", adding that the company was producing "approaching one billion SOI chips per year".

 Honeywell has put SOI into space - its SOI rad-hard foundry services are delivering 150nm digital ASICS for missions to Mars and Jupiter

 OKI is developing ultra-low power watch chips on SOI

 Luxtera - a start up CMOS Photonics company is making its chips using Freescale's130nm SOI process

 X-Fab has announced XT06, a new 0.6µm SOI CMOS technology which reduces die size by up to 40%. Applications include power management, automotive and optical devices.
 Then of course, there is the company I work for - Innovative Silicon Inc with its Gen 2 memory IP technology.

All these companies - major corporations and tiny start-ups alike - have seen the benefits of SOI, and more are moving every day.

SOI - name-dropping all the way into the mainstream!