The platform comprises a process design kit (PDK), that’s compatible with standard electronic design automation (EDA) tools, and standard cell libraries, enabling innovators to design and manufacture custom FlexICs – the company’s ultra-thin, physically flexible application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) with a low carbon footprint.
An active early-access programme is also available, enabling lead customers to design on the platform.
FlexIC Platform Gen 3 is a more accessible and cost-efficient alternative to traditional semiconductor platforms and enables customers to create highly customised, more sustainable designs, leveraging the unique form factor – along with rapid fabrication capabilities and enhanced design efficiency – that will enable designers to bring products to market faster.
Platform Gen 3 provides manufacturing capabilities via the Pragmatic FlexIC Foundry – the UK’s first 300mm fabrication site (fab), housed at the company’s flagship production facility in Pragmatic Park, Co. Durham, England, with capacity to produce billions of chips per year.
The foundry’s production process significantly reduces the carbon footprint of semiconductor fabrication and boasts cycle times of just days, taking designs from tape-out to delivery in a matter of weeks and delivering more agile product development.
“The third generation of the FlexIC Platform makes it quicker and easier than ever before to design and manufacture FlexICs,” said Catherine Ramsdale, Pragmatic Semiconductor’s Senior Vice President of Technology. “It gives designers the tools to swiftly create and manufacture mixed-signal ASICs using our advanced metal-oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) technology, and combines a thin, flexible form factor – suitable for space-constrained applications – with lower digital power consumption and area.
“The enriched PDK makes designing on thin-film transistor technology quicker and more accurate, further accelerating design success. By enabling rapid product development and a pathway to high-volume manufacturing, we’re empowering our customers to extend the boundaries of what's possible.”
Pragmatic’s FlexIC technology is intended to help open up a vast range of AI-enabled IoT applications across the consumer, industrial and healthcare markets, from smart packaging and item-level traceability in fast-moving consumer goods and circular economy initiatives to a wide range of sensor and wearable applications.
“The launch of FlexIC Platform Gen 3 is a key milestone both in enabling our customers’ success and in reinforcing the UK’s position on the global semiconductor stage,” concluded Ramsdale.
“Gen 3 technology not only gives innovators significant digital power and area improvements, but it also further bolsters our commitment to scaling semiconductor manufacturing in the UK, for the benefit of our global customer base.”
