ZFOUNDRY (Dresden, Germany), a wholly owned subsidiary of ZMD AG (Dresden, Germany), 1st Silicon Sdn. Bhd. (Kuching, Malaysia) announced that they have entered a strategic partnership for sourcing and joint development of advanced automotive technologies for deep sub-micron processes. The joint program combines ZMD's established expertise in automotive design, high-voltage processes and manufacturing with the process know-how and production capabilities of 1st Silicon.
The collaboration will result in a 0.18 µm process platform for automotive applications. While the initial development and production will be conducted at 1st Silicon's advanced process facilities in Kuching, the partners plan to provide volume production in both Kuching and Dresden. In addition, 1st Silicon has also started to implement ZMD's non-volatile memory module (NVSRAM) in production of 0.18 µm-based non-volatile products for ZMD.
ZMD CEO Thilo von Selchow stated, "We are extremely excited about the perspectives offered by this partnership with 1st Silicon for ZMD's future market penetration in both NVSRAM as well as advanced automotive products. The first NVSRAM products are ready to enter the market in the third quarter of this year. It is a unique leverage of capabilities that each party would not be able to perform alone."
