Tower Semiconductor expedites production of mixed-signal integrated circuit for Smart Link.

Tower Semiconductor has launched production of a Coder-Decoder (CODEC) integrated circuit (IC) for Smart Link, Ltd., a leading developer and supplier of modem solutions for the communications industry. With an initial production order released already and forecasted orders of few million dice, this production marks the opportunity for a long term relationship between Tower and Smart Link.

Utilizing 0.18-micron, mixed-signal technology in its Fab 2 facility, Tower's prototype process enabled the successful development of Smart Link's SL2800B (Raptor). Tower began producing the SL2800B (Raptor) ICs shortly after prototyping began, utilizing Tower's Shuttle program. Factors essential to the acceleration of production were the simultaneous implementation of the intellectual property (IP) block with the packaging and testing of the first batch of ICs.

Avnet ASIC Israel and Chipidea, participants in Tower's Authorized Design Center program (TADC), helped to achieve first silicon quickly and efficiently. Chipidea provided the mixed signal IP, and Avnet ASIC Israel provided design kits, libraries and other manufacturing tools. Avnet has also integrated the IP and Smart Link logic design and performed Place and Route, Test Vector Generation and Tape Out according to Tower's Design Rules.

"The Smart Link project demonstrates Tower's ability to accelerate the time from project kick-off to production, helping customers achieve exceptional time-to-market," said Danny Hacohen, Tower's vice president of sales for Europe and Asia. "Tower's leadership in mixed-signal execution and close work with its customer and design partners lead to first-time silicon production with maximum efficiency."

"Smart Link benefits greatly from the combined resources of Avnet, ChipIdea and Tower," said Moty Mebel co-founder and CEO of Smart Link "The partnership made the production and verification of our device possible in a quick and highly efficient manner, and we look forward to future projects executed with the same ease and cooperative spirit."

Tower's Authorized Design Center program was launched in September 2003 to help customers accelerate the design-to-silicon process and enhance first-time silicon success. Chipmakers, particularly fabless companies, can augment their own design resources with the specialized design capabilities of Tower-authorized design centers. By working with the design centers, chipmakers can create integrated circuit designs optimized for Tower's manufacturing process technologies. Authorized design centers are capable of designing both complete integrated circuits and embedded IP blocks.