UMC and Integrand Advance Collaboration to Enhance 90nm and 0.13 micron RFCMOS Design Offering.

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. & HSINCHU, Taiwan -- Integrand Software, Inc., an EDA software company and UMC (NYSE:UMC), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that their ongoing collaboration has resulted in new advances and enhanced capabilities for RF/mixed mode IC designers designing into 90nm and 0.13 micron nodes.

Integrand's EMX and EMX-Continuum tools have been used to create scalable models for Metal-Oxide-Metal (MOM) capacitors and inductors. These scalable models are linked to the Integrand's Optimum Capacitor Finder (OCF(TM)) and Optimum Inductor Finder (OIF(TM)), and are now being distributed as part of UMC's Foundry Design Kit (FDK).

"We have been very happy to expand on our relationship with UMC to provide new design tools and accurate models for RFCMOS designers," said Dr. Sharad Kapur, president of Integrand Software, Inc. "The scalable models of inductors and capacitors now cover both 0.13 micron and 90nm technologies. The new scalable models for UMC's MOM capacitors and the associated OCF represent a unique solution for the capacitor synthesis problem."

Model accuracy has been verified to be within a few percent of measurements for inductance and capacitance, as well as for more sensitive parameters such as quality factor (Q). In addition, an interface has been built within the UMC FDK for direct access to the EMX simulation engine. This not only gives designers the ability to simulate components from UMC's library in the true circuit context, surrounded by other components and interconnects, but also allows designers to perform their own custom designs using UMC certified process technology files and Integrand's EMX. Furthermore, the new DFM analysis capabilities within EMX allow designers to study various effects of process variation and maximize parametric yield.

Integrand's OCF, a GUI-based synthesis tool, is now deployed within the FDK to allow UMC customers to enter their desired capacitance and make tradeoff decisions between Q and area. These models are accurate and validated by measurements on silicon wafers. The models also include the effects of dummy fill and substrate coupling. Similar to OIF, the seamless integration of OCF within the FDK allows for back annotation in order to drive UMC's Schematic Driven Layout. Furthermore, the Spice model parameters are geometric and allow EDA Layout Parasitic Extraction (LPE) tools to extract model parameters from a GDS database for post-layout simulation.

"Experiments within our lab have repeatedly demonstrated the accuracy of these tools across different design spaces," said Dr. Long-Ching Yeh, vice president of Design Tool Support and DFM for UMC's System and Architecture Support Division. "The integration of the OIF and OCF into our Foundry Design Kits, along with the silicon verified scalable component models, provides a unique industry solution by allowing our customers to directly synthesize optimal passive components like inductors or capacitors within seconds. The efficiency with which our customers can now design and implement their circuits should dramatically reduce time-to-market for their products."

Project Highlights:

EMX-Continuum: UMC used the EMX-Continuum software to create scalable capacitor and inductor models that have several important features:

* The scalable models are standard RLCK Spice which guarantees correct noise modeling when doing Spice-level simulation.

* The models are directly interfaced to the Optimum Capacitor Finder and Optimum Inductor Finder GUIs deployed with the FDK for easy use.

EMX: EMX is based on the Fast Multipole method combined with a patent-pending approach to recognize geometric regularity in IC layouts for efficient electromagnetic (EM) simulation. EMX exhibits several important features:

* UMC has found that the simulation of its capacitors takes only a couple of minutes for a full broadband sweep.

* EMX automatically handles metal bias, substrate, vias and dummy fill; all features that have a dramatic impact on capacitor performance.

* EMX works directly off the final mask layout and handles features of UMC's layouts such as slotting rules and via arrays with no manual editing.

* EMX can now be accessed directly from the FDK for simulation of custom designs.

* EMX can do variational DFM analysis; this includes accounting for process variations and metal layout variations to maximize parametric yield.

About Integrand Software, Inc.

Integrand Software, Inc. provides electronic design automation (EDA) software for high frequency, RF and Mixed Signal integrated circuits (ICs). Integrand's customers include foundries, semiconductor design houses, and individual designers. Integrand is creating unique tools for the analysis and synthesis of IC and package designs. Integrand's patent-pending technologies allow designers to accurately and efficiently simulate the behavior of passive components and interconnect. These capabilities shorten design cycles and let companies design substantially better products with less risk. For more information about Integrand, visit http://www.integrandsoftware.com.

About UMC

UMC (NYSE:UMC) (TSE:2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SoC) designs, including volume production 90nm, industry-leading 65nm, and mixed signal/RFCMOS. UMC's 10 wafer manufacturing facilities include two advanced 300mm fabs; Fab 12A in Taiwan and Singapore-based Fab 12i are both in volume production for a variety of customer products. The company employs approximately 12,000 people worldwide and has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.

Note From UMC Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about future outsourcing, wafer capacity, technologies, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks.

EMX is a registered trademark and EMX-Continuum, Optimum Inductor Finder and Optimum Capacitor Finder are trademarks of Integrand. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.