austriamicrosystems Offers New 120V Devices for Its Advanced 0.35um High-Voltage CMOS Process; The 0.35um High-Voltage CMOS Process H35 Allows Now Voltages From 3.3V to 120V on a Single Chip.

UNTERPREMSTAETTEN, Austria -- austriamicrosystems' (SWX:AMS) Full Service Foundry business unit announced today at the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA) Supplier Expo in Munich the offering of its leading edge 0.35um High-Voltage CMOS technology H35 with an additional set of 120V NMOS and PMOS devices. The new extension allows the integration of 3.3V, 5V, 20V, 50V and 120V devices on a single chip without any process changes.

H35 is the first purely CMOS based High-Voltage process that matches BCD performance and chip sizes at much lower process complexity. It is based on the 0.35um CMOS process transferred from TSMC. Rigorous modularity permits 100% reuse of low voltage CMOS design IP. H35 offers fully scalable High-Voltage NMOS and PMOS devices, floating logic libraries as well as a best-in-class power-on resistance. This makes the High-Voltage CMOS technology a competitive solution for fabless design houses and IDMs in fields such as power management products, display drivers, broadband and wireless applications, modems, sensors, capacitive actuators, printer and MEMS driver ICs.

For its fully automotive and medical qualified process, austriamicrosystems delivers its industry benchmark design environment ("HIT-Kit"), which comes complete with IO libraries, special utilities optimized for High-Voltage CMOS product design and excellent characterized circuit simulation models. New High-Voltage designs utilizing the 120V devices can already be started in the H35 50V process option, which is available for volume production today. All 50V devices and blocks can be reused without any layout modifications in the 120V option. Engineering runs supporting the 120V process option are already offered to dedicated customers, volume production will be available by end of 2006.

"The new 0.35um High-Voltage CMOS process is the 5th generation of the continuously improved High-Voltage technologies from our company and is produced in austriamicrosystems state-of-the-art 8-inch wafer fabrication. As only two mask level adders on top of CMOS are required it also makes H35 the process with the lowest complexity in the market. All of this makes H35 the optimum choice for achieving smallest possible die sizes at very competitive cost for a voltage range from 20V to 120V", states Peter Gasteiner, Senior Vice President and General Manager of austriamicrosystems' business unit Full Service Foundry.

About austriamicrosystems

austriamicrosystems' business unit Full Service Foundry has successfully positioned itself in the analog/mixed-signal foundry market offering well-established RF CMOS, High-Voltage CMOS, BiCMOS and SiGe-BiCMOS processes. With superior support during the design phase, with high-end tools and experienced engineers, austriamicrosystems succeeds to be an attractive analog foundry partner especially for fabless design houses.

austriamicrosystems is a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance analog ICs, combining more than 20 years of analog design capabilities and system know-how with its own state-of-the-art manufacturing and test facilities. austriamicrosystems leverages its expertise in low power and high accuracy to provide industry-leading customized and standard analog products. Operating worldwide with more than 850 employees, austriamicrosystems focuses on the areas of power management, sensors & sensor interfaces, portable audio and car access through its business units Communications, Industry & Medical, Automotive and Full Service Foundry. austriamicrosystems is listed on the SWX Swiss Exchange in Zurich (ticker symbol: AMS). For more information, please visit the web site at www.austriamicrosystems.com