Specialty foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE: TSEM), which markets as TowerJazz, today announced collaboration with South Korean fabless company TLi (Technology Leaders & Innovators) Inc. (KSX: 62860), which has developed an acceleration sensor control IC and proximity illumination sensor IC, based on Tower’s 0.18-nanometer CMOS technology. The new integrated circuits will enable TLi to provide products to mobile phone suppliers in Korea, where the market leaders are located.
Tower’s 0.18-nanometer CMOS technology is a stable and precise process, which includes flash memory without additional layers. The process also makes possible the integration of CIS and MEMS sensors in the same programming environment, enabling customers to develop a large number of products within a short time.
The global mobile phone market was $1.7 billion dollar in 2012, of which 43% was smartphones with acceleration sensor control ICs and proximity and illumination sensor ICs. The proportion of smartphones with these ICs is expected to grow steadily, and TLi is targeting this fast growing market with two of its products utilizing TowerJazz’s process. Mass production is expected to start in the third quarter of 2013.
"We have been very pleased with our collaboration on these exciting products which has enabled us to provide local offerings to Korean mobile phone suppliers that are expected to be the most cost effective solutions in this market. This is the result of our close discussions with TowerJazz to utilize the advanced features of their 0.18 CMOS process. Also, these products showed full functionality from first silicon,” said TLi VP Soonwon Hong.
“Korea is an important region for technical and manufacturing innovation and we are very excited to work with a leading-edge partner such as TLi to enable localization of their specialized sensor ICs,” said Tower VP sales and Tower Korea president Michael Song. “TLi has trusted us to co-develop and bring to market their latest products and we are pleased with the progress we have made in this region which is home to many leading semiconductor companies."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 13, 2013
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