STMicroelectronics 28nm FD-SOI Technology Hits 3GHz Operating Speed

Momentum builds as Fast, Simple and Cool technology proves its abilities

Geneva, February 20, 2013 - STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, announced today the achievement of another major milestone in its testing of its 28nm FD-SOI Technology Platform. Following the Company's December announcement of the successful manufacturing of System on Chip (SoC) integrated circuits, ST today announced that application-processor engine devices manufactured at the Company's Crolles, France fab, were capable of operating at 3GHz with even greater power efficiency at a given operating frequency than alternate technologies.

This announcement follows on the heels of recent announcements from other organizations to utilize FD-SOI technologies. Moore's Law-the observation that the number of transistors on a chip doubled about every two years-has driven the semiconductor industry over the past 50 years to shrink the size of the transistors, which are essentially miniature on/off switches. The increased density from these size reductions have given consumers the explosion of new and more exciting features at lower-cost that we've come to expect. In parallel, these new features are able to operate at clock speeds that allow the phones to respond to your commands-by keypad, touchpad, and now voice-almost before you finish expressing the command.

Now, as those transistors shrink to nanoscale dimensions where about 450 transistors can fit within the diameter of a human hair^[1], physics are challenging the traditional high-speed and low-power advantages of planar CMOS technology manufactured on bulk silicon wafers. FD-SOI technology is a major breakthrough in the pursuit of miniaturization of electronic circuits, and the achievement of 3GHz operating speed for an application-processor engine presages the adoption of FD-SOI in portable equipment, digital still cameras, gaming and ASICs for a range of applications. Of the next-generation process technologies, FD-SOI alone has proven its ability to meet the industry's highest performance and lowest power demands that are vital to delivering graphics and multimedia that amaze without sacrificing battery life.