Date: May 28, 2013 Source: (
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Boise, Idaho, Tuesday, May 28, 2013 - American Semiconductor, Inc., the global leader in flexible integrated circuits and flexible hybrid systems, today announced the FleX-MCU™ product family. The FleX-MCU is the world's first physically flexible microcontroller fabricated using the FleX™ Silicon-on-Polymer™ process. The FleX-MCU is an 8-bit RISC microcontroller with 8KB embedded RAM operating up to 20MHz. The FleX-MCU includes multiple serial interface peripherals including UART, I2C, and SPI. The FleX-MCU operates with a 1.2V core and 2.5V I/O.
"The flexible electronics industry needs physically flexible, high performance integrated circuits," said Doug Hackler, President and CEO of American Semiconductor. "Without flexible ICs, printed electronics are severely limited in functionality. The availability of standard ICs in a flexible form is a key enabler for Flexible Hybrid technology. The FleX-MCU will accelerate the flexible electronics industry growth by providing a high-performance logic capability to support prototyping and product development."
The FleX-MCU announced today is the initial product for a full portfolio of physically flexible ICs. The FleX IC roadmap includes microcontrollers, analog-to-digital converters (ADC), radio frequency (RF) wireless communications, and non-volatile memory (NVM).
"The FleX-MCU is a great accomplishment and demonstrates the FleX Silicon-on-Polymer process," said Rich Chaney, General Manager of American Semiconductor. "The Silicon-on-Polymer process can be applied to a variety of standard SOI wafers from any commercial wafer foundry or IDM. The FleX-MCU demonstrates a standard foundry process used to develop physically flexible FleX ICs. This means customers can create their own custom FleX ICs in addition to using our catalog products."
"The FleX-MCU is fabricated in TowerJazz Semiconductor's CS13 process," said Dale Wilson, Director of Design and Test at American Semiconductor. "The CS13 PDK can be used to design flexible ICs from the start. Additionally, the IP blocks used in the FleX-MCU are available from American Semiconductor for customers to include in their custom designs."
Pricing and Availability
FleX-MCU samples will be available in October 2013 and data sheets are available at www.americansemi.com. Please contact American Semiconductor for pricing based on volume requirements.
American Semiconductor offers full support for FleX IC and flexible hybrid system development. This includes IC design support for foundry CMOS processes, including TowerJazz CS13-FleX. Design support is available for full custom IC design, IP development or integration, or any part of the design flow a customer might want assistance with. Engineering support for flexible hybrid systems includes printed electronics design, antenna design and fabrication, FleX integration, and prototype development.
