New generation of microcontrollers for automotive applications

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GLOBALFOUNDRIES and indie Semiconductor have released a new generation of customised microcontrollers on GF’s 55nm Low Power Extended (55LPx) automotive-qualified platform, which includes embedded non-volatile memory (SuperFlash) technology.

indie Semiconductor’s new Nigel products are based on ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller cores, capable of supporting advanced functionalities in IoT, medical and automotive markets. indie Semi is already shipping products, manufactured on GF’s 55LPx process, to automotive customers in volume.

indie’s custom microcontrollers integrate in a single device mixed-signal functionality for sensing, processing, controlling and communicating. GF’s 55LPx platform, with SST’s SuperFlash memory technology, enabling the use of high-density memory and high-performance processing combined with mixed-signal functions in indie’s Nigel M4 controllers and, as a result, delivering a highly integrated automotive solution at 55nm node.

“indie’s Nigel controller is designed to support high performance computing for automotive system architectures,” said Paul Hollingworth, executive vice president of sales and marketing at indie Semiconductor. “As automotive system requirements get more complex, our customers need solutions to perform complex processing while combining multiple functions into a single chip to minimize size and weight. We chose GF’s automotive-qualified 55LPx platform for its combination of density, performance and cost.”

Commenting Rajesh Nair, vvice president of mainstream offering management at GF said. “indie Semiconductor joins our rapidly growing client base for GF’s 55LPx platform, which offers a combination of superior low-power logic, embedded non-volatile memory, extensive IP, and superior reliability for consumer, industrial and automotive grade 1 applications.”

The 55LPx RF-enabled platform provides a fast path-to-product solution that includes silicon-qualified RF IP and Silicon Storage Technology’s (SST) highly reliable embedded SuperFlash memory.

The platform is in volume production on GF’s 300mm line in Singapore. In addition to Nigel, indie Semiconductor is currently developing several products on the technology, many of which are for automotive applications.