Renesas set to move mcus to 40nm process starting in 2013

Steve Gaines, Renesas' manager of European mcu marketing, said: "Although parts made on our 90nm process provide more capability than is needed in most industrial applications, there are some customers who need faster clock speeds and who have memory issues, particularly with sram. By moving to 40nm in 2013, our mcus will be able to support 256k of ram onchip, as well as up to 4Mbyte of flash. And the parts will be specified to run at up to 240MHz." Asked whether Renesas was confident it could produce a flash based product on that process, Gaines said: "It's being driven by our MONOS technology, which has been developed for high performance and high reliability." He added pilot processes have featured automotive applications to make sure that quality and reliability are at the appropriate levels. "However, we'll probably be making industrial parts first," he continued. Rob Green, pictured, chief executive of Renesas Electronics Europe, added: "There's an expectation from customers that we maintain our quality levels. We're confident we can make the jump to 40nm and get the benefits of integration and lower power consumption." While higher end parts will move eventually to the 40nm process, low end products will remain on more appropriate processes. "The RL78, a blend of the R8C and 78K0 mcus, is still being made on a 130nm process," Gaines noted, "because there's less leakage and that means better battery standby times." Meanwhile, Green noted work is underway to transfer GaN on silicon power technology from the lab. "While Renesas has a strong range of power products, we do want to drive our ability to provide high voltage products for industrial markets and are making the necessary investments."