New Silicon Frontiers:

Physically Flexible System-on-a-Chip

Richard L. Chaney, Douglas R. Hackler, Kelly J. DeGregorio, Dale G. Wilson

This work sponsored in part by the Rapid Response Technology

Office and Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Doug Hackler
under the programs Advanced FleX SoC Microcontroller and President & CEO
Enabling Flexible Materials, Devices and Processes for Defense American Semiconductor
 What are Flexible Hybrid Electronics?

Printed Electronics Flexible FleX-ICs

Low Cost, R2R, Large High Performance, High Density
Format Flexible Hybrid System
Combination of flexible printed materials and
flexible silicon-based ICs to create a new class
of flexible electronics.

American Semiconductor
Molex flexible substrate FleX-ICs
Sensor Signal Processing
Printed Electronics Data Processing
Sensors Data Storage
Interconnects Communications
Substrates
Displays Low Cost, High Performance
Compatible with Printed Electronics
Low Cost, Large Format Foundry CMOS + FleX Processing
Roll-To-Roll, Screen, Inkjet Print,

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 Why Flexible Hybrid Electronics?

New Applications
FleX-IC Internet of Things (IoT)
Wearables
Traditionally Structural
Thinned Die
New Requirements
Conformal
Dynamically Flexible
Ultra thin
Ultra light weight

Improved Reliability
No Die Cracking
Reduced Breakage of Interconnects
Traditionally Thinned Die at 5mm Radius
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 Features Drive Complexity

FleX-SoC - Programmable System on Chip

8-bit Microcontroller Core
1.7 5.5V Operating Range
Low Power, Including 0.1uA Deep Sleep
256Kb Flash NVM (50K cycles)
2KB SRAM
USB 2.0 12Mbs Full-Speed Compliant
10-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter
2 Analog Comparators
Low Power Sense Module
36 Programmable Input / Output Pins
6/12/24MHz Internal Oscillator
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 FleX Silicon-on-Polymer Conversion

First high-volume industry standard IC available as a flexible device

200mm (8) wafers converted to SoP with ultra-thin form factor

FleX SoC-Wafer on Dicing Tape Probing a FleX-SoC Die FleX-SoC Die After Pick

130nm CMOS with 4 metal layers

2.2 mm X 2.3 mm die

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 Flash Non-Volatile Memory
Transistor Testing
Flash memory using SONOS technology
Program / erase operations shift transistor operating point
Known good die from standard wafers used as reference

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 Flash Non-Volatile Memory
Radius of Curvature Testing
Devices tested for before and after bending around RoC test mandrels
Program, erase and read operations all tested
NVM transistors passed to 5mm RoC in both concave and convex directions

FleX-SoC NVM Erase RoC Results FleX-SoC NVM Program RoC Results
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 FleX-SoC Die Testing
Test Coverage
85% of the Flash NVM
60% of the SRAM
30% of the GPIO Ports
Full speed 24MHz operation

FleX-SoC die have successfully passed probe testing

Probing a FleX-SoC Die FleX-SoC Die During Probe FleX-SoC Die Test System
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 FleX-SoC Radius of Curvature Testing

Devices tested for before and after bending around RoC test mandrels
FleX-SoC passed to 5mm RoC in both concave and convex directions

FleX-SoC Die FleX-SoC Die During RoC Testing

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 FleX-SoC NVM Data Retention Testing

Flash NVM high temp data retention passed 500hrs @ 150C

AFRL/RX Flash NVM Solar Irradiance Testing
Pass: Data retention testing at AFRL/RX
Oriel solar simulator
Air Mass AM 1.5G
100mW cm2 solar simulated illumination
Class B for spectral match, irradiance spatial non-
uniformity, and
temporal instability
300mW full spectrum
Calibrated to a KG-5 filtered Si reference cell
Passed 8 hours exposure

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 Flexible SoC Conclusions

Most complex flexible IC ever produced

SoP demonstrated using major supplier semiconductor wafers
First COTS product processed using FleX SoP conversion
Demonstrated performance to 5mm radius of curvature
High temp NVM data retention passed at 500hrs @ 150C
SoP 262,144 memory bit density is over 7,000X larger than
commercially available flexible printed memories:

FleX-SoC Die (Tx=25um) vs

$1 Bill (Tx=100um)

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 Thank You
Doug Hackler
dhackler@americansemi.com
208-336-2773

American Semiconductor, Inc.

6987 W Targee St
Boise, ID 83709
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American Semiconductor is a registered trademark of American Semiconductor,
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and FleX-IC are trademarks of American Semiconductor, Inc. www.americansemi.com