X-FAB Design Award Aims to Encourage Innovative Thinking in Semiconductor Manufacture

ERFURT, Germany, Feb. 3, 2016 – Advancing semiconductor technology, X-FAB Silicon Foundries has announced the establishing of its X-Cite Award Program. X-Cite will allow engineering teams to experiment with more imaginative design concepts using the semiconductor processes provided by X-FAB as a foundation. Fabless semiconductor companies as well as research establishments experienced in IC development will all be eligible to enter the award program. The winner will then be given a free prototyping run to validate their ideas in the best-suited technology.

With analog, high-voltage, optical, RF and MEMS devices being covered, award judges will look for exciting new methods for integrating sophisticated functionality into X-FAB’s CMOS and SOI-based technologies – including its open-platform MEMS process offering. Awards will then be bestowed on those able to show they have really stretched the performance envelope in order to overcome the challenges posed by modern application scenarios, in automotive, industrial control, medical diagnostics or medical implants, Internet-of-Things (IoT), smart homes, mobile communications, energy harvesting, etc. To enter for this award, submit your project proposal here.

“X-FAB has a long-standing reputation for nurturing ingenuity. Thanks to our unique modular approach to semiconductor manufacturing, we can offer the opportunity for new design concepts to be experimented with and novel ideas to be explored – as this is what fundamentally fuels this industry” comments Volker Herbig, Director Product Marketing at X-FAB. “The X-Cite program will mean we can reward those who are driving technological progression forward and finding ways to push our semiconductor processes further.”

X-Cite will be complemented by X-FAB’s First-Time-Right Award. This will be presented annually for projects where significant implementation issues have been overcome in the development of analog and mixed-signal ICs, so that the product hits all its initial operational goals on its first design iteration. Entries for this will be assessed on the complexity of the design and the obstacles that were overcome. To enter for this award, visit this webpage.