UMC 0.11um BCD High Voltage Process Synchronous Via1 Programmable ROM Compiler

An Nor-type MLC ROM, Multi Layer Cell Read Only Memory macro of 16M bits (actual 32M bits) density is presented. The MLC ROM is designed by a 0.090 μm CMOS logic process. The ROM cell of 0.40μm ×0.50μm with 0.03μm per step of the channel width and channel length increase is determined to obtain 4 levels of Ids. A scheme of 2-step sensing with current-to-voltage converter (step1) and an ADC (step2) are applied to obtain an access time of 5 ns. 4 bits per cell can be achieved by inserting more referencing columns of ROM cells to track and to compensate noise from power and ground bouncing.

For large amounts of on-chip code and data, mask read-only memory (ROM) provides an inexpensive and easily programmed storage mechanism. However, the inability to configure ROM after wafer processing means that information stored in the ROM cannot be changed in the field. Antifuse one-time programmable (OTP) provides a flexible, field-programmable alternative to ROM. An antifuse-based bit cell uses controlled, irreversible thin (gate) oxide breakdown to program a bit.

This article covers the flexibility that an OTP with ROM option provides with regard to the product life cycle of high volume products. You will learn how to estimate OTP programming cost and make trade-off analysis to help you decide whether or not a mask ROM conversion makes economical sense.

This blog presents a heterogeneous multicore system built with the RISC-V Host CPU and Cadence IP: Xtensa DSPs, and the Janus Network-on-Chip (NoC). While this example uses an RISC-V CPU, any other ISA with similar capabilities can also serve as the host CPU.

Rivos is pleased to announce the successful secure provisioning of the integrated OpenTitan open source Root of Trust (RoT) in its SoC. This was done during the chip production process using the ZeroRISC provisioning appliance and platform.