Intersil Deploys Impinj's AEON/MTP Nonvolatile Memory in Digital Power Management Chips

–Impinj, Inc., a leading supplier of nonvolatile memory (NVM) intellectual property (IP), today announced that Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance analog semiconductors, has licensed AEON®/MTP memory to enable advanced features in Intersil’s digital power management chips.

Digital power management – one of the fastest growing segments of the high-performance electronics markets – is making significant gains in applications including computing, communications, peripherals, displays, networking, instrumentation, and battery-powered products. Digital power management controller chips utilize embedded NVM to store crucial system power information such as configuration and digital voltage settings. AEON/MTP’s true multiple-times programmability (MTP) ideally suits power management applications by allowing data to be constantly retrieved and updated as system characteristics change. AEON/MTP also supports the advanced configurability and control features required by PMBus™, the emerging standard for digital power management systems.

“We are very pleased to enhance our line of popular power management chips which leverage Impinj’s AEON/MTP memory IP,” said Steve Rivet, marketing director of Intersil’s Computing and Server products group. “Intersil’s customers demand products that reduce costs and improve system performance by monitoring and controlling system power usage. AEON/MTP’s features help us develop chips that meet those requirements.”

“Intersil’s adoption of AEON/MTP demonstrates the growing trend by leading semiconductor companies toward leveraging embedded logic NVM, rather than off-chip memory, for competitive differentiation,” said Larry Morrell, vice president IP Products at Impinj. “As with other high-growth market segments such as digital rights management, AEON/MTP allows Impinj’s digital power management chip customers to improve performance, reduce overall system cost and quickly enter markets for new applications.”

Targeted at advanced logic CMOS manufacturing processes, AEON NVM cores offer MTP capability but require no additional mask layers or processing steps. Impinj's portfolio of NVM cores, including AEON/MTP, have shipped in over 100 million chips and are available at the world's leading foundries in volume production at 0.18um and 0.25um process nodes with 0.13um in qualification. AEON/MTP can be evaluated under Impinj’s “Try It Now” program that provides a free, six-month evaluation license.

About Impinj, Inc.
Impinj, Inc. is a semiconductor and RFID company whose patented Self-Adaptive Silicon® technology enables its two synergistic business lines: high performance RFID products and semiconductor intellectual property (IP). A leading contributor to the RFID standards for high volume supply-chain applications worldwide, Impinj leverages its technical expertise and industry partnerships to deliver the GrandPrix™ solution, comprising tags, readers, software and systems integration to offer RFID that just works™. Impinj’s innovative IP products, core to the company’s RFID tags, are licensed to leading semiconductor companies worldwide, allowing them to seamlessly integrate crucial nonvolatile memory (NVM) alongside analog and digital functionality on a single chip. Impinj's IP products include the popular AEON® family of embeddable cores, which provides rewriteable NVM technology in logic CMOS manufacturing. For more information, visit www.impinj.com.

Intersil Corporation is a leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance analog semiconductors. The Company's products address some of the industry's fastest growing markets such as flat panel displays, cell phones, handheld products and notebook computing. Intersil’s product families address both power management and analog signal processing functions. Intersil products include ICs for battery management; hot-swap and hot-plug controllers; linear regulators; supervisory ICs; switching DC/DC regulators; power MOSFET drivers; optical storage laser diode drivers; DSL line drivers; video and high-performance operational amplifiers; data converters; interface ICs; analog switches and multiplexers; crosspoint switches; voice-over-IP devices; and ICs for military, space and radiation-hardened applications. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the Company's web site and career page at www.intersil.com.