UMC and Avalanche Technology Partner for MRAM Development and 28nm Production

UMC will offer cost effective licensing of embedded 28nm non-volatile MRAM macros to its foundry customers

HSINCHU, Taiwan, and FREMONT, Calif., August 6th, 2018 – United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, and Avalanche Technology, Inc., the next generation STT-MRAM (Spin Transfer Torque Magnetic RAM) leader, today announced that they have entered a partnership for joint development and production of MRAM to replace embedded flash. UMC will also make this technology available to other companies through licensing with Avalanche Technology Inc.

Under the terms of the agreement, UMC will provide embedded non-volatile MRAM blocks based on UMC's 28nm CMOS manufacturing process. This will enable customers to integrate low latency, very high performance and low power embedded MRAM memory blocks into MCUs and SoCs, targeting the Internet of Things, wearable, consumer, industrial and automotive electronics markets.

The two companies are also considering to expand the cooperation beyond 28nm, as Avalanche Technology’s CMOS compatibility and scalability to advanced process nodes enables integration of unified memory (non-volatile as well as SRAM) blocks into next generation highly integrated MCUs and SoCs. This allows system designers to maintain the same architecture and software ecosystem without a redesign.

"We're excited to team with a world leader in semiconductor manufacturing such as UMC to bring this outstanding technology to market," said Petro Estakhri, CEO and co-founder of Avalanche Technology.

"UMC is continuously introducing enhanced process offerings to bring added competitive benefits to our customers," said G C Hung, vice president of Advanced Technology Development at UMC. "With embedded NVM becoming more prevalent in today’s IC designs, we have developed a strong portfolio of robust eNVM process solutions for high growth sectors such as emerging consumer and automotive applications. We are happy to cooperate with Avalanche Technology for 28nm MRAM, and we look forward to ramping this process to production for UMC customers."

About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced IC production for applications spanning every major sector of the electronics industry. UMC’s comprehensive foundry solutions enable chip designers to leverage the company’s sophisticated technology and manufacturing, which include world-class 28nm High-K/Metal Gate technology, 14nm FinFET volume production, specialty process platforms specifically developed for AI, 5G and IoT applications and the automotive industry’s highest-rated AEC-Q100 Grade-0 manufacturing capabilities for the production of ICs found in vehicles. UMC’s 11 wafer fabs are strategically located throughout Asia and are able to produce nearly 600,000 wafers per month. The company employs over 20,000 people worldwide, with offices in Taiwan, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.

About Avalanche Technology
Avalanche Technology Inc. is the leader in next generation Perpendicular STT-MRAM technology, accepted as the front-runner to replace traditional Flash and SRAM for unified memory architectures in future SOC systems, delivering high performance, low power at 28nm with scalability to 22 and 14nm.

With a proven STT-MRAM portfolio at 55, 40nm and now enabling 28nm combined with an intellectual property portfolio of more than 275 patents and applications, Avalanche Technology Inc. is the leader in next generation perpendicular magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) STT-MRAM cells. Avalanche Technology is delivering on the promise of enabling the next generation scalable embedded unified memory architecture for use in GPUs, MCUs, DSPs, ASSPs and ASICs, making Avalanche Technology the “Next Generation MRAM Company”. For more information, visit Avalanche Technology online at http://www.avalanche-technology.com.