FlexIC Foundry enables custom flexible integrated circuit design

IndPrint Packaging Solutions

PragmatIC has developed a patented semiconductor device platform that provides the opportunity to invent entirely new applications for electronics: as well as being ultra low cost, it is also ultra thin and flexible, and can be easily combined with other thin film electronic components to create novel solutions. FlexIC Foundry now allows third parties to access this technology to design and manufacture their own custom flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs).

PragmatIC created the FlexIC Foundry initially to accelerate the development and launch of its ConnectIC family of RFID FlexICs earlier this year. ConnectICs are application specific standard products that offer the ideal solution to be able to add connectivity and interactivity into trillions of everyday objects, with the potential to increase the addressable RFID market by an order of magnitude or more.

The FlexICs are produced in our FlexLogIC manufacturing system, a highly scalable ‘fab in a box’ capable of delivering billions of FlexICs per annum. FlexLogIC is self-contained and highly automated, providing a disruptive production approach aligned to just in time delivery of mass market volumes.

The FlexIC Foundry offering combines the FlexLogIC Process Design Kit (PDK) with a rapid tapeout cycle for production wafers, allowing product iteration and refinement without the cost and timescale constraints of a silicon fab. The PDK is based on an industry-standard Electronic Design Automation (EDA) toolflow; it includes a core device library, simulation models, design rules, and a growing library of standard cells to facilitate design and footprint optimisation.

The FlexIC Foundry is currently in beta release, and PragmatIC has been working with select partners who are using it to create custom circuits.