GLOBALFOUNDRIES Launches RF Ecosystem Program to Accelerate Time-to-Market for Wireless Connectivity, Radar and 5G Applications

RFwave™ Partner Program expands the ecosystem and enables faster product deployment on GF’s RF technology platforms

Santa Clara, Calif., March 20, 2018 – GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announced a new ecosystem partner program, called RFwave™, designed to simplify RF design and help customers reduce time-to-market for a new era of wireless devices and networks.

The last few years there has been an increasing demand for connected devices and systems that will require innovations in radio technologies to support the new modes of operation and higher capabilities. The RFwave Partner Program builds upon GF’s 5G vision and roadmap, with a focus on the company’s industry-leading radio frequency (RF) solutions, such as FD-SOI, RF CMOS (bulk and advanced CMOS nodes), RF SOI and silicon germanium (SiGe) technologies. The program provides a low-risk, cost-effective path for designers seeking to build highly optimized RF solutions for a range of wireless applications such as IoT across various wireless connectivity and cellular standards, standalone or transceiver integrated 5G front end modules, mmWave backhaul, automotive radar, small cell and fixed wireless and satellite broadband.
RFwave enables customers to build innovative RF solutions as well as packaging and test solutions. Initial partners have committed a set of key offerings to the program, including:

• tools (EDA) that complement industry leading design flows by adding specific modules to easily leverage features of GF’s RF technology platforms,
• a comprehensive library of design elements (IP), including foundation IP, interfaces and complex IP to enable foundry customers to start their designs using pre-validated IP elements,
• resources (design consultation, services), trained and globally distributed, for Partners to gain easy access to support in developing solutions using GF’s RF technologies

“An explosion of digital information is expected to drive an enormous amount of growth in the coming years and our customers are already preparing for a future of seamless, reliable ultra high data rate wireless connectivity everywhere,” said Bami Bastani, senior vice president of GF’S RF Business Unit. “As a leader in RF, GF’s RFwave program takes industry collaboration to a new level, enabling our customers to build differentiated, highly integrated RF-tailored solutions that are designed to accelerate the next wave of technology.”

The RFwave Partner Program creates an open framework to allow selected partners to integrate their products or services into a validated, plug-and-play catalog of design solutions. This level of integration allows customers to create high-performance designs while minimizing development costs through access to a broad set of quality offerings, specific to RF technology. The partner ecosystem positions members and customers to take advantage of ubiquitous connectivity and the broad adoption of GF’s industry-leading RF technology platforms.

Initial members of the RFwave Partner Program are: asicNorth, Cadence, CoreHW, CWS, Keysight Technologies, Spectral Design, and WEASIC. These companies have already initiated work to deliver innovative, highly optimized RF solutions.

Customers that are interested in learning more about GF’s RFwave program contact your sales representative or visit globalfoundries.com.

Supporting Quotes

“asicNorth is pleased to join GF’s RFwave Ecosystem and make its IP and Design Services available to RFwave customers. It is clear that GF is serious about aligning the right partners to enable their customers to be successful in the RF technologies. asicNorth has been an effective catalyst for many GF customers and is excited to facilitate the success of RFwave customers.”

Mike Slattery, President, asicNorth

“The RFwave Partner Program builds on the relationship between GF and Cadence, enabling our mutual customers to design with our full set of system-design-enablement tools with unique solutions from chip to package to board. This includes our Virtuoso®, Spectre®, SigrityTM, and Allegro® tools that our customers use to develop 5G, wireless, and other RF chips and systems with better performance, lower power consumption and a smaller form factor.”

Tom Beckley, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Custom IC & PCB Group, Cadence

“We are excited to partner with GF on the development of CoreHW’s next generation IC solutions. This partnership further strengthens our IC design cooperation by giving us access to advanced technology nodes with exceptionally good RF process performance and modelling accuracy. A close cooperation with a leading foundry such as GF coupled with the latest innovations, experience and methodology from CoreHW enables first time right RF silicon success.”

Tomi-Pekka Takalo, CEO, CoreHW

“This is great news for the RF design community. Through GF’s RFwave program CWS will be able to play a critical role in optimizing design sizes and deliver more flexibility to design on-chip transmission lines for high-performing cellular, IoT, 5G and Wi-Fi communication chips.”

Brieuc Turluche, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer, CWS

“Keysight is excited to partner with GF in the RFwave program. This takes our relationship to the next level by further enabling our mutual customers’ design flows. Keysight’s Advanced Design System and GoldenGate, are industry leading platforms for RF and microwave circuit design that will help designers address their most difficult design challenges with pioneering solutions for RFIC circuit, electromagnetic, and electro-thermal simulations. Furthermore, GF’s interoperable ADS PDKs allow silicon designers access to Keysight’s simulation technologies independent of which schematic or layout environment is used to generate the design.”

Satish Dhanasekaran, SVP and President of Communications Solution Group, Keysight Technologies Inc.

“The RFwave Ecosystem is an excellent platform for RF architects to seamlessly integrate their best-in-class system designs with the shortest cycle-time. Spectral's MemoryIP platform was able to integrate GF's PDKs and third party EDA tools in record time. MemoryIP provides ASIC designers with the most advanced architectures for high speed low power Memory Compilers with more options than any other embedded SRAM provider. With GF’s high yielding bit cells, coupled with Spectral's proprietary leakage biasing techniques and various assist and repair options, RF designers can operate memory macros over a wider variety of voltage and temperature conditions. Congratulations to GF for offering a wide-range of silicon proven solutions to the RF design community.”

Deepak Mehta, President and CEO, Spectral Design & Test Inc.

“WEASIC is excited to participate in GF’s RFwave program. WEASIC is deploying its millimeter-wave and mixed signal IP portfolio in GF’s most promising processes for the next generation big markets of 5G communications and autonomous driving."
Emmanouil Metaxakis, CEO and Founder, WEASIC

About GF
GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a leading full-service semiconductor foundry providing a unique combination of design, development, and fabrication services to some of the world’s most inspired technology companies. With a global manufacturing footprint spanning three continents, GLOBALFOUNDRIES makes possible the technologies and systems that transform industries and give customers the power to shape their markets. GLOBALFOUNDRIES is owned by Mubadala Investment Company. For more information, visit http://www.globalfoundries.com.