Tape-out based on SMIC’s N+1 technology succeeds despite sanctions
SMIC. Photo: VCG
Innosilicon, a Chinese company focusing on one-stop intellectual property (IP) and customized chip design, announced on Monday that it has completed the world’s first chip tape-out and test based on the FinFET N+1 advanced technology of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), the largest Chinese chipmaker.
A tape-out is the final phase of a design life cycle for a chip design before manufacturing starts.
All IP is developed in-house and the functions are tested once, Innosilicon said on its website. The firm invested tens of millions of yuan into optimizing chip design in 2019, when SMIC’s N+1 process was not that mature, according to Innosilicon.
N+1, SMIC’s next-generation foundry node, offers a conspicuous improvement in performance and logic density. Compared with its existing 14-nanometer (nm) process, N+1 manufacturing technology can increase a chip’s performance by 20 percent and cut its power consumption by 57 percent, said Liang Mengsong,
