Company type | Public company |
---|---|
ASX: WBT | |
Industry | Semiconductors |
Founded | 2015 |
Headquarters | Hod Hasharon, Israel |
Key people | Coby Hanoch, CEO, David “Dadi” Perlmutter, Chairman of the Board |
Products | RERAM, non-volatile memory products |
Website | www |
Weebit Nano is a public semiconductor IP company founded in Israel in 2015 and headquartered in Hod HaSharon, Israel. The company develops Resistive Random-Access Memory (ReRAM or RRAM) technologies. Resistive Random-Access Memory is a specialized form of non-volatile memory (NVM) for the semiconductor industry. The company's products are targeted at a broad range of NVM markets where persistence, performance, and endurance are all required. ReRAM technology can be integrated in electronic devices like wearables, Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints, smartphones, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and 5G cellular communications, among other products. [1] Weebit Nano's IP can be licensed to semiconductor companies and semiconductor fabs. [2]
Initial productization began with embedded ReRAM products (memory arrays embedded in Systems-on-Chips (SoCs) and will eventually be expanded to include discrete ReRAM products built into individual chip packages. [3]
The company began as a startup in Israel in 2015, founded on the roots of research and patents developed by Professor James Tour of Rice University, with a primary goal of productizing this ReRAM technology.
In 2016 the company successfully merged with Radar Iron of Australia, giving the merged entity the Weebit Nano name trading on the Australian Securities Exchange under the symbol WBT. [4]
In 2016 Weebit Nano and CEA-Leti signed a memory development partnership agreement for the development of ReRAM technologies. Since then, Weebit Nano has been working closely with CEA-Leti on further developments and enhancements to its base ReRAM technologies, where Weebit Nano has commercialization rights to their joint developments. In November 2020 the Weebit/Leti partnership was extended to include further enhancements to Weebit's ReRAM technology, further development of its embedded memory module, and development of a selector for the stand-alone memory market. [5]
David “Dadi” Perlmutter became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Weebit in May 2016. [6]
In October 2017 Coby Hanoch joined the company as the CEO. [7]
In November 2018, Weebit announced it was working with the NonVolatile Memory Research Group of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) on a project to research the use of Weebit's ReRAM technology for certain types of neuromorphic applications – used for artificial intelligence.
In January 2019, Weebit announced its collaboration with a team at the Polytechnic University of Milan, to test, characterize and implement its developed algorithms using Weebit's ReRAM. The goal of the project is to demonstrate the capability of ReRAM-based hardware in neuromorphic and artificial intelligence applications. [8]
In February 2019, Weebit and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology announced a collaboration to examine the possible use of ReRAM devices in a novel computing architecture that could speed up processing, memory transfer rate and memory bandwidth and decrease processing latency – while using less power. [9]
In December 2019, XTX Technology and Weebit, verified the technical parameters of Weebit's ReRAM array in XTX's own labs. XTX successfully confirmed measurements on Weebit's NVM that were previously achieved at French research institute Leti. [10]
In February 2020, Weebit signed a Letter of intent with SiEn (QingDao) Integrated Circuits Co., Ltd. (SiEn) to jointly investigate ways in which Weebit's technology can be used in SiEn's products. [11]
In October 2020, Weebit, together with Leti, completed its technology stabilization process so that its technology is now ready for transfer to a production fab. [12]
In September 2021, Weebit and SkyWater Technology announced an agreement to take Weebit's ReRAM to volume production. [13] As part of the agreement, SkyWater has licensed Weebit's ReRAM technology to use as embedded Non-Volatile Memory in customer designs. [14]
In September 2021, Weebit, together with Leti, produced, tested and characterized fully functional 1 Mb ReRAM arrays in a 28 nm FDSOI process on 300mm wafers. [15]
Weebit demonstrated its ReRAM IP module publicly for the first time in June 2022. [16]
Also in June, Weebit taped out demo chips integrating its embedded ReRAM module to SkyWater Technology's foundry. [17] This was followed in November 2022 with Weebit receiving from SkyWater the first production wafers incorporating its embedded ReRAM technology from Skywater -- the first time silicon wafers of Weebit ReRAM have been received from a production fab. [18]
In March 2023, Weebit and SkyWater announced availability of Weebit's first commercially available ReRAM IP product. The IP in SkyWater's S130 process targets applications in automotive, defense and beyond. [19]
Weebit and SkyWater confirmed in June 2023 that Weebit ReRAM IP has been fully qualified for industrial temperatures employing SkyWater's 130nm CMOS (S130) process. [20]
In October 2023, foundry DB HiTek licensed Weebit ReRAM for use in its customers' designs. Weebit ReRAM will be available in DB HiTek's 130nm BCD process. [21]
Weebit and Efabless Corp. announced a collaboration in May 2024 giving Efabless chipIgnite customers access to Weebit's ReRAM to incorporate into design prototypes manufactured using SkyWater Technology's 130nm CMOS (S130) process. [22]
Weebit Nano is led by CEO Coby Hanoch. [23] Hanoch has held roles as VP of Worldwide Sales and member of the Board of Directors of processor company Codasip, [24] VP of Worldwide Sales at the EDA company Jasper Design Automation [25] and CEO of PacketLight, [26] a developer of DWDN and OTN equipment for data transport. He was also a member of the founding team and VP at the EDA company Verisity. [27] He previously held engineering management roles with National Semiconductor. [25]
In addition to CEO Coby Hanoch, the Weebit Nano board of directors includes:
Weebit Nano produces resistive random-access memory (ReRAM) which is a specialized type of random-access memory that maintains its state (and data) even if the device loses power. ReRAM is used in specialized environments where data must be preserved despite environmental challenges, such as aerospace, transportation and medical environments. There are two primary types of ReRAM, Conductive Bridge ReRAM (CBRAM) and Oxygen Vacancy ReRAM (OxRAM). Weebit Nano has productized OxRAM in its designs, and OxRAM is generally viewed to have better retention properties compared to CBRAM. [40]
When fabricating the semiconductor wafers, memory technologies can be integrated during the ‘front-end-of-line' (FEOL) process which happens in the early phase or later in the later phases during the back-end-of-line (BEOL) process. Weebit Nano's ReRAM can be more easily integrated into fabrication flows because it happens during the later BEOL layers instead of the earlier FEOL layers. There are two primary technologies that are used to fabricate transistors onto wafers, bulk CMOS and FD-SOI. Weebit Nano utilizes the CMOS-compatible process where the materials enable rapid development and integrating into any fab through the most common deposition techniques and tools. [41]
Since 2016, Weebit Nano has collaborated on developing ReRAM technologies with CEA-Leti of France, one of the largest nanotechnology research institutes in Europe. [42] The two organizations have collaborated on the 40 nm and 130 nm technology nodes. [43]
Weebit and Leti have also shown a neuromorphic demo for Artificial Intelligence (AI) inference tasks where memory circuits are meant to mimic the actions of a human brain. The areas of focus for CEA-Leti and Weebit Nano as of November 2020 are around further enhancements to Weebit's ReRAM technology. [44]
Other key technical milestones include:
A programmable read-only memory (PROM) is a form of digital memmory where the contents can be changed once after manufacture of the device. The data is then permanent and cannot be changed. It is one type of read-only memory (ROM). PROMs are used in digital electronic devices to store permanent data, usually low level programs such as firmware or microcode. The key difference from a standard ROM is that the data is written into a ROM during manufacture, while with a PROM the data is programmed into them after manufacture. Thus, ROMs tend to be used only for large production runs with well-verified data. PROMs may be used where the volume required does not make a factory-programmed ROM economical, or during development of a system that may ultimately be converted to ROMs in a mass produced version.
STMicroelectronics NV is a European multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the largest of such companies in Europe. It was founded in 1987 from the merger of two state-owned semiconductor corporations: Thomson Semiconducteurs of France and SGS Microelettronica of Italy. The company is incorporated in the Netherlands and headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland. Its shares are traded on Euronext Paris, the Borsa Italiana and the New York Stock Exchange.
Renesas Electronics Corporation is a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, initially incorporated in 2002 as Renesas Technology, the consolidated entity of the semiconductor units of Hitachi and Mitsubishi excluding their dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) businesses, to which NEC Electronics merged in 2010, resulting in a minor change in the corporate name and logo to as it is now.
In semiconductor manufacturing, silicon on insulator (SOI) technology is fabrication of silicon semiconductor devices in a layered silicon–insulator–silicon substrate, to reduce parasitic capacitance within the device, thereby improving performance. SOI-based devices differ from conventional silicon-built devices in that the silicon junction is above an electrical insulator, typically silicon dioxide or sapphire. The choice of insulator depends largely on intended application, with sapphire being used for high-performance radio frequency (RF) and radiation-sensitive applications, and silicon dioxide for diminished short-channel effects in other microelectronics devices. The insulating layer and topmost silicon layer also vary widely with application.
Non-volatile memory (NVM) or non-volatile storage is a type of computer memory that can retain stored information even after power is removed. In contrast, volatile memory needs constant power in order to retain data.
Silvaco Group, Inc., develops and markets electronic design automation (EDA) and technology CAD (TCAD) software and semiconductor design IP (SIP). The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and has offices in North America, Europe, and throughout Asia. Founded in 1984, Silvaco is a publicly traded EDA company. The company has been known by at least two other names: Silvaco International, and Silvaco Data Systems.
A multi-chip module (MCM) is generically an electronic assembly where multiple integrated circuits, semiconductor dies and/or other discrete components are integrated, usually onto a unifying substrate, so that in use it can be treated as if it were a larger IC. Other terms for MCM packaging include "heterogeneous integration" or "hybrid integrated circuit". The advantage of using MCM packaging is it allows a manufacturer to use multiple components for modularity and/or to improve yields over a conventional monolithic IC approach.
Soitec is an international company based in France, that manufactures substrates used in the creation of semiconductors.
The X-FAB Silicon Foundries is a group of semiconductor foundries. The group specializes in the fabrication of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for fabless semiconductor companies, as well as MEMS and solutions for high voltage applications. The holding company named "X-FAB Silicon Foundries SE" is based in Tessenderlo, Belgium while its headquarters is located in Erfurt, Germany.
Resistive random-access memory is a type of non-volatile (NV) random-access (RAM) computer memory that works by changing the resistance across a dielectric solid-state material, often referred to as a memristor. One major advantage of ReRAM over other NVRAM technologies is the ability to scale below 10 nm.
A three-dimensional integrated circuit is a MOS integrated circuit (IC) manufactured by stacking as many as 16 or more ICs and interconnecting them vertically using, for instance, through-silicon vias (TSVs) or Cu-Cu connections, so that they behave as a single device to achieve performance improvements at reduced power and smaller footprint than conventional two dimensional processes. The 3D IC is one of several 3D integration schemes that exploit the z-direction to achieve electrical performance benefits in microelectronics and nanoelectronics.
Lynred is a B2B company with headquarters in Palaiseau, France that designs and manufactures infrared (IR) detectors for military, space and commercial applications. LYNRED manufactures both cooled and uncooled microbolometers covering all infrared bands and is Europe’s leading supplier of this type of technology. The company’s headquarters are in Palaiseau, France and its R&D and production facilities are located in Veurey-Voroize in the Isère region of France.
CEA-Leti is a research institute for electronics and information technologies, based in Grenoble, France. It is one of the world's largest organizations for applied research in microelectronics and nanotechnology. It is located within the CEA Grenoble center of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA).
Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israeli company that manufactures integrated circuits using specialty process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, Silicon Photonics, SOI, mixed-signal and RFCMOS, CMOS image sensors, non-imaging sensors, power management (BCD), and non-volatile memory (NVM) as well as MEMS capabilities. Tower Semiconductor also owns 51% of TPSCo, an enterprise with Nuvoton Technology Corporation Japan (NTCJ).
Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT), was an American semiconductor company headquartered in San Jose, California. The company designed, manufactured, and marketed low-power, high-performance mixed-signal semiconductor products for the advanced communications, computing, and consumer industries. The company marketed its products primarily to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Founded in 1980, the company began as a provider of complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS) for the communications business segment and computing business segments. The company focused on three major areas: communications infrastructure, high-performance computing, and advanced power management. Between 2018 and 2019, IDT was acquired by Renesas Electronics.
The IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) is an annual micro- and nanoelectronics conference held each December that serves as a forum for reporting technological breakthroughs in the areas of semiconductor and related device technologies, design, manufacturing, physics, modeling and circuit-device interaction.
Macronix International Co., Ltd. is an integrated device manufacturer in the non-volatile memory (NVM) market. The company manufactures NOR Flash, NAND Flash, and ROM products for the consumer, communication, computing, automotive, and networking markets. Its headquarters are located in Taiwan.
Kalray is a French fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Montbonnot, France.
SkyWater Technology is an American semiconductor engineering and fabrication foundry, based in Bloomington, Minnesota. It is the only US-owned pure-play silicon foundry.