Polar Semi licenses Tower's BCD tech
Polar Semiconductor, a US-owned merchant foundry specialising in sensor, power and high-voltage semiconductors, has signed a technology licensing agreement with Tower Semiconductor to enable US domestic production of Tower’s TS18 Power Management (TS18PM) process.
Under the terms of the agreement, Polar will license Tower’s broad 180nm technology to become the only US-based foundry capable of high-voltage power BCD semiconductor wafer production for aerospace and defence, and commercial end markets.
“Tower is very pleased to expand onshore access of its technologies in support of the US Aerospace and Defense community through this license arrangement with Polar,” said Tower Semiconductor’s senior director for aerospace and defence, Mike Scott. “This mature technology is in high-volume production in Japan and Israel serving automotive, industrial, and consumer applications and Polar will provide access for customers that have requirements to manufacture in the US such as USG Primes serving the Aerospace and Defense market.”
Surya Iyer, president and COO of Polar said, “One of the key tenets of Polar’s transformation roadmap is our commitment to support US National Security interests as we work to expand our facility and broaden our technology base. All of us at Polar are very excited to offer our customers a versatile process technology manufactured in an automotive quality fab, and a robust PDK to enable design of their innovative products.
"Building on the announcement of a direct funding award as part of the US CHIPS and Science Act and investment through the Minnesota Forward Fund, our strong and growing partnership with Tower is a major step forward in becoming an independent, US-owned foundry and supporting technologies that are critical to DoD customers.”
