New company focuses on embedded memory technology

Innovative Silicon (ISi) was founded to develop, commercialise and license floating body effect memory intellectual property (IP) for SoC/MPU applications.

Innovative Silicon (ISi) was founded to develop, commercialise and license floating body effect memory intellectual property (IP) for SoC/MPU applications.

The floating body effect is a naturally occurring parasitic phenomenon in silicon on insulator (SoI) transistors.

ISi has harnessed this effect to develop memories that are at least twice as dense as existing DRAM solutions, resulting in dramatic IC cost savings.

Today, complex ICs used in diverse applications including handheld computers, games consoles, cellular communications devices, cameras etc devote over 70% of the die area to memory.

This percentage is expected to increase.

ISi's Z-RAM zero-capacitance embedded RAM technology means that designers can move from bulk CMOS processing to SoI fabrication resulting in faster, more power-efficient chips, while at the same time reducing silicon cost.

Z-RAM technology requires no extra processing steps and can be fabricated on conventional SoI processing lines.

The technology is highly scalable which means that it can be implemented on process geometries well beyond 90nm - such as 45 and 22nm - far more readily than any other current memory technology.

ISi's initial foundry partner is Freescale Semiconductor, the world's leading SoI manufacturer.

Innovative Silicon is a US (Delaware) corporation with offices in Santa Clara, California.

ISi's R and D centre is based near Lausanne in Switzerland.

The company was founded by Pierre Fazan and Serguei Okhonin.

Fazan was born in Lausanne, where he obtained his Physics diploma and PhD degrees at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL).

From 1989 to 1997 he worked as process integration engineer then manager at Micron Technology, Boise USA, focusing on DRAM process integration.

Cofounder Serguei Okhonin received his MSc in physics from Novosibirsk State University in 1980 and his PhD from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in 2001.

From 1980 to 1993 he worked as Research Associate at the Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Novosibirsk, Russia, focusing on semiconductor device physics.

From 1994 to 2003 he worked as Research Associate at IMO and LEG, EPFL, and took an active part in several European projects focused on advanced CMOS technology development.

The company closed its first round of VC funding in 2003.

Investors include Index Ventures, Auriga Partners, Highland Capital Partners and Soitec, the world's largest producer of SoI wafers.

In addition to company and investor representatives, Buno Pati, ex-CEO of Numerical Technologies also serves on ISi's board of directors.

Mark-Eric Jones joined ISi as CEO in August 2004.

Previously, for six years he was Vice President and General Manager at MoSys in Sunnyvale, California, responsible for the memory technology licensing business.

From 1996 to 1998 he was director of Mentor Graphics Corporation's "Inventra" division after Mentor Graphics acquired 3Soft Corporation which he had founded.

Jones has an MA degree in electrical sciences from Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK.

The management team also includes Virginia Picci, Director of Finance and Administration, and Neil Steinberg, IP Counsel.

Picci brings over 20 years experience in finance, including ten years in public accounting with Price Waterhouse Coopers in Boston (MA) USA and Geneva, Switzerland.

Previously, Picci was responsible for finance and administration at Beam Express, a semiconductor startup company spun-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

She graduated from Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire) with a BA in biology and was certified as a CPA in 1982.

Steinberg, JD, EE, brings over 15 years' corporate and private legal expertise, including invaluable experience gained while working with established semiconductor memory companies Rambus and Samsung.

Building on more than five years work on this technology by the company and its founders, in 2004 ISi completed the tape out of several 90nm megabit embedded memory designs.

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