St today announced the introduction of an advanced process based on 18nm fully depleted Silicon on Insulator (FD-SOI) technology equipped with embedded Phase change memory (ePCM) to support the next generation of embedded processing devices.

  This new process technology, jointly developed by ST and Samsung Foundry, brings a leap in performance and power consumption to embedded processing applications while allowing for greater memory capacity and higher levels of analog and digital peripherals integration. The first next-generation STM32 microcontroller based on the new technology will begin offering samples to selected customers in the second half of 2024, with production planned for the second half of 2025.

  "As a leading innovator in the semiconductor industry, ST is the first to bring FD-SOI and PCM technologies to our customers for automotive and aerospace applications," said ST's President of Microcontrollers, Digital ics and RF Products. We are now taking the next step, starting with the next-generation STM32 microcontroller, to bring the benefits of these technologies to industrial application developers."

Technological advantage

  Compared to the ST 40nm embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) technology currently in use, the 18nm FD-SOI with ePCM greatly improves key quality factors:

  1, performance power consumption ratio increased by more than 50%

  2, non-volatile memory (NVM) density increased by 2.5 times, can achieve larger on-chip memory

  3, triple the digital density and integrate digital peripherals such as artificial intelligence and graphics accelerators, as well as the most advanced security features

  4, the noise figure is improved by 3dB, enhancing the radio frequency performance of wireless MCU

  The technology is capable of operating at 3V to provide analog functions such as power management, reset system, clock source and digital/analog converter. It is the only sub-20 nm technology that supports this function. The technology also provides the reliability required for demanding industrial applications with robust high-temperature operation, radiation hardening and data retention capabilities proven in automotive applications.