New color LCD display drivers offer fast response for high speed moving images

June 23rd, 2004

Enhanced performance, full-color display capability leverages innovative embedded memory technology accessible from foundry design ecosystem

SINGAPORE - June 23, 2004 - Dialog Semiconductor Plc., a developer of innovative mixed-signal silicon solutions for wireless products, today announced the delivery of a new line of color liquid crystal display (LCD) drivers for the mobile phone market, utilizing value-added process solutions from Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of the world's top three dedicated semiconductor foundries, and design solutions from eMemory Technology, Inc., one of Asia's most innovative embedded memory suppliers.
Using multi-line addressing (MLA) LCD technology, the new DA8912A and DA8913A incorporate fully integrated graphic display RAM with high speed interfaces and various power management functions to enable a single, low power chip for managing the display in next generation mobile phone handsets and portable electronic products.

This latest product innovation builds upon an existing relationship between the companies starting in 1998, which has resulted in Chartered's manufacturing of a variety of other LCD and power management products for the mixed-signal standard product provider. The Chartered design solution, comprising a comprehensive portfolio of proven solutions from electronic design automation (EDA) and intellectual property (IP) innovators, also provides Dialog Semiconductor with access to eMemory's one-time programmable (OTP) non-volatile memory (NVM) solution. Proven on Chartered's 0.35-micron manufacturing process, the eMemory solution helped enhance the performance of Dialog Semiconductor's new DA8912A and DA8913A LCD drivers announced today. The enhanced color LCD drivers are manufactured using Chartered's 0.35-micron process, thus streamlining the path for Dialog Semiconductor to achieve first-time success from design-through-manufacturing.

Dialog Semiconductor's family of color display drivers provides a single-chip solution for color STN (super-twisted nematic) LCDs, aimed at the growing number of wireless handsets with high-resolution color and dual displays with advanced multimedia, video and gaming capabilities and requiring fast-moving images. The color STN LCD drivers provide excellent resolution of up to 65,000 colors, and a video rate of over 15 frames per second, addressing a growing trend for mobile phone users to demand more information from their display.

"Our new DA8912A/8913A ICs provide real innovation for the mobile phone display market, delivering superior color performance and low power consumption, while providing mobile phone handset makers the flexibility to customize display parameters for creating differentiation. At the same time, the color LCD driver comes as standard part that is ready for production," said Roland Pudelko, chief executive officer and president of Dialog Semiconductor. "We are pleased with the seamless collaboration made possible via Chartered's ecosystem, making available eMemory's pre-qualified OTP memory blocks and efficient design services. This has helped Dialog Semiconductor to adopt a faster, more cost-effective and flexible approach for implementing our sophisticated mixed-signal system solutions."

Dialog Semiconductor chose eMemory's OTP technology, delivered as an IP block, to replace traditional fuses required to adjust the contrast of its color LCD driver. The OTP block, which was customized for Dialog Semiconductor's specific requirements, removes the need to run a set-up trim at chip testing, thus saving assembly time and cost. The electrical programmable memory enables the flexibility of adjusting display parameters at module assembly stage.

"The successful collaboration among Dialog Semiconductor, eMemory and Chartered is further validation of Chartered's solutions approach of leveraging expertise through meaningful partnerships and delivering value and innovations to customers," said Mike Rekuc, senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Chartered. "We will continue to work closely with our strategic partners, such as eMemory, to support mutual customers like Dialog Semiconductor with integrated solutions across their product value chain as well as the full life-cycle of their products."

"The advantages of our OTP technology for a growing number of consumer applications that integrates communications and computing functions are significant - process portability, programmability, and most importantly in this case, the ability for precision trimming of analog components that tunes the performance of LCD displays. These benefits are made even more accessible through our collaboration with Chartered to ensure that our mutual customers can quickly and cost-effectively realize their designs on silicon," said Charles Hsu, president at eMemory.

eMemory's OTP blocks pre-qualified on Chartered's 0.35-micron process operate with a 3.3V operating voltage and 6.5V programming voltage, and feature a read access time of 50 nanoseconds and data retention capability of 10 years. The OTP blocks can also be used in conjunction with the broad range of third-party mixed-signal and analog components that are silicon-validated by Chartered for system-on-chip implementations. The standard OTP memory offering is compatible with existing Chartered 0.35-micron standard cell libraries and memory compilers available from its various library partners, and is supported by industry-leading design automation tools. Silicon characterization reports are available from both companies upon request, and an OTP design kit can be obtained from eMemory.

The original press release can be found here.