Supplier Spotlight - GigaDevice | Symmetry Blog

Each week, we'll be showcasing one of our suppliers from our line card and what distinguishes them from the competition. This week's supplier is GigaDevice, a leading fabless company engaged in advanced memory technology and IC solutions.

Who is GigaDevice?

GigaDevice, founded in Silicon Valley in 2005, is a leading fabless company engaged in advanced memory technology and IC solutions. The company has successfully completed the IPO at Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2016. GigaDevice provides a wide range of high performance Flash memory and 32-bit general-purpose MCU products. GigaDevice is among the companies that pioneered SPI NOR Flash memory and is currently ranked number three in the world in this market segment with more than 1 billion units shipped every year.

Since 2007, GigaDevice has filed 600+ patent applications with 200+ patents granted. More than 55% of its employees are in research and development, which continues to differentiate their products from competitions in the market. The GigaDevice management team embodies leading semiconductor industry experience from renowned memory companies in California’s Silicon Valley, Korea, and Taiwan. GigaDevice is ISO9001 and ISO14001 certified by DQS.

GigaDevice currently produces a wide range of SPI NOR Flash, SPI NAND Flash, and MCU for use in embedded, consumer, and mobile communications applications. GigaDevice operates a manufacturing model based on strong relationships with: foundry, assembly, and test subcontractor partners. GigaDevice believes this well-defined fabless manufacturing model provides them with a competitive advantage over the conventional fabrication-based Integrated Device Manufacturers because the capital equipment expenditure to maintain advanced memory process technologies is beyond the market return of many IC memory market segments. The consistent investment in advanced equipment by their foundry partners and their rapid growth in 12” wafer capacity are key factors in their success over their competitors.

How are they different?

Reliability Management

To assure good quality and reliability to customer, GigaDevice manages every item related quality and reliability from the development stage to the manufacturing stage. During qualification, process level reliability and product level reliability are evaluated and verified. And wafer level, product level and package level reliability monitor during production is also managed.
All required reliability tests are conducted in accordance to JEDEC, AEC-Q100 and other industry standards.

• High Temperature Operating Life (HTOL)
• Endurance Life
• Data Retention
• Highly Accelerated Stress Test (HAST)
• Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) and Latch-up
• Preconditioning (PC)
• Temperature Cycle (TC)
• Early Life Failure Rate (ELFR)
• High Temperature Storage (HTS)
• Solderability Test (SD)
• Pressure Cooker Test (PCT)
• Board Level Reliability (BLR)

Failure Analysis

1. GigaDevice FA team performs Failure Analysis for following purpose:
   To identify the root cause of any defect which is found in the shipped products and apply this analysis result to manufacturing process to prevent similar defects in the future.
2. To identify the root cause of any defect which is found in the development stage and apply this analysis result to design and process to achieve better quality and reliability.
   In order to conduct accurate failure analysis, various analysis techniques and equipments are used, such as T5781 tester, SEM, TEM, FIB, etc.

Automotive Quality Control

They fully understand the customer’s requirement. All the subcontractors shall pass ISO/TS 16949 certification which produce automotive products for GigaDevice. All products shall pass AEC-Q100 qualification. Each production process shall be controlled and documented in PPAPs.

Quality Enhancement for Automotive

All automotive products shall have robust quality for zero defect target.

What are their most popular products?

Flash Memory – SPI NOR

With industry-standard SPI interface and small packages, Serial NOR Flash Memory (SPI NOR) are widely used in different applications. GigaDevice offers a wide range of SPI NOR Flash products designed to provide the most effective way to store the electronic devices’ boot code with high reliability and performance level.

GigaDevice SPI NOR Flash delivers the high-performance and security features necessary to meet the diverse design requirements of today’s applications.

SPI NOR Flash - Key Features

• Available in 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.0V and wide voltage ranges
• Operates in Single, Dual and Quad I/O SPI modes
• Quad-SPI data transfer of up to 532Mb/s outperforms many asynchronous parallel Flash memories
• Flexible memory architecture (sector size: 4K bytes, block size: 32/64K bytes)
• High reliability with 20-year data retention and 100,000 program/erase cycles
• Wide operating temperature range from -40°C ~ 85°C
• Other benefits include faster code execution, simpler interface and lower pin counts

Known Good Die

GigaDevice offers Known Good Die (KGD) products in addition to the standard packaged Flash Memory products. KGD memory is a preferred option for chipset vendors to provide System-in-Package (SiP) solutions to their customers, in order to simplify system design and to reduce device dimensions.

Flash Memory – SPI NAND

Serial NAND Flash Memory (SPI NAND) is an innovative product that is compatible with SPI NOR in terms of interface and packages. SPI NAND Flash expands the SPI NOR Flash density coverage, while providing on-chip ECC and other management features to improve the reliability.

GigaDevice SPI NAND Flash offers the high-capacity storage and performance necessary for multimedia data storage applications on mobile devices, set-top boxes, data cards, TVs and more.

Key Features

• Available in 1.8V and 3.0V
• Package: WSON8 (6mm x 8mm)
• High-speed clock frequency (120MHz for fast read with 30pF load)
• Quad I/O data transfer rate up to 480Mbit/s
• High reliability with 10-year data retention and 100,000 program/erase cycles
• Wide operating temperature range from -40°C ~ 85°C 
• Enhanced access performance with 2K- or 4K-Byte cache for fast random read
• Advanced NAND functions, including internal ECC

Microcontrollers - ARM Cortex

GigaDevice offers a large selection of ARM Cortex-M series microcontrollers designed to meet the needs of various embedded applications. These microcontrollers are supported by the world’s #1 embedded ecosystem, and are optimized for cost sensitive, energy efficient applications.

Their GD32™ family of high-performance, low-power, and cost-effective universal microcontrollers are available powered by the ARM® Cortex®-M3 or Cortex-M4 cores. The product family incorporates GigaDevice’s advanced patented gFlash memory technology, providing extended functionality and design flexibility.

The GigaDevice GD32™ family is well-suited for a wide range of applications, including industrial control, user interfaces, motor drives, power monitors and alarm systems, consumer and handheld equipment, solar photovoltaic controls, touch panels, PC peripherals and more.

What are the applications for GigaDevice products?

Automotive / Industrial

Automotive

Performance and storage demand in automotive electronics is rapidly growing. GigaDevice offers automotive grade memory products and 32-bit ARM Cortex MCUs to meet such growth.

• Innovative designs that enable fast system boot-up required for ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) and Infotainment where robustness and endurance for data integrity are desirable.
• All memory products for automotive are AEC-Q100 qualified and manufactured in ISO certified facilities to ensure high reliability.
• Meet safety-critical and reliable operation at extended temperature range of up to 125˚C.  All products comply with ISO/TS certification.
• Offer Octal DTR SPI products for applications that require high performance and ECC function to extend product reliability.

Industrial

GigaDevice understands the stringent requirements of industrial application where high performance, reliability and durability are crucial.

• Product designed and qualified for harsh environment where thermal shock, vibration and power instability can be a challenge.
• Flash products proven in a diverse industrial applications especially in solar applications and energy meters.
• Broad product portfolio covering full range of density with longevity support.

Computing

Computing devices require higher memory and storage capacities as the need to create, access and process digital content increases. GigaDevice offers high performance memory products with security and reliability for the digital age.

• Accelerating boot up time with Octal DTR SPI products to achieve high performance
• Implementing advanced security with RPMC and extending reliability with ECC

Consumer

Consumer electronics devices require instant on, low power consumption and connectivity anytime and anywhere. GigaDevice’s flash family of products and 32-bit ARM Cortex MCUs help enable an instant on and interactive user experience

• Low power memory solution implemented with deep sleep mode, low power execution and Wide Vcc range not only extends battery life without additional components but saves system cost
• Vertical integration with memory and MCU from design, fabrication to production accelerates the time to market and provides one stop shopping advantages

Internet of Things

Accelerating performance advantages on IoT with architectural flexibility, efficiency and a track record of reliability by GigaDevice’s wealth of experiences in memory and controller IC designs.

• 32-bit ARM Cortex MCUs with high performance, optimized power consumption, rich peripherals and real-time capabilities allow higher integration and ease of development
• Multichip package memory is made feasible for compact system design
• XiP on Flash with Octal DTR improves Read speed significantly. Deep sleep mode and Wide Vcc also applied to power saving and longer battery life

Network/Telecom

The explosion of data traffic in the information era continues to drive the high speed and reliability of code and data storage solutions. GigaDevice offers a wide range of memory products with fastest bootable memory solution and uncompromising reliability.

• Selected memory products are implemented with ECC to improve reliability
• Customization for network solution with dedicated needs is simple to implement and requires minimal management.
• Memory array protection, OTP and Security Registers are supported to enhance security level of the system.

Mobile

GigaDevice’s full portfolio of memory and MCU products enable a wide variety of mobile applications and designs

• Various MCP options offer design flexibility for a sleek product with optimized power consumption and longer battery life.
• Mobile displays using AMOLED, touch controllers, camera modules, fingerprint sensors combined with scalable density SPI NOR Flash allows ultimate slim and low power design

Looking to integrate GigaDevice products with your design? Our Applications Engineers offer free design and technical help for your latest designs. Contact us today!