eFPGA expands the ecosystem footprint one deal at a time

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The eFPGA technology provides SoC developers with a quick and easy way to embed programmable technology into their chip designs.

www.ednasia.com, Oct. 11, 2022 – 

The design ecosystem around embedded FPGA (eFPGA) technology is gradually expanding, and it's apparent from the deals QuickLogic has recently made in the design and manufacturing realms. The eFPGA technology provides system-on-chip (SoC) developers with a quick and easy way to embed programmable technology into their chip designs.

The eFPGA technology integrated into SoCs enables chip designers to implement custom logic for applications such as hardware acceleration, customizable I/O interfaces, and design security. Moreover, it extends product lifecycles by allowing the same SoC to serve multiple market adjacencies, adapt to emerging standards, and address changing functionality needs.

QuickLogic, a major player in the rapidly emerging eFPGA realm, will provide turnkey eFPGA design support for SoC designs to ChipMotion Microelectronics, a semiconductor design services company with offices in Hefei, Shanghai, and Beijing. ChipMotion will use QuickLogic's >Australis eFPGA IP Generator,

ChipMotion offers SoC development services for process nodes at 12 nm and above, and while most semiconductor design services firms in China only provide back-end design support, ChipMotion offers front-end and turnkey services as well.

A few months back, QuickLogic partnered with embedded security specialist Intrinsic ID to integrate security options into SoCs incorporating eFPGA technology. The security options include secure key generation based on SRAM physical unclonable functions (PUFs) to full security solutions like bitstream encryption, key wrapping, authentication tags, key verification, and data encryption/decryption for storage within the device, board, or system-level communications.

Intrinsic ID's security solutions are based on PUFs, which embody the unique physical characteristics of a specific device that can be used to generate a device-specific encryption key. For SoCs integrating eFPGA technology, the PUF can be standard SRAM cells or FPGA logic cells specifically configured for PUF purposes. Here, the PUF gives each device a unique digital fingerprint, which can be used to generate an encryption root key whenever needed.

eFPGA's fab liaison

QuickLogic is also cementing fab relationships to qualify its eFPGA IP for various process nodes. In March 2022, the eFPGA IP supplier announced partnerships with TSMC and SkyWater. QuickLogic announced the availability of its first customer-defined eFPGA block targeting TSMC's 22-nm process node. The IP is generated by the Australis IP Generator, which enables rapid eFPGA IP generation and can target nearly any foundry/process node combination in a few weeks to a few months.

Next, QuickLogic made available a "fast boot" rad-hard eFPGA IP for SkyWater's 90 nm rad-hard (RH90) process. It's worth mentioning that typical discrete FPGAs and eFPGA IPs can require hundreds of milliseconds to load their intended configuration. On the other hand, QuickLogic's eFPGA IP supports sub-100 microsecond boot times that are independent of gate count.

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