Innovative Research and Development

Winbond continues to invest resources towards sustainable innovation on semiconductor design, production technology and products based on our market insights in next-generation products. We strive to increase our competitiveness and market share for green products. In 2020, we continued to expand our production capacity and upgrade our production processes to provide customers with even more energy-efficient green products. In product design, the Winbond design team now aims to lower power consumption alongside better performance; for production processes, Winbond is optimizing and consolidating the number of masks and steps in our existing process to effectively shorten the production time, lower production costs, and reduce the amount of hazardous substances generated and discharged during production. Source management is now practiced during process development as well. Continued refinements in every area serve to enhance the overall sustainable competitiveness of Winbond.

Semiconductor Industry Chain

Winbond boasts the most advanced and complete semiconductor industry chain and specialist partners in the world. These encompass the upstream IP and IC design industries, the mid-stream IC fabrication, wafer fabrication, related process testing and inspection equipment, photo mask and chemical agent industries, as well as the downstream industries including IC packaging and testing, related process testing and inspection equipment, components (e.g. substrate and lead frame), IC module and IC channel.

Winbond has many years of experience in the Known Good Die (KGD) field and work with chip suppliers to provide System in Package (SiP) solutions, which created additional value in the semiconductor industry chain.

Note:

1. System in Package, (SiP):From package (downstream of semiconductor industry) viewpoint, to assemble different chips with side-by-side or stacked form into a single electronic component.
2. Known Good Die, (KGD):Wafers are not packaged immediately after fabrication but are provided to the customer to be assembled with their product as a single chip. Extremely rigorous product quality control is necessary to ensure the functionality of the final product

Winbond strives to provide global customers with the full spectrum of specialty memory solution services. The core products include Code Storage Flash Memory, TrustME® Security Flash Memory, Specialty DRAM and Mobile DRAM, which making Winbond the only company in Taiwan with the capability to develop both DRAM and Flash technologies. Winbond has leveraged the synergies of its product portfolio to meet the diverse needs of its customers. Customers can therefore combine their own products with that of Winbond for applications with a high-threshold and high quality requirements, such as handheld devices, consumer electronics, computer peripherals products, automotive and industrial electronics.

Applications for Winbond Product R&D

For more product information, please visit the Winbond website

Current State of Innovative R&D and Achievement

Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Products

In terms of specialty memory products, Winbond is continuing to supply global customers with the full range of low-to-medium density memory solution services. In 2018, Winbond began planning an all-new 12” fab at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) in Kaohsiung to establish an in-house R&D capability and increase production output. The fab will be based on a streamlined 25nm process developed by Winbond. The process completed a rigorous validation procedure at the Taichung fab in the first quarter of 2021. The STSP fab should be fully fitted out in the first quarter of 2022 and be ready for mass production by the end of 2022. Winbond is also investing manpower and resources on developing our own next-generation 20nm technology so that we can provide customers with more competitive, high-quality memory devices. In mobile memory, in addition to full range of low-to-medium capacity (LPDDRR, LPDDR2, LPDDR3) products, Winbond’s 1Gb and 2Gb LPDDR4 will be the first products in the industry which are designed for ISO 26262 ASIL B automotive specification. They can be used in a variety of device applications with outstanding quality and great improvements in reliability.

Next-generation Hyper3.0

Winbond knows that 5G and AI are now an important future market trend. We have begun collaborating with various AI SoC vendors on building the next generation of applications. Winbond products and technologies are helping developers overcome bottlenecks in AI computing technology to deliver even better solutions. No matter low-power, consumer and specialty DRAM products, Winbond pursues high performance products but also through innovative R&D, think outside of the box and develop streamlined circuit designs. Besides every new product generation resulting in lower standby current, the operating current has been reduced by at least 20% with every new generation of design as well.

Code Storage Flash Memory

The increasing complexity of on-board systems and growing demand for Over the Air (OTA) technology means that the market requirement for large-capacity memory with support for high-speed read/write has grown as well. In 2020, Winbond responded to this trend by unveiling the “OctalNAND”, the world’s first serial NAND Flash with eight IO.

OctalNAND Advantage

The read speed of OctalNAND is up to 240 MB/s, 10 times faster than SLC NAND now in mainstream use. Its write speed is also double that of SLC NAND and ten times that of SPI NOR. The boost in performance is invaluable for applications that require fast boot and OTA support.

High Read/Write Speed	Compact Size with Low Pin Count	Hardware Compatibility

Note: Hardware compatibility means that the product’s pin definitions are identical. PCB Assembly (PCBA) can be switched out directly without requiring a re-design.

On the other side, reducing power consumption, extending battery life and decreasing thermal dissipation is always the goal of Winbond. A new production process and new circuit architecture development resulted in the first NOR Flash in the world to support an operating voltage of 1.2V. The power consumption of 1.2V NOR Flash is just 55% that of the standard 1.8V NOR Flash in use now. It can however achieve read/write speeds of up to 104MHz and maintain the performance of 1.8V/3V Flash. The product is suitable for wearable device applications where energy-efficiency is essential such as wireless headphones, smart watches, smart bracelets, smart glasses and other consumer electronic products.

Winbond obtained “ISO 26262 Road Vehicles - Functional Safety certification” in 2019, making it the first automotive memory manufacturer in Taiwan to be certified in the top international automotive safety standard. To continue expanding our automotive market and provide automotive products that satisfy the requirements of the international autotronic supply chain, Winbond is now working on the first Octal NOR Flash product to follow ISO 26262 during development and aimed at achieving the ASIL D rating. At the same time, Winbond is continuous updating our 4x nm technology to produce a new range of reliable, high-performance, low-power consumption and value-added Code Storage Flash Memory products. These will be pitched at the needs of PC, mobile and handheld device, network and 5G communications, IoT, consumer electronics, automotive and industrial electronics, medical electronics and information security applications. We plan to upgrade our product specifications in 2021 to achieve even higher product certification ratings.

Patent Management

Patent Management

Winbond has dedicated units (IP Department and Patent Committee) assigned to IP management, assessment and review, reward presentation, and strategy planning.  Proposals are reviewed on the basis of the patent laws and review criteria set by national patent offices around the world as well as their commercial value. A combination of internal patent assessment and rigorous review by an external competent authority improves patent quality and approval rate. These in turn help with the protection of IP and research accomplishments.

To encourage employees to submit their proposals, rules for patent applications and rewards were devised by Winbond. A new inventor award in particular provides various patent approval bonus for different countries. It also applies to separated employees as well. IP department provides employees with assistance and guidance during the proposal phase for assurance on proposal direction and quality.

Winbond sets annual targets for proposals based on our business goals and R&D resources. More weight is given to patent proposals that are highly connected to our product development strategy to promote greater connectivity between business goals and patent management strategy. IP department has embarked on the digital transformation of IP management. The IP management system and patent search system have been enhanced to provide business intelligence analysis from an IP perspective. This in turn improves the efficiency of patent management, the approval rate from internal review of proposals, and patent quality. IP department regularly grades approved patents based on Winbond’s assessment criteria so that the value of patent portfolios can be reviewed and maintenance costs reduced.

Intellectual Property Management Plan and Implementation 

• Intellectual Property Management Plan and Implementation