Kilopass Technology was founded in Feb. 2001 to develop and market advanced non-volatile memory (NVM) technology, manufactured in standard commercial CMOS logic processes. Kilopass developed fundamental patents for anti-fuse technology. It has 54 patents granted or pending on 1T, 2T, and 3.5T bit cell technologies. Its bit cell architecture is compatible with standard CMOS logic, has the same reliability as the foundry’s process, scales easily with the process technology, and can reduce overall SoC product cost. Data programming is shorter than for other NVM technologies, and data is impervious to detection because no voltage, electronic or magnetic fields are stored.
The company has received several rounds of venture capital funding and to date (2014), Kilopass has raised $35 million. The latest round was $8M in 2013.
In 2006, Kilopass has divested its FPGA activity and new company, SiliconBlue Technologies was spun out.
From 2005 through 2008, the company’s strategy has been to license and work with Taiwanese foundry supplier, TSMC, almost exclusively. The demand for Kilopass small density NMV IP was large, but the low density arena had very competitive IP offerings. Diversification began in 2009 with development of high-density NVM IP and, at the same time, the company addressed customer demand for alternative foundry sources. In addition to its long-time foundry partner, TSMC, Kilopass has qualified foundries at Samsung, Global Foundry, SMIC, IBM, UMC, Tower Semiconductor and Dongbu.
See also: Executive Insight: Charlie Cheng
Kilopass’ CEO talks about the next disruptions in memory and what are the big problems that will be solved.
