TOKYO, Oct. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Floadia Corporation
headquartered in Kodaira-shi, Tokyo, has raised approximately 1.2 billion yen in the Series C round of
financing. Using this fund, Floadia will expand its existing
embedded memory business and develop a new semiconductor memory
technology that can make a breakthrough in AI edge computing with
ultra-low power consumption.
(Logo:
https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M104461/202010266215/_prw_PI1fl_i31M1Hf9.jpg)
Teijin Co., Ltd. took the lead position for the Series C and
undertook a total of 530 million yen
together with TEL Venture Capital Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary
of Tokyo Electron, in the first closing. In the second closing,
Miyako Capital, Marubeni Ventures, NEC Capital Solutions, and
IDATEN Ventures undertook a total of 510
million yen. Furthermore, Japan Finance Corporation has also
provided a loan of 180 million
yen.
Floadia was founded in 2011 by veteran engineers who left
Renesas Electronics. The company licenses its intellectual property
(IP), including the manufacturing process and circuit design which
enable embedded non-volatile memory production. Its memories are
mainly used for micro-computers, power semiconductors, sensors and
other semiconductor devices, and significantly reduce power
consumption and cost, with auto-grade heat endurance capability.
Floadia's non-volatile memory technology is characterized by
extremely low power consumption for write/erase operations per
memory cell, which is one-millionth of that of competitors*.
Furthermore, the simple manufacturing process enables customers to
minimize the development time and reduce the additional
manufacturing cost to one-third of that of competitors. Floadia's
memories have been utilized in in-vehicle microcomputers and also
adopted in Toshiba microcontrollers. They are also used for
smartphone components manufactured by Taiwanese foundries.
* Floadia's
non-volatile memory uses FN tunneling so that power consumption for
write/erase operations per memory cell is one-millionth of that of
competitors using a hot carrier method.
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Floadia's memories can also be embedded without changing other
already existing IP designs, making analog/digital integration much
easier. As the evolution of 5G smart phones, smart watches,
wireless earphones and various battery-powered IoT devices
continues, their power consumption, device size and cost will
become more essential than ever. In order to further reduce device
size and cost, there is an increasing trend to integrate digital
circuits and analog circuits on the same chip. Currently, Floadia
is working with major foundries to transplant its technology on the
130nm BCD Plus (Bipolar / CMOS / DMOS integrated) platform, and
plans mass production from the early part of 2021.
Taking advantage of this funding, Floadia will also accelerate
the development of AI edge computing devices that can significantly
reduce power consumption.
Currently, AI computing is mainly performed using large-scale
data center servers on the cloud side. It is said that AI
calculation in the cloud requires enormous power and that there are
also data security issues. On the other hand, for AI computing that
requires real-time transaction in advanced machines such as
autonomous cars and drones, it is essential to perform AI computing
on the edge side without connecting to the cloud. By adopting
Floadia's memory technology, it is possible to significantly
enhance the power efficiency of AI calculation 100 to 1,000 times
better.
Floadia had raised about 2.4 billion
yen from INCJ (Japanese government fund), UMC Capital
(Taiwanese foundry's affiliate), Faraday Technology (Taiwanese ASIC
design company), etc. The total amount of funds raised up to now is
approximately 3.6 billion yen.
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SOURCE Floadia Corporation