Freescale Semiconductor has announced new microcontroller (MCU) products - the Kinetis family of 32-bit devices - based on the ARM Cortex-M4 processor. The new MCUs are manufactured at Globalfoundries using silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology.

Kinetis MCUs are built using Freescale's 90nm thin film storage (TFS) flash technology with FlexMemory capability – configurable electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). Freescale said over the next 12 months, seven new Kinetis MCU series will be introduced with more than 200 pin-, peripheral- and software-compatible devices.

Freescale expects to sample the first five general-purpose Kinetis MCU series in the second half of 2010, with production planned for early 2011. Additional families with application-focused peripheral sets are currently in design, and expected to be available throughout 2011.

In addition, speaking at the recent Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) in the US, company CEO Rich Beyer indicated that both Globalfoundries and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) are Freescale's foundry partners.

TSMC has been Freescale's long-term foundry partner, manufacturing 0.18-micron, 0.13-micron and 90nm and 55nm MCU products for the customer.

In response to recent macroeconomics conditions, Beyer noted he does not see any signs of a slowdown in demand. There is no concerns about chip inventory, said Beyer, adding that the market's growth momentum will last through the year.

The overall chip market is also expected to see healthy growth in 2011, according to Beyer.