Xindium uses InP expertise to make commercial 40 Gbit/s ICs
Xindium s capabilities, which include the design and fabrication of optoelectronic ICs using InP and related materials, build on 20 years of research experience at UIUC with InP and GaAs devices for optical and wireless applications. Xindium will maintain a strong research collaboration with the Microelectronics Laboratory at UIUC, which has a long history of successful III-V optical and wireless device and circuit research. The company s first targeted products will be a >40 GHz pin detector, an integrated pin detector and HBT-based TIA, and a customer-specified TIA integrated with a post-amplifier.
Company background Xindium was founded in February 2001 by three UIUC professors, Milton Feng, José Schutt-Ainé and Ilesanmi Adesida, and is headed by president and CEO Cindana Turkatte. One of the company s first actions was to secure an intellectual-property agreement with the university allowing Xindium to expand on UIUC s technology. "The agreement allows Xindium to use published research results developed at UIUC and to create commercial products," said Turkatte.
The company was incorporated in March 2001 with $5 million in series A funding from Vantage Point Venture Partners. Xindium has a use-of-facilities agreement with UIUC, which enables the company to carry out design verifications and fabricate initial working prototypes in the Microelectronics Lab. After filing three patents on the epitaxial recipe, the InP HBT process and methods to ensure signal integrity in its circuits, Xindium has already migrated to product development.
During 2002, Xindium plans to secure series B funding, which will allow the building of a pilot line. This is necessary because although UIUC does not have restrictions on commercial activities (unlike some other universities, which can t sell commercial samples), it will not be possible to get ISO qualification for the current facility. "The Xindium pilot line will be an adjunct to the UIUC Microelectronics Lab, rather than a separate fab," said Turkatte. "It will contain all the critical elements that require ISO qualification." As well as building qualified production devices for customers, the pilot line will allow Xindium to assemble a reference model that can be licensed to foundries. Xindium has already been approached by at least two foundries interested in licensing the company s technology.
Integrated products Like some of its competitors, Xindium is convinced that InP is vital for 40 Gbit/s systems. At present, companies are building 40 Gbit/s transceivers using separate components, but will be looking for integration, starting with the pin detector and the TIA. Further integration will have to wait until the InP manufacturing industry matures. A TIA with a post-amp and AGC function requires about 50 transistors, or 100 for differential output, while a CDR and demux IC requires approximately 1000 transistors. "InP is not yet ready for the production of such complex ICs with high yield," explained Turkatte, "but next year it will be."
At this year s GaAs Mantech conference, Xindium and UIUC will describe an InP SHBT process with ft and fmax values of 160 and 250 GHz respectively, which is being used for current products.
Meeting customer requirements Xindium s strategy for generating revenue recognizes the need to wait until customers are ready for InP ICs. The company expects strong revenue growth beginning in 2004, and in the meantime will proceed with a low-expense burn-rate and a flexible production strategy. "We re working with customers now on the design-in cycle, which can take six to eighteen months," said Turkatte. "Along with establishing a prototyping and manufacturing capability, this will allow us to provide the right product when the customer is ready to start buying in volume." Several years ago, when the market was growing very rapidly, customers were forced to select from whatever products the suppliers chose to build. Now the market is returning to proper engineering fundamentals, and working in response to customer requirements. Xindium offers a menu-type specification for its ICs rather than a fully custom approach, which keeps costs under control. The company is able to simulate circuits fully as they operate under all environmental conditions. After the customer signs off the software model, Xindium is able to carry out rapid prototyping. The company is seeking to agree test methods for 40 Gbit/s parts, which it hopes to publish, and is also collaborating with customers and competing suppliers on next-generation RF connector standards to reduce losses and improve performance.
Extensive expertise The unique expertise at Xindium, built up through many years at UIUC, combines an understanding of the InP epitaxial layer structures with high-speed optoelectronic circuit design and skills in RF engineering and testing. "The key to building circuits with excellent signal integrity at high speeds is to understand how the circuit performance and design relates to the epitaxial structure," said Turkatte. "This takes a foundation of many years of experience, and is also protected by our intellectual property, making it very difficult for competitors to enter the market."
Xindium does not plan to grow production epiwafers, since there are commercial epiwafer foundries capable of growing the InP-based structures. "One of the first things we did this time last year was to start to qualify epiwafer vendors," said Turkatte. "Two suppliers have been qualified, and both MBE and MOCVD techniques are being used."
Xindium s first two products, the pin-TIA and the customer-specified TIA, will be available in wafer or chip-on-carrier form. Future receiver products will include a VCO and a demux IC with CDR, as well as 10 and 40 Gbit/s ICs with higher levels of integration. On the transmitter side the company has plans to introduce modulator post-amplifiers, laser-driver amplifiers and 4:1 mux ICs. The company will also look to address wireless applications when new (3G and beyond) services are introduced and when the manufacturing infrastructure for InP-based ICs is sufficiently advanced.
Turkatte feels that Xindium s manufacturing and marketing strategy and its access to the Microelectronics Lab at UIUC provide a distinct advantage over other companies seeking to enter the InP IC market.
