Technical Insight
Rockwell and Kopin collaborate on HBTs (GaAs News)
Rockwell Science Center (RSC) and Kopin have agreed to jointly develop InP HBTs for commercial applications. Kopin (Taunton, MA) will develop InP HBT epiwafers, while RSC (Thousand Oaks, CA) will create processing technologies for devices and circuits, and address reliability issues. According to the two companies, InP devices demonstrate superior speed, lower operating voltage, higher power efficiency and better thermal properties than their GaAs counterparts. Rockwell and Kopin have a long history of cooperation in the field of HBTs: Rockwell Semiconductor (now Conexant) has been a major customer for Kopin s C-doped AlGaAs epiwafers since the early 1990s. Kopin first began working on C-doped AlGaAs HBTs back in 1989, and recently introduced its first C-doped InP HBT epiwafers (see Compound Semiconductor February 2001, p25). "InP HBTs are becoming the most exciting frontier for ultra high-speed circuits," said RSC director Derek Cheung. "Our two teams have worked successfully on GaAs HBTs, and we are now combining our resources to move InP HBTs into commercial readiness within a year."
