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IBM demos first thin-silicon SiGe bipolar transistor

IBM continues to find new ways to push Si microelectronics to new performance levels, this time releasing details of a process that could lead to SiGe BiCMOS devices on thin SOI.
IBM has unveiled details of an innovative chip design that can improve performance fourfold or reduce power consumption fivefold in wireless devices compared to the state-of-the-art thin-silicon bipolar technology.

This builds on IBM s recent announcements of other new design and manufacturing methods, such as Strained Si and SSDOI, that improve the performance and lower the power consumption of pure computing chips. As the wireless industry grows, device manufacturers will need better mixed-signal chips that support both computing applications and high frequency communications applications. This new chip design uses a wafer thin enough to maximize the performance of both the computing and communications components.

CMOS ICs for digital computing applications show higher performance when processed on SOI wafers that reduce parasitic losses through the Si substrate. Until now, no one has been able to find a technique to combine CMOS and SiGe bipolar onto one wafer that would maximize the performance of both. IBM is the first to build SiGe bipolar devices using a thin SOI wafer, thereby paving the way to integrate SiGe bipolar and CMOS on the same thin SOI wafer, maximizing the performance of both digital computing and analog RF functions.

"As the wireless industry continues to grow, new devices will require greater functionality, performance, and reliability from their components," said T. C. Chen, VP of science and technology at IBM Research. "IBM continues to find new methods to improve chips to ensure that the industry can meet consumer demands. The new chip design could be implemented within five years, enabling applications such as video streaming on cell phones."

IBM presented details of this new chip design at the 2003 Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting in Toulouse, France (September 29-30).

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