IBM targets GaAs markets with new SiGe process
IBM has made available its fourth-generation SiGe bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) chip manufacturing technology.
The semiconductor giant says that the new process, which it calls "8HP", offers double the RF performance of the previous generation, thanks to a switch to a more advanced lithography stage that enables smaller features to be written onto the chip.
While the third-generation chips were processed using 180 nm lithography, the latest devices are manufactured with the more advanced 130 nm technology.
With an emitter width of only 120 nm, IBM's 8HP chips have an Ft of 200 GHz. A low-cost variation of the technology, termed "8WL", operates with an Ft of 100 GHz.
And it is traditional GaAs applications that IBM is targeting with the new process. "The fourth generation of SiGe will continue to enable wireless connectivity on an increasingly global scale," said IBM's chief technologist for systems and technology, Bernie Meyerson.
In particular, IBM has identified applications in wireless LAN and automotive radar as prime targets.
The company says that chips manufactured with its 8HP SiGe process could be used in both short-range (24 GHz) and long-range (77 GHz) collision-avoidance systems for automobiles. The second key area is 60 GHz Wi-Fi.
Customers are already signing up to use the process, it appears. Sierra Monolithics says that it will deploy SiGe chips made using 8HP in ultra-high-speed fiber-optic components and 60 GHz wireless transceivers.
