TriQuint focused on integration and packaging
TriQuint Semiconductor is focusing on transistor integration and an increased offering of packaged RF products as it looks to meet the demands of what it calls "connectivity convergence" in wireless networking.
The Oregon-based GaAs chip manufacturer is set to offer many of its GaAs-based products that are typically only available as die-level MMICs in new, packaged formats.
The move is part of TriQuint s "RF vision" to simplify next-generation wireless networks, and the company will be highlighting its strategy at the MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Honolulu early next month.
Product launches at the event will include a new RF front-end for WiMAX radio links, packaged heterostructure FETs for wireless base stations and point-to-point connections, and new packaged amplifiers for satellite ground terminals.
According to Brian Balut, TriQuint s VP of networks, device integration at the chip level is a key aspect of this "vision".
The company already offers products manufactured using a GaAs E/D PHEMT process, which allows die-level integration of amplifiers, switches, filters and low-noise amplifiers for wireless LAN applications.
Further integration is in the pipeline, as detailed at the recent CS Mantech conference, where TriQuint s Tim Henderson described a "BiHEMT" approach that combines E/D PHEMT with InGaP/GaAs HBT power amplifier technology in a single GaAs process.
Although still under development and qualification, this new process has the potential to add an extra level of versatility to front-end modules, allowing co-integration of power amplifier circuitry with PHEMT-based bias control and logic circuits, RF switches and low-noise amplifiers.
While integrating these functions will yield some technological advantages, the main motivation for the BiHEMT development is more prosaic. Henderson said that reducing the total GaAs die size in a wireless component was intended primarily to drive down the overall system cost.
Describing the broader consumer trends behind the "connectivity convergence" strategy, Balut added, "People want access when and where they choose, without service quality issues, and hence the need for fixed and mobile wireless high-speed connectivity, and the products that enable it."
"Equipment makers have the same expectation."
One example of a consumer product where packaging and integration advances have made an impact is in two-way satellite ground terminals. Balut says that TriQuint has reduced the die surface area of the transmit power amplifier by more than 60 percent in this application.
