TSMC introduces 0.35-micron SiGe foundry services, plans 0.18-micron in 2003
Semiconductor Business News
(10/01/01 11:30 a.m. EST)
HSINCHU, Taiwan-- Silicon-germanium technology is now available for volume production at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., which today announced its 0.35-micron SiGe BiCMOS processes for high-performance and low-power consuming communications ICs. With the introduction, TSMC claims to be the first pure-play silicon foundry to offer SiGe technology.
TSMC is going up against a number of sources for SiGe technology, including IBM Corp., which pioneered silicon-germanium processes in the past two decades and launched its foundry services in the late 1990s.
Other third-party foundries are also pursuing SiGe processes for communications and other chip applications. In Germany, for example, foundry startup Communicant Semiconductor Technologies AG is preparing to launch SiGe production in a $1.5 billion wafer fab, using a mixture of silicon-germanium carbon (SiGe:C) that leverages 0.18-micron CMOS technology from Intel Corp. (see Feb. 6 story).
But TSMC, the world's largest silicon foundry, believes it has the jump on other third-party chip makers in the emerging SiGe segment. The foundry giant said its 0.35-micron SiGe BiCMOS technology performs at higher speeds and lower power than standard CMOS and is less expensive than gallium-arsenide (GaAs) processes. TSMC said the new process is "an ideal technology for cell phone, wireless LAN and optical networking."
TSMC also said it will introduce its next-generation 0.18-micron SiGe BiCMOS technology in early 2003.
"The communications market is on the verge of exploding with new applications, a good number of which will rely on SiGe for critical functions," said Genda Hu, vice president of corporate marketing for TSMC in Hsinchu. "In certain application spaces, designs that use SiGe will perform faster and use significantly less power than those using all-CMOS, and cost less than those employing exotic alternatives. This is an important technology for designers at the cutting edge of wireless and wired communications capabilities."
The 0.35-micron SiGe BiCMOS process is available now from volume production and on prototyping multi-project wafers, called CyberShuttle by TSMC. The foundry supplier said the SiGe technology is supported by design kits from Cadence Design Systems Inc. in San Jose. |
