News...
Atmel's New High-Speed SiGe Power Technology Available as Foundry Service
Thursday October 9, 8:10 am ET
Improved Performance, High Power and Switching Speeds Up to 45 GHz
HEILBRONN, Germany, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML -News ) announced the release of its new 0.5 micron Silicon Germanium (SiGe) HBT bipolar semiconductor technology SiGe2-Power. This technology offers designers additional performance at a reasonable cost for RF applications with even higher frequency and higher power requirements. The new SiGe2-Power technology is a shrink version of Atmel's SiGe1-Power bipolar 0.8 micron process which has been in high-volume production since 1999.
This technology supports simultaneous use of two available transistor types, with switching speeds of 35/45 GHz cut-off frequency, 90 GHz cut-off for power gain, and breakdown voltages of 6/4 V. The new 3-layer metal system introduced with SiGe2-Power has been optimized for high current densities. Stacked vias enable design engineers to improve the performance and layout of their power amplifier and front-end designs. The transistor performance improvement facilitates high gains, especially for RF applications above 2 GHz. This helps to eliminate the number of stages and enables simpler, cost-effective designs.
"Cost efficiency, optimized power-gain, and high-speed performance of Atmel's SiGe2-Power bipolar technology make this new semiconductor process ideal for today's high-power wireless communications IC design for WLAN, UMTS, CDMA and DECT," said Stephan la Barre, Atmel's Foundry Marketing Manager for SiGe Bipolar.
A preliminary version of the design kit for SiGe2-Power is available now, the complete design kit will be available in December 2003. Atmel also offers Multi Project Wafer runs (MPW or "pizza masks") for low-cost prototyping as well as assembly and test services for all SiGe processes. The first SiGe2-Power MPW run will start in November 2003, MPWs will be continued quarterly.
Atmel operates 5 wafer manufacturing facilities using leading-edge technologies. Its extensive manufacturing is also made available to customers who want to access silicon foundry for their products. In addition to SiGe, Atmel's foundry service includes state-of-the-art production lines for CMOS NVM, BiCMOS, Bipolar and BCDMOS/ BCD-on-SOI technologies that benefit from Atmel's strong experience in statistical methods and manufacturing tools. |
