Gack! Silicon + copper does not GaAs make! Let me squash this rumor...
I can see how "half-analysis" can lead to large price drops in stocks...
Mike Winn said:
Dan, I monitor the Triquint stock too. There are talks on the TQNT thread that copper chip technology from IBM is cause for concern for GaAs. What da ya think? Check the posts by a guy named Barak Maoz, he is very knowledgeable.
My reply:
I discussed why GaAs is superior with an electrical engineer the other day -- he worked with Vitesse, and by the way I also have some computer engineering background. The copper is NOT used for the actual semiconductor wafer, only for the interconnect ("wires"). Basically, copper has far less electrical resistance than the metal used now (often aluminum). A good thing for silicon, copper is. But gold is better!
Now, a silicon chip DOES NOT have the same high frequency/low power characteristics as a GaAs design. So a silicon chip can't match a GaAs chip, even if that silicon chip has copper interconnect. In fact, your friend Barak quotes someone else's analysis who says exactly that, "but it (copper) will not give a Silicon MMIC the performance of GaAs". Further, I'm told (but haven't confirmed) that gold is often used in certain GaAs chips, which is better than copper anyway.
...the bottom line is silicon with copper doesn't at all endanger GaAs...that's a rumor! |
