Motorola Creates Revolutionary Semiconductor Materials; Potential to Transform
Economics of Communications and Semiconductor Industries
SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT)
announced today that Motorola Labs scientists are the first to successfully
combine the best properties of workhorse silicon technology with the speed and
optical capabilities of high-performance compound semiconductors that are
known as the III-V materials.
The discovery, which solves a problem that has been vexing the
semiconductor industry for nearly 30 years, opens the door to significantly
less expensive optical communications, high-frequency radio devices and
high-speed microprocessor-based subsystems by potentially eliminating the
current cost barriers holding back many advanced applications. For consumers,
the technology should result in smarter electronic products that cost less,
perform better and have exciting new features. The technology will change the
economics and accelerate the development of new applications, such as
broadband "fiber" cable to the home, streaming video to cell phones and
automotive collision avoidance systems.
Other potential markets include data storage, lasers for such consumer
products as DVD players, medical equipment, radar, automotive electronics,
lighting, and photovoltaics. Until now, there has been no way to combine
light-emitting semiconductors with silicon integrated circuits on a single
chip, and the need to use discrete components has compromised the cost, size,
speed and efficiency of high-speed communications equipment and devices.
Specifically, the discovery impacts the semiconductor industry by:
-- Increasing substrate size, reducing substrate cost and processing costs
for III-V manufacturing
-- Integrating the superior electrical and optical performance of
III-V semiconductors with mature silicon technology to create a new
industry based on Integrated Semiconductor Circuits
-- Extending the life of silicon and existing capital investments
-- Improving cost effectiveness for higher performance applications such
as optical communications
-- Enabling larger scales of integration
"This is a tremendous achievement by our scientists and one that has the
potential, when fully commercialized, to transform the industry in a way that
is similar to the transition from discrete semiconductors to integrated
circuits," said Dennis Roberson, senior vice president and chief technology
officer, Motorola, Inc.
"Motorola's announcement that they have successfully made GaAs transistors
in a thin layer of GaAs grown on a silicon wafer could go down in history as a
major turning point for the semiconductor industry," said Steve Cullen,
director & principal analyst, Semiconductor Research, Cahners In-Stat Group.
The Technology
The technology enables very thin layers of so-called III-V semiconductor
materials (which include gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, gallium nitride
and other high performance / light-emitting compounds) to be grown on a
silicon substrate. Until now, this has been a virtually impossible task due
to fundamental material mis-match issues.
Specifically, the underlying crystalline structures of silicon and the
various III-V compounds do not match. As a result, previous industry attempts
to combine them resulted in dislocations or "cracks" in the material as the
two mismatched structures struggled to bond. The key to solving the problem
was introducing an intermediate layer of material between the silicon and the
III-V material. The solution was found in discovering exactly the right
"recipe" for a material that would easily bond with both silicon and GaAs,
reducing the strain between the two target materials in the process.
The idea was originally developed by Motorola Labs' scientist, Dr. Jamal
Ramdani. Developing and proving the exact recipe and process grew out of work
done by a broad team of scientists and engineers. Motorola Labs is now
working on developing the optimum intermediate layer for indium phosphide and
other materials.
Another Industry First
Motorola Labs created the world's first 8" GaAs on silicon wafer and
worked with epitaxial wafer manufacturer IQE to create the world's first
12-inch GaAs on silicon wafers and a variety of other wafer sizes. Motorola
then made working power amplifiers from GaAs on silicon wafers and
successfully completed numerous wireless calls using those devices in several
phones over the past few months. In addition, a light-emitting device was
created to demonstrate the optical characteristics.
"GaAs on silicon is just the first step and has created a baseline
technology for extending our research to other materials systems," said Dr.
Jim Prendergast, vice president and director, Motorola Labs, Physical Sciences
Research Lab. "One of our next goals is to complete the task of growing
indium phosphide on silicon. This technology should support chip clock speeds
of more than 70GHz and long-wavelength lasers that are critical to fiber-optic
communications."
Changing the Economics of Optical Communications
Until now, the industry has been dependent on costly gallium arsenide and
indium phosphide wafers for optical and high performance applications.
Because of their brittle nature, no one has previously been able to create
commercial GaAs wafers larger than 6 inches or InP wafers larger than
4 inches. Scientists have also been unable to combine light-emitting
semiconductors with silicon integrated circuits on a single chip.
"More than 90 percent of the existing fiber optic cable is still unused
and underutilized," said Bob Merritt, vice president, Semico Research
Corporation. "This technology could be the switch that eventually turns on
those communications channels."
Plans to Commercialize
Motorola has filed more than 270 patents on inventions related to this new
technology and the company intends to broadly license the technology.
Padmasree Warrior, a Motorola corporate vice president has been selected to
lead the commercialization effort. Warrior has worked in all aspects of the
semiconductor segment, including device technology, research and development,
process engineering, manufacturing and pilot line operations.
Technical Presentations
The technology breakthrough will be introduced to the scientific community
at the following conferences:
Dr. Ravi Droopad, Principal Staff Scientist, Motorola Labs, will present
at the International Workshop on Device Technology in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on
September 4, 2001.
William Ooms, Director of Materials, Device, and Energy Research within
Motorola Labs will present at the Materials Research Society Workshop in
Chattanooga, Tennessee on September 11, 2001.
About Motorola
Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated
communications and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 2000 were
$37.6 billion. Motorola Labs serves as the advanced research arm of the
company, focusing on leading edge technologies for future products and product
enhancements. Motorola also actively licenses technologies developed in the
Labs to external customers.
Business Risks: Statements about the impact of this new technology are
forward-looking and are based on current expectations that involve risk and
uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those in the forward-looking statements include: market acceptance of the
technology; success in extending the technology to other materials;
unanticipated technological delays; competing technologies; the cost of
manufacturing the technology; and other factors found in Motorola's filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Photos, artwork, b-roll and additional background material is available at
the Motorola Media Center at: motorola.com
SOURCE Motorola, Inc.
-0- 09/04/2001
/CONTACT: Anne Stuessy of Motorola, +1-847-538-6192, or
anne.stuessy@motorola.com; or Amy Smolensky of Hill and Knowlton,
+1-312-475-5985, or asmolens@hillandknowlton.com, for Motorola/
/Web site: mot.com /
(MOT)
CO: Motorola, Inc.
ST: Illinois
IN: STW TLS
SU: PDT |
