0.35-micron process rocket powers comms devices

Alcatel is offering Europractice customers worldwide access to its new high-speed 0.35-micron SiGe1 BiCMOS technology for prototyping and volume production.

Alcatel is offering Europractice customers worldwide access to its new high-speed 0.35-micron SiGe1 BiCMOS technology for prototyping and volume production.

This technology is ideally suited for RF products running up to 10GHz.

IMEC, as co-ordinator of the Europractice IC Service, will offer customers a total solution including cell library distribution and support, deep-submicron netlist-to-layout generation, low-cost prototyping and production of tested and packaged chips.

Customers for the Alcatel technology are typically startups, companies with smaller volume requirements and research groups in universities and research laboratories.

IMEC serves as a classic ASIC vendor through the Europractice IC Service, providing initial technology support and cell library distribution, backend design support, prototypes and volume production with cost-effective design services including multiproject wafers (MPW) for prototypes and volume production runs at Alcatel's fabs in Belgium.

IMEC distributes Alcatel's libraries and EDA models worldwide, allowing customers to perform front-end design.

IMEC performs back-end layout of customer net lists using advanced deep-submicron CAD tools, and submits the layout to Alcatel's microelectronics division for manufacturing.

Customers who prefer to complete their designs down to layout, receive access to Alcatel's foundry capabilities, as well as low-cost production through IMEC's MPW service.

"Alcatel's 0.35um SiGe1 BiCMOS chip technology complements the deep-submicron CMOS technologies that IMEC offers as part of the Europractice IC Service portfolio.

Now IMEC can offer access to low-cost prototyping and volume production for a wide range of future RF products to IC, analogue and COT designers throughout the world", said Dr Carl Das, Director of Europractice IC Service at IMEC.

"With Ft/Fmax of 50/80GHz at BVCEO higher than 3.6V, our SiGe1 technology is doubling RF performance and this at virtually the same cost of a comparable Si BiCMOS technology.

Our 0.35um SiGe technology comes with a dense and very rich telecomms library.

It can be used for a broad range of applications such as WLAN and optical networks where good RF performance at low cost is required.

By offering SiGe1 to IMEC-Europractice, this RF technology becomes available to a wide range of customers, who can rely on the professional service from the Europractice organisation, and on the established foundry capabilities of Alcatel", said Dr Marnix Tack, Director Technology R and D for Alcatel's microelectronics activities.

IMEC-Europractice and Alcatel have a long lasting and succesfull collaboration, whereas IMEC is offering a wide portfolio of Alcatel mixed-mode and high-voltage technologies to the Europractice community.

The present agreement is extending the collaboration also into the area of RF technologies.

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