Product category: Analogue and Mixed Signal ICs
News Release from: Bookham | Subject: GaAs MMICs
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 11 June 2003
6in process boosts GaAs yields
Bookham Technology has launched one of the first European-based commercial processes to use 6in GaAs wafer technology
Bookham Technology has launched one of the first European-based commercial processes to use 6in-GaAs-wafer technology. Only a handful of foundries worldwide have this capability, and Bookham reckons none can match its depth of experience with GaAs MMICs. Initial production will start in late 2003.
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 11 June 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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The new 6in-wafer technology will give a significant reduction in MMIC costs compared with those of the standard 3 and 4in-wafer processes by increasing per-wafer device volumes by up to a factor of four.
This results in higher yields per wafer, lower lead and cycle times and greater device repeatability.
Cost reduction is now a hugely important driver in many areas of the MMIC business, especially for military applications.
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"Facilities will be available on the MESFET process at the end of the year followed in the first quarter of 2004 by the pHEMT process.
Currently, we have produced wafers for both MESFET and pHEMT, and they are running through qualification and characterisation", says Ray Taylor, Business Manager, RF MMICS and Foundry Products, at Bookham Technology.
"The move to 6in wafers is a major step that will affect the cost base of all of our products in future, as well as the foundry services we offer".
The F20 MESFET process uses 0.5um gate-length devices for use up to 20GHz; both the gain and switch processes have been European Space Agency (ESA) space qualified.
The H40 and H40P processes use 0.2um gate-length low-noise pHEMT technology for devices operating to over 40GHz; the H40P process is a high-power variant, with a breakdown voltage of over 15V.
A new 0.12um pHEMT process is being developed for applications at even higher frequencies of up to 80GHz.
The new technology uses state-of-the-art direct-step-on-wafer lithography.
This makes it simple for Bookham to offer clients further cost savings through the option of participating in multiproject runs, whereby several clients can share fractional space on a single wafer.
Universities and small companies wanting to prototype new designs economically would find this a particularly attractive alternative to funding the cost of a complete set of wafers.
The 6in-wafer technology will also significantly boost Bookham's already unique capabilities in electro-optic integration with GaAs materials.
The company's leading position in components for optical communications is based on such devices as high-speed GaAs Mach-Zehnder modulators.
Such devices are inherently large, and 6in wafers will allow the integration of larger and more complex devices for handling the direct transmission of microwave signals over optical fibres.
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