News

14 June 2006

 

SiGe BiCMOS for RF design

Semiconductor wafer foundry, Jazz Semiconductor has introduced design kits for its SBL13 process, a 0.13µm SiGe BiCMOS technology combining SiGe transistors with its low-power (1.2V), 0.13µm digital CMOS platform, CA13. The process also includes a suite of high-density passive elements for more aggressive scaling of analog device area in complex Analog Systems-on-Chip (Analog SoCs). The SBL13 process technology enables the design of highly integrated circuits for most wireless applications, including: mobile TV tuners, cellular transceivers and WLAN transceivers.

Jazz’s specialty processes currently span geometries from 0.5µm to 0.13µm and technologies that promote high performance, high voltage and high levels of integration. The SBL13 SiGe bipolar device is a silicon germanium transistor added to an aluminum-based 0.13µm CMOS process with minimal additional masks. The combination results in a process that is comparable in mask count to an industry standard 0.13µm RFCMOS process. The process includes a stacked MIM capacitor for aggressive scaling of capacitance area and a thick top metal for inductor performance.

SBL13 uses a 1.2/3.3V dual gate oxide process to form the base CMOS, with the addition of SiGe transistors offering a range of Ft, Fmax, and BVceo for design flexibility, with an Ft up to 90GHz, Fmax up to 123GHz and BVceo up to 6V. The process also supports up to six layers of aluminum metal, a 5.6 fF/µm² linear MIM capacitor, a triple well module, Nwell resistor and unsilicided poly resistor. The top metal is 2.8µm thick aluminum to support high-Q inductors. The technology is offered through Jazz Semiconductor's integrated design environment supporting the latest EDA tools and flows for fast and accurate design cycles of RF, analog and mixed-signal products.

"The Jazz SBL13 process is the first of its kind in addressing the need in the wireless market for a low cost Silicon Germanium process at the 0.13µm node and the combination of features offered by Jazz is suited for many emerging markets including mobile TV, WLAN and 3G," said Joanne Itow, managing director, Semico Research. "These markets require the combination of digital content with good analog performance, which historically does not scale in more advanced geometries without a feature set comparable to the one offered by Jazz SBL13."

Visit: http://www.jazzsemi.com

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