SiGe and CMOS processes merge

-- EDN, 1/6/2000

Lucent Technologies' 0.25-µm silicon-germanium (SiGe) process for network transport and wireless applications takes four more masks than the company's CMOS process and only one more mask than its BiCMOS process. The SiGe npn transistors have a cutoff frequency greater than 70 GHz. Lower power transistors, operating at 450 µA, have cutoff frequencies greater than 60 GHz. Lucent can place the SiGe devices on a chip with DSP cores, RF blocks, memory blocks, and other silicon cores for system-on-chip (SOC) designs. SOC designs use the same library cells and macrocells as those for Lucent's regular 0.25-µm process. The SiGe technology also includes high-Q inductors with a Q factor greater than 15. SiGe chips operate at 2.5 or 3.3V; an additional masking step provides dual-voltage operation for mixed-signal chips. Lucent will begin offering its SiGe technology along with EDA-design kits based on Cadence (www.cadence.com) design tools starting in the second quarter of 2000.

Lucent Technologies, www.lucent.com/micro.

-by Jim Lipman