ASM, IHP Team up for SiGe:C

Electronic News,  Jan 15, 2001  by Jeff Chappell

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ASM International customers can utilize new SiGe epitaxy technology

Both silicon germanium and ASM International N.V. continue to make inroads in high-speed communications ICs as ASM subsidiary ASM America has teamed up with Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP), a German research and development company, to commercialize silicon germanium carbon (SiGe:C) epitaxy technology.

The agreement may give Bilthoven, The Netherlands-based ASM (Nasdaq: ASMI) an additional edge in the SiGe epitaxy market where it is already the dominant player.

The process, which IHP developed in conjunction with Motorola Inc. -- and which Motorola (nyse:MOT) already has in production -- integrates high-speed SiGe:C heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) into standard and advanced CMOS chips with 0.25-micron design rules. IHP uses ASM's Epsilon E2000 single-wafer epitaxial reactor at its facility in Frankfurt, Germany.

While the two companies announced their agreement just last month, ASM and IHP have been working on SiGe:C process technology for some time. They first presented the technology with a joint paper at Semicon Europa last year. ASM brings a lot of epitaxy tool experience to the table and IHP has a lot of device-integration and device-design capabilities, explained Armand Ferro, epitaxial business unit manager for ASM. In addition to processing technology, the two companies plan to embark on common marketing efforts.

"IHP and (ASM) are working together as an extension of this agreement to offer the full range of capabilities," Ferro said. Furthermore, the agreement isn't an exclusive one. ASM will be able to offer the SiGe:C process technology to its own customers, which it feels will offer them a significant competitive advantage.

Although SiGe deposition represents perhaps 10 percent of the epitaxy tool market, ASM's tools occupy about 75 percent of the installed base of SiGe epitaxial reactors. The ability to offer high-frequency BiCMOS chips at 0.25 micron may open new opportunities for ASM with communications chipmakers.

"We believe SiGe:C will play a key role in meeting the increasing demand for high-speed technologies for wireless and broadband," said Abbas Ourmazd, director of IHP.

Carbon Doping Reduces Signal Leakage

SiGe has become increasingly popular as a cheaper alternative to gallium arsenide in recent years as the demand for low-power, high-frequency telecommunications chips has skyrocketed. Doping carbon into SiGe will likely further that trend.

"Fundamentally what carbon does is enable you to extend the HBT silicon-germanium technology to smaller line-widths and get a much higher frequency of response and much lower leakage than (with silicon germanium) without the carbon," Ferro explained.

Use of SiGe at smaller line-widths poses a problem because boron doped into the base of an HBT as an insulator tends to diffuse when it is annealed in smaller geometry designs, increasing signal leakage and thus lowering a chip's frequency response. With the addition of carbon within SiGe, boron is kept from diffusing.

"IHP has figured out all the integration issues and worked those out," Ferro noted.

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