Grace Semiconductor, a leading foundry in China, added 0.13um SOI RF CMOS to its Technology Roadmap in Q2 2011. (Courtesy: Grace Semiconductor)

Leveraging IBM’s RF SOI process, fabless RDA Microelectronics of Shanghai developed the RDASW91, the world’s first single-pole, nine-throw (SP9T) antenna switch with an integrated logic decoder and low pass filters in a single die solution. The target is the fast-growing multiband 3G handset market, wherein SOI offers superior performance and significant cost reduction compared to …

New SOI-based process technology from TowerJazz for wireless antenna switches costs substantially less than GaAs pHEMPTs or SOS, and integrates control functions, low-noise amplifiers and power amplifiers on a single chip. For both high-end smart-phones and lower-end phones, the company says SOI can benefit most of the 1.4 billion handset units sold each year.

In recent months, Soitec has inked deals with: • Peregrine for joint development and production of a new, bonded silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) substrate for RFICs; • and with Sumitomo for the development of engineered gallium nitride (GaN) substrates for applications like high brightness LEDs as well as electric power devices designed for hybrid and full electric …

Two new Semico studies consider SOI: Front End Integration in Wireless Networking Applications and Polysilicon and Silicon Wafer Industry Study: Avoiding the Sun Burn.

Advanced engineered substrates are a key to the Raytheon-led DARPA COSMOS project to integrate compound semiconductors and silicon CMOS on a single chip. In what we believe to be an industry first, a Raytheon Company-led team has demonstrated the industry’s first Indium Phosphide (InP)-based heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) fabricated on a silicon wafer. HBTs are …

Since the beginning of the decade, OKI has led the world in the mass production of low-power FD-SOI LSIs for personal and mobile markets. While the rest of the industry contemplates moving from partially depleted (PD) to fully depleted (FD) SOI, OKI Electric Industry Company is well ahead of the pack. With an early focus …

UMS, which is jointly owned by Thales and EADS, is moving forward on GaN for some key applications. United Monolithic Semiconductors (UMS) is a leader in the design, manufacturing and marketing of advanced semiconductor technology for a number of specialized application areas. The company sees advantages in moving from GaAs to GaN for some of …

The SOI Industry Consortium website is a great place to find relevant SOI-related materials contributed by member companies and institutions. Here are some examples – go to the website to access the complete presentations. – HM

Jazz Semiconductor’s new SOI option for its 0.18-micron Jazz Silicon Radio platform enables integration of both the antenna switch and power amplifier, eliminating discrete GaAs devices and reducing die costs up to fifty percent.