To drive the competitiveness of PCs, smartphones and other leading-edge devices, the electronics industry has relied for decades on the continued miniaturization of the multitude of transistors integrated in the chips at the heart of those products. However, at the tiny dimensions transistors are reaching today, conventional technology is becoming ineffective to satisfactorily combine higher …

It’s a bright green light from the world leaders in SOI wafer capacity. Soitec, the world leader in SOI wafer production, and long-time partner Shin-Etsu Handatai (SEH), the world’s biggest producer of silicon wafers, have extended their licensing agreement and expanded their technology cooperation. SEH is a $12.7 billion company, supplying over 20% of the …

World-leading advanced substrate maker Soitec and compound materials leader Sumitomo Electric are launching pilot production of 4” and 6” GaN wafers for the LED and power markets. Soitec applies its Smart CutTM layer-transfer process to Sumitomo’s bulk GaN wafers to generate engineered wafers with the same thermal expansion (CTE) as standard GaN wafers but at …

The SOI cost structure is on target for penetrating new markets – especially the all-important mobile markets. Volume customers can anticipate 300mm SOI wafer prices in the $500 range. As the leading SOI wafer manufacturer, Soitec has been driving optimization of its Smart Cut™ manufacturing technology for increased efficiency and continuously improving yields.

The IEEE has conferred the Cledo Brunetti Award on Dr. Michel Bruel. At a ceremony at the IEDM in San Francisco, the IEEE Board of Directors gave the 2008 Cledo Brunetti Award to Dr. Michel Bruel for his invention of the Smart Cut™ layer transfer technology that enabled widespread adoption of SOI for CMOS circuits. …

• Soitec has announced the acquisition of TraciT Technologies. A CEA-Léti spin-off, TraciT specializes in thin-film layer transfer technologies that leverage molecular adhesion and mechanical and chemical thinning processes for MEMS and power-circuit production. The technology is complementary to Smart Cut,™ and enables Soitec to enter new electronic markets, thanks to fully-processed electronic circuits transfer …

The KORRIGAN program will provide a forum for suppliers and system houses to confirm new approaches. KORRIGAN is a very important program in terms of GaN material and device development, giving suppliers the opportunity to demonstrate technology and products to European defense companies. This complements cooperation and business relations with Asian or US based customers …

Joint effort focuses on perfecting the wet-etch process used to optimize and speed germanium removal during sSOI volume production   Soitec and SEZ have initiated a joint development program intended to speed the industrialization of next-generation strained silicon-on-insulator (sSOI) substrates. The goal is to develop new wet-etch processes designed to optimize total germanium removal in …

Smart Cut™ enables innovative substrate solutions GaN HEMT technology holds enormous promise for increasing the power of commercial RF applications. However, challenges both technological and economic remain to be resolved before GaN can realize its full potential beyond the very high-end niche.

Dr. Yoshimi reviews some recent approaches to strained SOI implementation Implementing strain into the channel of MOSFETs has become mainstream technology for high-performance CMOS-FETs. Process induced uniaxial stress is being used today to boost carrier mobilities of sub-µm devices and thus improve IC performance.