•
The myvu™ personal media viewer
from MicroOptical that created such a
huge buzz at its US/Macworld debut
in January is built around Kopin’s
high speed, low power, SOI-based
CyberDisplay. Marketed as the ultimate
iPod™ video accessory in the U.S., it was
introduced in Europe last fall by France
Telecom’s Orange mobile video service,
to accompany the Samsung D600
mobile phone.
•
Oki Electric recently announced that it
had developed a GaN-HEMT on a lowcost
silicon substrate, achieving a world
record for transconductance rating. It
is planned for deployment in WiMAX
products in 2007.
•
Sony Corporation, Sony Computer
Entertainment Inc., Toshiba and IBM
have announced a new, five-year phase
of their joint technology development
alliance to focus on fundamental research
related to advanced process technologies
at 32 nanometers and beyond.
•
Analog Devices recently announced
what it said was the industry’s first
differential amplifier (diff amp) to achieve
the ultra low distortion levels needed
to drive high-speed ADCs (up to 380
MHz) for next generation 3G and 4G
cellular and broadband WiMAX wireless
infrastructure equipment. The company
credits it specialized silicon germanium
(SiGe) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process
technology for the ultra low distortion.
•
IBM and AMD have detailed their
progress in 65-nm technology, in which
they have successfully combined
embedded SiGe with Dual Stress Liner
and Stress Memorization technology
on SOI wafers, resulting in a 40 percent
increase in transistor performance
compared to similar chips produced
without stress technology, while
controlling power consumption and
heat dissipation. The two have also
announced that they are broadening
and extending their technology alliance,
adding early-stage research on critical,
emerging technologies targeted at 32
and 22 nm, through 2011.
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With momentum gathering for its SOIbased
Opteron,™ AMD is continuing
its charge into supercomputers.
It is extending its relationship with
Cray and is teaming up with Sun at
Tokyo Tech in the creation of Japan’s
largest supercomputer. With 10,480
AMD Opteron™ processor cores, it is
expected to be one of the five largest
supercomputers in the world as ranked
by Top 500® (http://www.top500.org) in
Summer 2006.
•
Freescale announced an SOI-based
Inverted T Channel-Field Effect Transistor
(ITFET) device. The company says it
heralds a new breed of dramatically
smaller, higher performing semiconductors
that require less power, and that offer
better manufacturability than FinFET
transistors and other vertical devices.
•
SOI has made Hitachi’s newest “µ-Chip”
the world’s smallest, thinnest RFID IC
chip ever. SOI prevents interference
between devices, enabling higher
integration on a smaller area, increasing
the number of chips fabricated on a single
wafer and increasing productivity by
more than four times. At 7.5-µm thick, this
SOI-based chip is 1/8th the thickness of
its bulk predecessor. This was achieved
by the complete removal of the silicon
layer on the reverse side of the SOI
substrate on which the circuit is fabricated.
•
Soitec has announced a 350 million
Euro strategic investment plan for a
new, 300-mm SOI wafer plant, which
will have a capacity of 1 million wafer
starts per year when fully equipped. A
worldwide location review is underway,
with construction expected to start in
the 06/07 financial year.
•
Starting Q3 06, IBM will start shipping a
blade computing system based on the
Cell Broadband Engine™ for graphicintensive,
numeric applications.
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