Product category:
Communications ICs (Wireless)
News Release from: NXP Semiconductors | Subject: QUBiC4X
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 13 October 2005
BiCMOS process boasts GaAs-level
performance
QUBiC4X is the latest addition to the highly successful QUBiC4 family of high-performance BiCMOS (bipolar CMOS) process technologies from Philips.
QUBiC4X is the latest addition to the highly successful QUBiC4 family of high-performance BiCMOS (bipolar CMOS) process technologies from Philips Based on silicon-germanium-carbon (SiGe:C) technology, this new process features bipolar transistors with fT figures in excess of 130GHz, suiting it to microwave applications in the 10 to 30GHz range such as satellite TV receivers and automotive collision avoidance radars
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 23 Oct 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Its ultralow noise figure suits the process for use in sensitive RF receivers such as those required in high-performance mobile phones.
In terms of gain and noise figure, QUBiC4X's bipolar transistors rival gallium-arsenide performance, while at the same time the process allows the integration of CMOS logic, CMOS RF circuitry and high-performance high quality factor passive components.
In addition to opening up new consumer-product oriented microwave applications that require the cost-benefits and volume manufacturing advantages of a silicon-based technology, QUBiC4X allows current hybrid solutions containing separate silicon and gallium-arsenide components to be replaced by much more highly integrated solutions.
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"With the introduction of QUBiC4X, designers have the benefit of a high-performance, cost-effective, reliable process technology that meets the performance, volume manufacturing and integration density requirements of demanding consumer-product applications as well as professional applications", said Patrice Gamand, Technology Manager for Philips Semiconductors' RF Innovation Centre.
Applications for QUBiC4X range from mobile phone transceivers, where the combination of a low noise figure and low collector current provides more reliable reception and longer battery life, to 30GHz automotive collision avoidance radars and short-range microwave links.
Low-noise amplifiers such as those used in low-noise receivers for satellite TV, and RF power amplifiers are other obvious applications.
QUBiC4X has been designed with real application requirements in mind rather than just a set of performance figures.
The gain and cutoff frequency of its bipolar transistors have been co-optimised so that these transistors exhibit highly usable power gain at microwave frequencies well in excess of 30GHz.
Their fT x BVCEO figure is a record-breaking 245GHz, offering RF circuit designers a unique combination of power gain and excellent dynamic range.
The transistors have also been optimised so that their 0.4dB noise figure applies at the low collector currents needed to conserve battery power in portable products.
A process option that allows the integration of high breakdown-voltage power transistors enables the production of GSM RF power amplifiers with 88% power-added efficiency.
QUBiC4X features the same extensive range of passive component integration capabilities as previous QUBiC4 generations, together with a set of newly developed "elite passives".
These enable the design of highly integrated solutions that combine improved RF performance with smaller size and weight, lower peripheral component count and cost, and easier design-in.
The library of elite passives includes high-relative-permittivity metal-insulator-metal capacitors for best-in-class capacitance densities, SiCr thin-film resistors, and well modelled high-Q inductors.
The high-resistivity silicon substrate used in the QUBiC4X process has been chosen to minimise microwave losses, while an extensive armory of substrate isolation techniques reduces parasitic effects.
QUBiC4X is fully supported by device models for its active and passive components and by integrated design flows.
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