Soitec in volume production of 300mm RF-SOI

Soitec has begun mass production of 300mm RF-SOI substrates for mobile communications. The 300mm version of Soitec’s RFeSI90 substrate enables more highly integrated ICs for 4G/LTE-Advanced communications and the next generation of wireless technologies, including 5G, says the company.

There are 300mm RFeSI90 wafer samples available for product qualification.

Soitec’s RF-SOI substrates are used in manufacturing antenna switches, antenna tuners, some power amplifiers and Wi-Fi circuits in smartphone ICs.

“The widespread use of Soitec’s materials technology in existing 3G and 4G portable communications demonstrates the important role of RF-SOI in high-volume, cost-sensitive applications such as cellular phones, tablets and other fast-growing markets involving mobile internet devices,” says Soitec’s senior vice-president for communications and power, Bernard Aspar.

Soitec has been shipping large volumes of 200mm RF-SOI wafers for many years and continuing to increase its 200mm production capacity.

Key partnerships with fabless semiconductor companies and foundries have been instrumental in achieving the production milestones and performance levels of the 300mm RF-SOI product, says Soitec’s. They offer better uniformity, a key parameter in achieving greater control of transistor matching for analog semiconductor designs and allowing designs with thinner transistors and additional process options to improve RonCoff performance, says the firm.