SiGe technology bears fruits

The excellent performances of SiGe1, Atmel Wireless and Microcontrollers’ 50 GHz process, have already lead to a couple of products, e.g. LNA, PA, Mixers and DACs for GSM, DCS, GPS etc. To meet all requirements for future innovative, highly sophisticated products, Atmel Wireless and Microcontrollers has developed a faster second generation of Si/SiGe bipolar technology (SiGe2). This new high-performance technology with emitter widths down to 0.5 μm allows transit frequencies fT and maximum frequencies of oscillation fmax of more than 90 GHz. The maximum stable gain (MSG) at 5 GHz and the maximum available gain (MAG) at 20 GHz were determined to 22 and 11 dB, respectively. SiGe2 offers an extensive number of different devices, whereas the implementation of a 0.5 μm CMOS technology is at the development stage and will be available in near future.