Applications of SOI Technologies to Communication

This paper presents an overview of emerging SOI technologies and their application to communication ICs. The unique properties of Si and SiO₂, coupled with the broad range of achievable SiO₂ film thicknesses, allow tuning of existing devices and the design of new devices targeting RF, high-speed wire line, and photonic communication applications. By using high-resistivity Si substrates, it becomes possible to realize inductors with Q as high as 50 as well as high-power RF switches. Record SOI NFET f_T of 485GHz and f_MAX of 430GHz have been measured, enabling the design of a broad range of high performance circuits, including 100GHz CML dividers, >;100 GHz LC-VCOs, and 16Gb/s 8-port core back-plane transceivers. Finally, due to the large difference in refractive index between Si and SiO₂, SOI technology allows the efficient design of photonic devices and circuits.