The early history of IBM´s SiGe mixed signal technology

Author

Harame, David L. ; Meyerson, Bernard S.

Author_Institution

IBM Corp., Essex Junction, VT, USA

Volume

48

Issue

11

fYear

2001

fDate

11/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2555

Lastpage

2567

Abstract

The history of Silicon Germanium (SiGe) at IBM is a story of persistence. The program began with an idea to replace a conventional implantation step, used in every silicon semiconductor bipolar process, by growing an in-situ doped alloy (SiGe). Many people thought the idea was of value only for a few exotic niche “research” applications. This is a story about how a small group of people persuaded a large digital computer manufacturer to invest in a new unproven technology for telecommunication applications in a field which the company knew little about. It is a success story, as SiGe technology has now become the only BiCMOS technology in development in IBM and is in the roadmaps of every major telecommunication company

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; heterojunction bipolar transistors; mixed analogue-digital integrated circuits; semiconductor materials; BiCMOS mixed-signal technology; IBM; SiGe; SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor; silicon-germanium alloy; Application software; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Boron; Computer aided manufacturing; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; History; Implants; Silicon germanium; Surface resistance;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.960383

Filename

960383