Silicon-on-sapphire CMOS and opportunities in niche markets: Old wine in a new bottle

Silicon-on-sapphire CMOS has always been an intriguing technology with prospects for applications in niche markets. In this paper, we summarize our work with SOS CMOS technology over the last two decades and identify opportunities where the unique physical properties of the sapphire substrate offer advantages in systems integration and packaging. We focus our discussion on two largely unexplored major application areas, microsystems for the life sciences and biotechnology and on high performance optoelectronic readouts for MEMS.