News

22 September 2010

 

TriQuint releases 0.15µm TQP15 pHEMT foundry process to full production

RF front-end component maker and foundry services provider TriQuint Semiconductor Inc of Hillsboro, OR, USA has announced the release of its latest 150mm gallium arsenide commercial foundry process to full production. TQP15 is targeted at the Ka-band segment and is designed for cost-effectively fabricating millimeter-wave (mmWave) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) for applications such as VSAT, satellite communications and point-to-point radios.

Manufactured in TriQuint’s high-volume GaAs fabrication facility, TQP15 is the latest offering in the firm’s well-established pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor (pHEMT) process portfolio. TQP15 uses optical lithography (with a gate length of 0.15µm) to reduce cost compared with traditional electron-beam (e-beam) based solutions. It also incorporates refractory gate metal architecture, which does not exhibit the standard metal gate sinking failure mechanism of non-refractory gate pHEMT processes.

“The TQP15 process leverages TriQuint’s mature manufacturing capabilities used in the production of millions of pHEMT-based wafers,” says Steve Grant, TriQuint’s VP of global operations. “TQP15 benefits from the stability of the base technology. And it is cost-effective because of the innovative use of optical lithography,” he adds.

TriQuint says that, throughout the development cycle, the process has been made available to select customer designers to collect feedback and aid process characterization. “TQP15 offers us an economical high-frequency pHEMT process,” comments Paul Blount, president & CEO of Custom MMIC Design Services Inc (CMDS) of Westford, MA, USA. “We have successfully used TQP15 for high-efficiency amplifiers and control functions up to K-band frequencies, and look forward to using this process to grow our product portfolio through Ka-band,” he adds.

“TriQuint is recognized as a technology leader with its broad portfolio of HBT, e-beam and optical pHEMT technologies. Adding TQP15 solidifies this position,” reckons Mike Peters, TriQuint’s director of marketing for Commercial Foundry. “Together with fully released optical pHEMT technologies TQPED and TQP13-N, and the soon to be released TQP25 process, TriQuint continues to enable the commercialization of mmWave markets,” he adds.

In conjunction with next week’s European Microwave Week (EuMW 2010), on September 27 (5:30–6:30pm, CEST) at the hotel Renaissance Paris la Defense, Bagatelle/Tulle room TriQuint’s Corey Nevers and Ed Knapp (key contributors to TQP15) are hosting an interactive customer forum discussing the new foundry process’ architecture, reliability and performance.

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