27 September 2011

TowerJazz and Presto collaborate on SiGe foundry

Specialty foundry TowerJazz (which has two fabrication plants at Tower Semiconductor Ltd in Migdal Haemek, Israel plus one at its US subsidiary Jazz Semiconductor in Newport Beach, CA) and Presto Engineering of San Jose, CA, USA, which delivers integrated test & product engineering services to both integrated device manufacturers (IDM) and fabless companies, have announced a strategic collaboration to deliver comprehensive services for companies developing high-speed communications products using TowerJazz’s silicon germanium (SiGe) technology. The alliance covers wafer-level and packaged part development activities, from design characterization to volume production, probing and final test. TowerJazz’s foundry customers now have access to the full range of semiconductor services from Presto Engineering’s hubs in Silicon Valley, Europe and Israel. 

“We have seen a significant growth in design starts for high-speed communications devices, driven in part by expansion of 100 Gigabit networks and the shift to E-band wireless infrastructure systems,” says Presto’s founder & CEO Dr Michel Villemain. “Time-to-volume production is key in these fast-growing markets and having a proven SiGe test and product engineering solution will be vital for our common customers’ success. We look forward to working closely with the TowerJazz foundry team to make that a reality,” he adds.

“Combining our leading position in SiGe process technology with collaborations such as the one announced today with Presto, provides our customers the ability to speed product development of new communication products,” says Dr Marco Racanelli, senior VP & general manager of TowerJazz’s RF & High Performance Analog Business Group. “Presto’s hub locations in the US and Israel are also well-suited to our global footprint that now includes 8-inch fabs in the US, Israel and Japan.”

The demand for high-speed interconnects continues to exceed industry analyst expectations, according to market research firm Dell’Oro Group. As cited in its recent report, the adoption of 100 Gigabit solutions is occurring faster than that of 40 Gigabit, driving projected revenues to nearly $1bn by 2013 and $2bn by 2015. TowerJazz’s enhanced SiGe BiCMOS technology is aimed at replacing GaAs components in high-growth markets such as high-speed communications. TowerJazz claims that SiGe provides significant integration and cost advantage over gallium arsenide (GaAs), with demonstrated performance of up to 200GHz as well as noise and power performance that is competitive with GaAs while offering as much as 40% lower die cost. Also included are CMOS options to enable mixed-signal and digital functions on the same chip, further reducing cost of the complete system.

Presto offers TowerJazz’s customers comprehensive RF testing services in Ka-band and E-band, including both frequency- and time-domain tests, noise and power measurements, jitter, phase noise and bit-error-rate (BERT) measurements. The Presto hubs complement their test services with test program generation, special probe technology development for RF applications, probecards and load-boards realization. Besides test, Presto offers comprehensive turn-key solutions including qualification (reliability testing for temperature, environmental and electrical stresses), both physical and electrical fault isolation and failure analysis, all the way to supply chain management. 

SBC18H3 is TowerJazz’s third-generation 0.18µm SiGe technology and offers transistors with an Ft of 240GHz and an Fmax of 260GHz in what the firm says is a cost-effective and analog-friendly 0.18µm node. IP of high-speed components such as transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), laser drivers, serializer & deserializer (SerDes), and clock & data recovery (CDR) ICs from H2 and HX can be readily ported to the new H3 process since they are all in the same 0.18µm node, allowing them to benefit from improved performance as well as reduced power consumption and noise, TowerJazz says.

Presto and TowerJazz are exhibiting at upcoming industry conferences including:

• GSA’s Semiconductor Ecosystem Summit (6 October) in Santa Clara, CA, USA;
• European Microwave Week 2011 (11-14 October) in Manchester, UK;
• TowerJazz Global Symposium (3 November) in Newport Beach, CA, USA.

Tags: TowerJazz SiGe foundry SiGe BiCMOS

Visit: www.presto-eng.com

Visit:  www.towerjazz.com