Silicon-on-Sapphire, a replacement for gallium arsenide?

Author

Imthurn, George P.

Author_Institution

Peregrine Semiconductor Incorporated, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

5-8 Oct. 2009

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

3

Abstract

Silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) was invented in 1961 and as such is the first of the SOI technologies. Its original purpose was to provide radiation tolerant circuits for satellites and missiles. Now, SOS is ready to displace gallium arsenide (GaAs) as the technology of choice for RF communications in commercial applications. What are the reasons for this? In this paper, I will share what we have learned at Peregrine semiconductor about how to use CMOS for RF devices and why silicon will eventually displace GaAs from many RF applications.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; III-V semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; gallium arsenide; radiofrequency integrated circuits; silicon; silicon-on-insulator; wide band gap semiconductors; CMOS; GaAs; Peregrine semiconductor; RF communications; RF devices; SOI technologies; Si; missiles; radiation tolerant circuits; satellites; silicon-on-sapphire; CMOS logic circuits; Costs; Decoding; Electron mobility; FETs; Gallium arsenide; Radio frequency; Silicon on insulator technology; Switches; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

SOI Conference, 2009 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Foster City, CA

ISSN

1078-621X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4256-0

Electronic_ISBN

1078-621X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SOI.2009.5318759

Filename

5318759