Peregrine Semiconductor, a supplier of RF CMOS integrated circuits (ICs), has entered a joint development agreement with IBM for the development and manufacture of future generations of Peregrine’s patented UltraCMOS silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) process technology, a radio frequency complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (RF CMOS) process.
When fully qualified, the NxG UltraCMOS RF ICs will manufactured by IBM for Peregrine in the jointly-developed 180nm process at IBM’s 200mm semiconductor manufacturing facility in Burlington, Vermont, the company said.
According to Peregrine, migration to 200mm wafers facilitates the evolution of the process to advanced 180nm, 130nm and 90nm nodes. It also provides access to advanced manufacturing toolsets and enables expanded digital integration capability.
Jim Cable, president and CEO of Peregrine Semiconductor, said: “We are extremely proud to be developing future generations of UltraCMOS with one of the global leaders in semiconductor process technology.
“Our company has long been committed to driving technological change in RF by bringing our silicon-on-sapphire RF process into the global mainstream. By combining the strengths of our two companies, we are continuing to deliver the promise of Moore’s Law for high-performance RF CMOS.”
The first 180nm UltraCMOS RFICs have sampled to a key customer and commercial production release is expected in 2011. Initial product roadmaps include configurable RF cellular front ends in the form of high-power RF switches, tunable components and power amplifiers.
