Globalfoundries announced it has process design kits available for 45nm RF SOI, a node particularly suited for use making millimeter-wave chips in 24-100GHz bands for 5G cellular. Skyworks Solutions Inc. signaled its plans to use the technology for next-generation chips.

The process provides a substrate resistivity of greater than 40 ohm-cm to enable to reduces parasitic capacitance and minimize disparity in phase and voltage swing, the company said.

Designers can stack RF FETs in the process to achieve higher power and reliability. Active FETs can be “tuned for very high Ft/Fmax” for mmwave circuits in 5G products and front-ends for car radar.

The process delivers the highest Fmax the foundry offers. It is running on 300mm wafers in the former IBM fab in East Fishkill, N.Y.

Skyworks will use the process to “create RF solutions that…further advance the deployment of highly integrated RF front-ends for evolving mmWave applications,” said the company’s CTO, Peter Gammel, in a press statement.

RF SOI has long been one of the success stories of the foundry business from IBM fabs Globalfoundries acquired in July 2015. 

By: DocMemory
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