CAMPBELL, Calif., Aug. 29 -- Silicon Genesis Corporation (SiGen), a developer of innovative silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer technologies, is ready to supply SOI substrates with silicon germanium (SiGe) layers inserted into the device layer. A manufacturing method for growing SiGe heterostructures with a wide range of specifications was developed by SiGen in response to the IC industry's ongoing quest for increased device performance.
The SiGe heterostructures, when designed properly, increase the mobilities of both electrons and holes, the carriers of electric charge. This carrier mobility increase results in increased device performance without the need to go to the next lithography generation. The SiGe technology has been commercially used in bipolar devices for some time resulting in Si-based circuit performance challenging that of GaAs-based circuits.
Recently, several research papers have been published by major chip manufacturers on CMOS applications of SiGe layers on SOI substrates, combining the advantages of both of these approaches: increased carrier speed from SiGe, together with lower power and reduced leakage from SOI.