Tower Semiconductor, the leader in high-value analog semiconductor foundry solutions, has announced a new radio frequency (RF) switch technology with a record figure of merit targeting the 5G and high-performance RF switch markets. This new switch technology enables more efficient, novel RF system architectures in applications including mobile, base-station, and mmWave communications. Tower Semiconductor is engaged with multiple customers and partners to bring this technology to market for next-generation products.
This new switch technology demonstrates a record RF device figure of merit: Ron x Coff < 10 femtoseconds vs. 70-100 femtoseconds in use today for the most advanced applications. The switch performs over an extremely wide range of frequencies spanning MHz to all frequency bands discussed for 5G, and further into the mmWave. This results in extremely low insertion loss and a very small device size.
The switch is also nonvolatile so consumes no energy when in the on-state or off-state, making it attractive for IoT, and other power and battery sensitive product applications. Finally, Tower has demonstrated the versatility of this patented technology by integrating it with some of its other process platforms such as SiGe BiCMOS and Power CMOS.
Tower Semiconductor will be offering multi-project wafer runs (MPWs) in 2021 for select customers.
Tower Semiconductor is showcasing this new technology at the Virtual IMS 2020 Event. At the virtual event, they showed customers results from electrical devices, process integration, and circuits fabricated at Tower Semiconductor. They also conducted presentations that can be seen on the IMS Website till September 2020 - Tu1G: Innovative RF Switches and Applications session (Tu1G-2 and Tu1G-5).
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