Atomera Incorporated, a semiconductor materials and technology licensing company, has introduced a MST® (Mears Silicon Technology) solution to dramatically enhance performance of RFSOI wafer substrates for leading-edge cellular communication products. The company will demonstrate the effectiveness of this solution on experimental 300mm RF-SOI wafers with an ultra-thin active layer utilizing a new formulation of Atomera's MST® technology.
For many years, it has been understood that thinner RF-SOI substrates would enable higher performance, but trade-offs between speed and power handling made implementation impractical until this solution was introduced by Atomera. These wafers, paired with MST should enable higher-performance antenna switches, higher-fidelity low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), and other enhanced RF components for 5G Advanced and 6G applications. The company is working with multiple RF IC product manufacturers to evaluate and demonstrate the wide range of benefits of this MST-enabled technology solution.
Pierre Cemeli, General Manager of Connect SOI BU at Soitec, highlighted the significance of this collaboration: "RF-SOI wafers originally developed by Soitec have become instrumental in the design and manufacture of high-quality cellular RF products. We are pleased to supply our advanced experimental products for Atomera to combine with their own technology, with the ambition to progress the state of the art."
RF-SOI substrates have become the industry standard for many RF devices, particularly in front-end modules (FEMs), and are integral to all 5G smartphones today. These substrates offer superior linearity and lower noise compared to traditional silicon substrates, and they are fully compatible with existing CMOS process flows. RF-SOI products and manufacturing processes are widely available from numerous IC suppliers and foundries.
Scott Bibaud, CEO of Atomera, expressed optimism about the company's progress: "We have worked for several years to optimize RF-SOI application performance with MST. Our current results are showing improvements in the critical RF switch characteristics of Ron·Coff figure-of-merit, power handling capability, and leakage. We look forward to leveraging the experimental ultra-thin RF-SOI substrates from Soitec to advance the capabilities of cellular RF and enable the next generation of mobile communications."
Atomera's strategy involves collaboration with multiple players in the RF ecosystem, including IDMs, foundry manufacturers, and fabless RF IC companies. The company will epitaxially deposit its RF-optimized MST film on Soitec's ultra-thin 300mm RF-SOI substrates and distribute them to development partners for further fabrication. Additionally, Atomera is providing its MSTcad® software to select RF-SOI chip designers and foundries, enabling them to optimize their devices and fully exploit the benefits of these advanced substrates.
Atomera Incorporated specializes in semiconductor materials and technology licensing. Their proprietary Mears Silicon Technology™ (MST®) enhances the performance and power efficiency of semiconductor transistors and can be integrated using existing manufacturing equipment.
Click here to learn more about Atomera's MST.
