Toshiba’s Semiconductor & Storage Products Company has announced the development of TaRF8, a next generation SOI (Silicon on Insulator) process optimized for RF switch applications. This TarfSOI™ (Toshiba advanced RF SOI) process can develop switches with extreamly low insertion losses.
An SP12T RFIC switch has been developed on this process. The transmit switch IC has an integrated RF Frontend controller for mobile applications making it ideal for the 3GPP GSM, UMTS, W-CDMA, LTE and LTE-Advanced standards. This new switch will start in January 2016.
The TaRF8 SOI process has been developed for RF switches. Switches developed on this process can have an insertion loss of as low as 0.32 dB at 2.7 GHz. This is 0.1 dB lower than switches developed on the existing TaRF6 process that Toshiba currently has. With the trend in mobile communications towards high-data-rate, high-capacity data transfers, RF switch ICs used in mobile devices, including smartphones, require multi-port support and improved RF performance. Lowering insertion loss is recognized as a particularly important factor in this, as it decreases RF transmission power loss, which can support a longer battery life for mobile devices.
Toshiba is developing high-performance RF switch ICs utilizing its in-house fab to apply SOI-CMOS technology, which is suitable for integrating analog and digital circuits. By handling all aspects of the production flow, from RF process technology development to the design and manufacturing of RF switch chips, Toshiba can swiftly improve SOI-CMOS process technology in response to feedback from the development results of its own RF switch IC products. This Integrated-Device-Manufacturer (IDM) approach allows Toshiba to quickly establish new process technologies suited to actual products and to enter the market with products fabricated with the latest process technology.
Toshiba will continue improving the performance of its TarfSOI process technology and work towards meeting customer and market requirements for RF switch ICs by introducing cutting-edge technology products ahead of other manufacturers.
