TowerJazz has announced the availability of H5; a leading 300 GHz SiGe process optimized for 400 Gbps optical communications (or 400 GbE) which promise to quadruple the capacity of even the fastest links deployed today at 100 Gbps for carrying the world’s internet data traffic through networks and in data centers. TowerJazz is addressing this growing market through a family of customized advanced foundry silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technologies, including its highest performance process to date, H5. In this process, enhancements include increased device Ft and Gm as well as other “proprietary features” to address the 400 GbE product space.
Customers can now quickly migrate existing products to H5 as layouts are virtually identical to prior generations of technology. The H5 can help reduce power consumption in lower data-rate products or boost data rates to address newer standards. TowerJazz, as such, has worked with leaders in the market to optimize technology for the 400 GbE era and already has key design wins in this space, such as Broadcom, a leading designer, developer and global supplier of a broad range of digital and analog semiconductor connectivity solutions.
The TowerJazz SiGe Terabit Platform includes advanced CMOS, together with low-noise, high-speed, and high power SiGe devices and unique patented features that enable best-in-class performance for the most demanding ICs in high-speed communication links. These components include, for example, trans-impedance amplifiers (TIAs) on the receive path and laser drivers on the transmit path. The addition of H5 to the SiGe Terabit Platform extends a rich history of process technologies that include HX and H2 (addressing 10 to 28 Gbps requirements), H3 with SiGe speeds of 280 GHz (addressing requirements up to 100 Gbps), and now H4 and H5 with transistor speeds that exceed 300 GHz and can reduce power consumption by nearly an order of magnitude.
