Technology and Manufacturing Strategy Office

GaAs has enjoyed a relatively unchallenged position as the RF semiconductor material of choice for many RF applications at or above 1GHz, but particularly in RF front-end sockets for cellular telephones. But, over the past several years SiGeC BiCMOS technology has pushed GaAs out of many of these sockets due to it’s high performance, high level of integration, and low cost attributes. Will this trend continue to the power amplifier? Is this technology really cheaper to develop and manufacture RF product solutions than GaAs? Is SiGeC really the RF technology of the future, or only a short-lived fad to be pushed aside by RF CMOS? This paper will explore the driving factors behind these questions, and moreover, explore the product entry and manufacturing cost differences for GaAs HBT, and SiGeC BiCMOS technology