SOI CMOS with high-performance passive components for analog, RF, and mixed signal design

Summary form only given. Peregrine Semiconductor's UTSi^R silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) CMOS process is unique because it has a fully insulating substrate. This enables the design of higher performance resistors, capacitors, and inductors. The UTSi process consists of a thin (100 nm) “improved” silicon epitaxial layer on single crystal sapphire with dual polysilicon capacitors and three layers of Al metallization. All processing is standard CMOS processing for high manufacturability and reliability. The UTSi technology takes advantage of the sapphire substrate to improve resistor and inductor characteristics for high-performance analog and RF applications. Resistors with low parasitic capacitance, low TCR, and low voltage coefficients simplify the design of analog circuits. Highly linear double-poly capacitors also enable higher performance analog and RF design. The presence of high-Q inductors and capacitors and excellent isolation of the insulating substrate allow fully integrated MMICs to be designed in UTSi technology. These characteristics make UTSi an ideal technology for analog, RF integration, and mixed-signal products