Infineon´s Papers at the BCTM 2003 - Presented Developments Underline Leadership in Bipolar/BiCMOS Technologies

Oct 6, 2003 | Market News

Munich, Germany and Toulouse, France – October 6, 2003 – Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX) presented several papers at the Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting (BCTM 2003), September 28 - 30. The technical program for BCTM consisted of short courses given by noted industry experts and of invited and contributed technical presentations. The technical sessions were organized according to the following topics: RF, device physics, process technology, CAD and modeling, analog design, power devices.

Infineon participated in the BCTM with several technical presentations highlighting recent developments on high-speed bipolar technologies. In the following, the titles and brief summaries of Infineon’s technical presentations are listed.

A Comprehensive Experimental Study on Technology Options for Reduced Substrate Coupling in RF and High Speed Bipolar Circuits



The undesired coupling of different circuit components through the substrate can significantly decrease the performance of advanced high-speed and RF circuits. Therefore, the circuit designer usually applies shielding measures such as guard rings. However, this might not be sufficient for high-performance circuits. Here, also the technology itself must be optimized. For this, different substrate materials, transistor isolation techniques, and shielding methods are investigated and their influence on substrate coupling was determined by measurements.

Dielectric Reliability and Material Properties of Al 2O 3 in Metal Insulator Metal Capacitors (MIMCAP) for RF Bipolar Technologies in Comparison to SiO 2, SiN and Ta 2O 5



The intrinsic dielectric properties of Al 2O 3 have been investigated with respect to MIMCAP applications and compared to SiO 2, SiN and Ta 2O 5, which are more widely used. In this paper, Infineon has for the first time fully characterized Al 2O 3 MIMCAPs for applications in RF technologies. Al 2O 3 may be scaled down to 20nm (3.5fF/µm²) while still meeting the reliability requirements and thus surpassing SiN and SiO 2 considerable. C(V) dependence (about 100ppm/V² @ 50nm for the quadratic voltage coefficient) and dielectric loss (tanδ=0.0024) meet the requirements for analog and RF applications. Compared to the intensive evaluated Ta 2O 5, Al 2O 3 has order of magnitudes lower leakage, but a slight disadvantage in maximum achievable specific capacitance.

Substrate Modeling for RF and High-Speed Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits



Substrate coupling influences the performance of high-speed Bipolar/BiCMOS circuits in a negative way and can even result in circuit failure. This effect can not be neglected for many advanced high-speed and RF circuits. Therefore, this must be modeled correctly already during the design phase. This paper gave an overview of the interaction between circuit components and the substrate. Simulation techniques are reviewed that can be used to determine its influence. In addition, the integration of substrate modeling into today’s design environments were explained by a practical example.

About Infineon



Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for the automotive and industrial sectors, for applications in the wired communications markets, secure mobile solutions as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In fiscal year 2002 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 5.21 billion with about 30,400 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at http://www.infineon.com.

Information Number

INFSMS200310.005