Microwave Flash

Microwave Flash News Briefs December 16, 2003

NTT TECH TO DISTRIBUTE AWR'S ANALOG OFFICE IN JAPAN
Applied Wave Research announced this week that the NTT Advanced Technology Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, has been appointed to provide electronic systems and integrated circuit (IC) designers throughout Japan with AWR products and support. NTT-AT was founded in 1979 as a subsidiary of NTT, the largest telecom service provider in Japan. NTT-AT offers advanced technology solutions in information and communications to enterprises around the world.

In addition to the Analog Office(TM) design suite for next-generation analog and radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) designs, NTT-AT will also offer the Visual System Simulator(TM) software for the design of end-to-end systems.

UMC ANNOUNCES RFCMOS DESIGN METHODOLOGY
UMC has recently claimed a breakthrough Electromagnetic Design Methodology (EMDM) for RFCMOS designs that uses a combination of electromagnetic (EM) analysis tools working in conjunction with each other to reduce simulation cycle times from hours to just minutes. UMC's new methodology, effectively eliminates what has traditionally been a tremendous time and resource intensive commitment for RF designers. The methodology was also created to greatly reduce overall development cycle times and costs for customers designing RFCMOS ICs.

According to researchers, while most silicon foundries are still struggling to provide reliable, accurate RFCMOS design models and passive component libraries, UMC's EMDM includes process-related information for EM simulation, allowing customers to design their own inductors with fast, accurate, and low-cost features. EMDM includes the use of a variety of electromagnetic analysis tools, including Ansoft's HFSS(TM) 3D simulation software.

The EMDM allows engineers to easily and accurately create any RF structure, such as spiral inductors, in their design without going through several wafer splits and the painful tasks of measurement, data fitting and modeling. UMC has already demonstrated the effectiveness of its EMDM with the successful creation of a "Virtual Inductor Library."

For general inductor designs, the Virtual Inductor Library works by utilizing both real silicon measurement data and 3D EM simulation data to extract RF SPICE models with higher accuracy. This unique technology file can be positively represented within Si process parameters. Based on this calibrated technology file, designers can implement their ideas, and then obtain the S-parameter for circuit simulation.

ANSOFT UNVEILS ePHYSICS THERMAL AND STRESS ANALYSIS
Recently, Ansoft Corporation released ePhysics(TM), new software to expand the capabilities of HFSS(TM) and Maxwell(R) 3D. With ePhysics, engineers can now incorporate three-dimensional steady-state thermal, transient thermal and linear stress analysis into their existing electromagnetic-based design flows, according to the company, which added that coupling ePhysics with Maxwell 3D provides the cross-disciplinary analysis required in the design of electromechanical devices. Typical applications include the analysis of electric machines, power-generation systems, transformers, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and solenoids.

HFSS with ePhysics would factor into applications such as high-speed packages, antennas, monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), high-power microwave devices, military and broadcast communications and biological heating with radio frequency (RF) sources. These analyses include high-power, temperature-induced stress and size changes of design components.

TRIQUINT INTROS GaAs E-D pHEMT PROCESS & SELLS TRIPLEXERS
TriQuint Semiconductor announced the introduction of the high-volume TQPED pHEMT process fabricated in their 150mm Oregon wafer manufacturing facility. According to TriQuint, this process will enable designers of RF front-end components to increase integration levels due to the inclusion of both enhancement- and depletion-mode pHEMT transistors, on-chip passives, three-level interconnects and substrate vias.

By combining control functions with an advanced, high-performance pHEMT process, designers can achieve higher levels of IC integration and performance than previously possible with single-mode transistor processes. The two pHEMT transistor types are targeted at functions such as low-noise amplifiers, high-isolation switches, converters, power amplifiers, and combinations of these blocks. The ability to integrate all of these circuit functions, including passive components, leads to smaller physical devices and ultimately lower cost, due to both the reduction in the number of components and printed circuit board area for a wide variety of products.

Early access for select customers will be available in the first quarter of 2004; general availability and full production process release is scheduled for third quarter, 2004. A preliminary Design Kit and pHEMT device models are available now.

The company also recently announced receipt of first purchase orders from a major Korean handset manufacturer for its Model 890035 triplexer-an integrated, front-end solution for CDMA wireless phones.

The TriQuint triplexer is an integrated front-end module for CDMA handsets operating in Cellular, GPS and PCS bands. A triplexer is a passive filter module that allows the simultaneous use of a single antenna for both CDMA and GPS bands, reducing component count and design complexity while freeing handset board space. This passive filter module has a form factor of just 4.0x4.0x1.4mm and contains an ultra-miniature GPS SAW filter custom designed to interact with passive low- and high-pass filtering networks providing exceptional performance. The module does not require the use of any external matching components or circuits.

CREE CLAIMS MAJOR STEP IN GaN TRANSISTOR POWER DENSITY
Cree, Inc. announced this week that it has developed a new class of gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors that produce power densities far higher than previously achieved. The GaN HEMTs produced a record CW power density of 32 W/mm and 55% power added efficiency (PAE) at 4 GHz. These same devices produced a CW power density of 30 W/mm and 50% PAE at a higher frequency of 8 GHz.

Crediting proprietary breakthroughs in GaN epitaxy, device processing, and device structure, Cree has demonstrated gallium nitride HEMT power transistors with almost 3 times the power density and 5 points higher PAE than previously demonstrated in the industry. The improved design and processing allowed these devices to be operated at a high drain bias of 120 V, which helped result in the extremely high power density reported.

These improvements were developed on programs that were funded in part by both the Office of Naval Research, as well as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and involved Cree R&D teams both in Durham and at the company's Santa Barbara Technology Center.

ANAREN OFFERS NEW XINGER(R)-BRAND 'FEMTO' BALUN
Anaren now offers a sub-miniature version of its Xinger(R)-brand surface mount balun. Measuring only 0.12 x 0.12 x 0.03" (3 x 3 x .76 mm), the 2.4 GHz part has an insertion loss of 0.55 dB max -- making it an excellent companion for "802.11b & g" access point and embedded W-LAN chipsets, according to the company. The 4.8-5.9 GHz part has an insertion loss of 0.5dB and is directed at 802.11a and other world allocations.

RFMD SHIPS 350 MILLIONTH POWER AMPLIFIER MODULE
RF Micro Devices recently announced that it has shipped its 350 millionth power amplifier (PA) module, making RFMD the fastest company in the industry to ship 350 million PA modules.

According to the company, power amplifiers are one of the most critical components in the radio section of handsets and amplify the handset's signal through its antenna back to the base station.