Specialty foundry TowerJazz (which has fabrication plants at Tower Semiconductor Ltd in Migdal Haemek, Israel, and at its US subsidiaries Jazz Semiconductor Inc in Newport Beach, CA and TowerJazz Texas Inc in San Antonio, TX, and at TowerJazz Japan Ltd) has announced availability of H5, a 300GHz silicon germanium (SiGe) process optimized for 400Gbps optical communications (or 400GbE) which promise to quadruple the capacity of even the fastest links deployed today at 100Gbps.
Wireline data traffic is increasing dramatically, and TowerJazz is addressing this growing market through a family of customized foundry SiGe BiCMOS technologies, including its highest-performance process to date. In the H5 process, enhancements include increased device fT and Gmas well as other proprietary features to address the 400GbE product space.
TowerJazz says that customers can quickly migrate existing products to H5, as layouts are virtually identical to prior generations of technology. H5 can help to reduce power consumption in lower-data-rate products or boost data rates to address newer standards. The firm says that it tailors its roadmaps to meet customers’ next-generation needs. TowerJazz has hence worked with leaders in the market to optimize technology for the 400GbE era and already has key design wins in this space, such as Broadcom Ltd, which designs and supplies digital and analog semiconductor connectivity solutions.
“TowerJazz’s SiGe technology has enabled us to successfully deliver high-performing optical ICs across multiple market segments and applications, including 400GbE data-center interconnects,” says Dr Faouzi Chaahoub, senior director of Broadcom’s Fiber Optic Products Division.
“We strongly value our collaboration with Broadcom in this market and continue to invest aggressively in high-speed SiGe to support all of our customers’ next-generation requirements,” says Dr Marco Racanelli, senior VP & general manager of TowerJazz’s RF & High Performance Analog business unit. “SiGe has become the technology of choice for front-end components in high-speed data communications.”
SiGe Terabit Platform – HX, H2, H3, H4, H5
- TowerJazz’s SiGe Terabit Platform includes CMOS, together with low-noise, high-speed, and high-power SiGe devices and patented features that enable what is claimed to be 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 history of process technologies that include HX and H2 (addressing 10 to 28Gbps requirements), H3 with SiGe speeds of 280GHz (addressing requirements up to 100Gbps), and now H4 and H5 with transistor speeds that exceed 300GHz and can reduce power consumption by nearly an order of magnitude.
