News: Suppliers
5 December 2024
Soitec and GlobalFoundries collaborate on RF-SOI production
Engineered substrate manufacturer Soitec of Bernin, near Grenoble, France has committed to deliver 300mm radio frequency silicon-on-insulator (RF-SOI) substrates to New York-headquartered GlobalFoundries (GF, which has manufacturing plants in the USA, Europe and Singapore) for the production of GF’s RF-SOI technology platforms, including its most advanced RF solution 9SW.
Building on the longstanding relationship between the two companies, this commitment should ensure the supply of RF-SOI engineered substrates required for 5G, 5G-Advanced, Wi-Fi, and other smart mobile device radio frequency front-end (RFFE) modules.
To support advanced connectivity, GF’s 9SW RF-SOI platform —with what are claimed to be superior switching, low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) and logic processing capabilities — offers what are said to be significant advantages and value for premium smartphones by delivering enhanced RF performance, improved power efficiency and scalability. These features are critical for high-end devices.
Soitec says that its new RF-SOI 300mm substrate offers advances including: reduced off-capacitance due to optimized silicon thickness, enhanced and sustained power efficiency enabled by an optimized oxide layer, and superior RF performance made possible by Soitec’s RFeSI product family.
Manufactured using Soitec’s latest-generation 300mm RF-SOI wafers, GF’s 9SW platform delivers significant reduction in active and standby power consumption and enables 10% smaller products than previous platforms, for an efficiency enhancement of more than 20% through lower on-resistance and off-capacitance figures of merit.
“GF continues to deliver highly differentiated, industry-leading technologies required for essential 5G, IoT, infrastructure and automotive applications,” says Faisal Saleem, senior VP of End Markets at GlobalFoundries. “This collaboration with Soitec shows our commitment to ensure a continuous supply of high-performance RF-SOI solutions that meet our customers’ fast-evolving needs” he adds.
“Soitec has established the world's largest production capacity to meet growing demand for advanced RF-SOI substrates supporting 5G and WiFi technologies in smartphones, as well as future AR-VR and IoT devices,” says Jean-Marc Le Meil, Soitec’s executive VP for Mobile Communications. “We are delighted to extend our longstanding relationship with GlobalFoundries in developing the next generation of 300mm RF-SOI technologies. The transition from 5G to 5G-Advanced, and eventually 6G, requires ever-higher performance and energy efficiency, as well as increasing compactness for next-generation devices,” he adds.
DoD awards GlobalFoundries $117m to transfer 45nm SOI from East Fishkill to fab in Malta, NY
Multi-year supply deal from GlobalFoundries for Soitec’s 300mm RF-SOI wafers
