Homebush, Australia–Nov. 20, 2000–Peregrine Semiconductor Corp., a developer of integrated circuits (ICs) for the optical and wireless communications markets, is developing the first wafer fabrication capability for 0.25-micron ICs in its Homebush, Australia fab. A Class One cleanroom, already under construction, will operate state-of-the-art equipment–including a wafer stepper, high angle ion implanter, vertical furnaces, rapid thermal annealer, and advanced metrology tools–capable of 0.25-micron production with a roadmap to 0.15-micron production.

The $30 million investment will result in a major advance in technology beyond the current 0.5-micron production complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) and Peregrine’s patented Ultra Thin Silicon on Sapphire (UTSi) CMOS, according to the company, and move to 0.25-micron with four layers of metal on UTSi substrates.

UTSi is a manufacturing process that uses a thin layer of silicon on an insulating and clear sapphire substrate to enhance the performance of the CMOS process by as much as two generations of process geometry reduction. The patented version of CMOS silicon-on-insulator (SOI) produces UTSi circuits that compete in the rapidly expanding wireless and fiber optics markets at higher frequencies and data rates with lower power consumption than standard bulk CMOS circuits, Peregrine reports, while still using standard CMOS equipment and processing.