May 7, 2001 – Phoenix, AZ – ON Semiconductor plans to introduce a family of advanced SiGe devices to address the needs of networking equipment manufacturers who are designing gear capable of OC-192, 10-GbE and faster.

To handle the advanced performance requirements of OC-192 and 10-GbE networking speeds, ON Semiconductor’s GigaComm(TM) family of SiGe devices will perform at 12 Gigabits per second (Gbps) — a threefold increase above currently available offerings, the company said.

The company’s current devices perform at 4 Gbps and are suited for networking applications with speeds up to OC-48.

“When we emerge from the current economic downturn, OC-3 and OC-12 will be largely forgotten and OC-48 and OC-192 will go to the forefront for the large network build outs that will follow,” said Jeremy Donovan, principal analyst with Gartner Dataquest.

SiGe is a silicon-based material that is an alternative technology to standard Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS). By combining silicon with germanium, semiconductor manufacturers are able to achieve the performance characteristics of gallium arsenide at a cost that is more in line with CMOS technologies, ON said.

Because SiGe is an extension of silicon, it has ultra-low noise and distortion characteristics that are ideally suited for high-performance circuits.