IBM introduces first mainstream
silicon germanium chips

IBM today announced the first standard, high-volume chips built using its patented silicon germanium manufacturing process. As these chips enter the marketplace, consumers are likely to benefit from cellular phones, pagers, and other wireless communications devices that have extended battery life, carry out multiple functions, and are smaller, lighter, and less expensive.

IBM is the first chip maker to introduce silicon germanium technology into high-volume, mainstream manufacturing. Initially pioneered by IBM as an alternative high-speed chip material for mainframe computing, silicon germanium is an ideal technology for building many of the key chips used in wireless communications products. Silicon germanium's suitability for complex designs is expected to accelerate the integration of cell phone, e-mail, and Internet access functions into a single device, spawning a new breed of hand-held "information appliances."

"IBM's silicon germanium technology will now be available to a broader set of customers," said Mike Attardo, General Manager, IBM Microelectronics. "While IBM has been working with a growing number of companies on projects involving the technology, our unique ability to mass produce silicon germanium will rapidly accelerate its use in a greater number of consumer products."

Semiconductors used in high-volume communications devices typically require a combination of high speed, low noise, and low power that places unique demands on designs and materials that can't be addressed by standard chip technologies. Prior to IBM's ability to mass produce silicon germanium, manufacturers had to rely on more costly, power-hungry, and exotic technologies such as gallium arsenide to manage the high-speed signals transmitted via wireless communications devices.

The first silicon germanium chips announced today are seven basic building blocks, including low-noise amplifiers, voltage-controlled oscillators, power amplifiers, and discrete transistors. Several of the chips are designed as lower-cost, highly reliable direct replacements for gallium arsenide parts.

This announcement is part of a series of IBM initiatives to apply silicon germanium technology to a broad spectrum of communications applications. Other activities include:

• Working through IBM's CommQuest subsidiary to design silicon-germanium-enhanced chip sets that will serve as the basis of next-generation cellular phones

• Working with Leica Geosystems^™ to jointly develop and produce silicon-germanium-based chips for Global Positioning System (GPS) products

• Providing early technology access as part of manufacturing and development relationships with Hughes Electronics^™, Harris Semiconductor^™, National Semiconductor^™, AMCC^™, NorTel^™, and Tektronix^™, in which IBM is building silicon germanium components for a wide array of products from cell phones to satellites

• Extending the use of silicon germanium in "wired" communications gear, such as Alcatel's newly introduced fiber-optic system that uses IBM silicon germanium technology to provide a high-speed pipeline in communications networks

IBM is already working with dozens of communications customers to incorporate silicon germanium into real products, using new state-of-the-art IBM design centers in Waltham, MA, and East Fishkill, NY. The company recently completed the transition of silicon germanium technology from pilot production to high-volume manufacturing in its Burlington, VT, facility to satisfy the growing demand for silicon-germanium-based products.

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