IBM Creates New Transistor That Uses 80 Percent Less Power Than Current Technology; Demonstrates World's First Thin-Silicon SiGe Bipolar Transistor.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 2003 IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) today announced an innovative chip design that can improve performance fourfold or reduce power consumption fivefold fivefold Adjective 1. having five times as many or as much 2. composed of five parts Adverb by five times as many or as much Adj. 1. in wireless devices compared to the state-of-the-art thin-silicon bipolar technology. This achievement builds on IBM's recent announcement of clever new design and manufacturing methods that improve the performance and lower the power consumption of pure computing chips. As the wireless industry grows, device manufacturers will need better mixed-signal chips that support both computing applications and high frequency communications applications. This new chip design uses a revolutionary wafer thin enough to maximize the performance of both the computing and communications components. Today complementary metal oxide semiconductor See CMOS. (integrated circuit) Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor - (CMOS) A semiconductor fabrication technology using a combination of n- and p-doped semiconductor material to achieve low power dissipation. (CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) Pronounced "c-moss." The most widely used integrated circuit design. It is found in almost every electronic product from handheld devices to mainframes. ) chips are the foundation for computing applications; silicon germanium (SiGe) A semiconductor material made from silicon and germanium. Germanium is very similar to silicon, but when one layer is grown on top of the other to form the base of the transistor, the resulting transistor can switch faster and yield higher performance. (SiGe) bipolar chips provide radio frequency communications and analog functions. To improve the reliability of wireless devices, chip manufacturers have created SiGe BiCMOS chips that put computing and communications transistors onto one chip instead of using separate chips for computing and communications applications. CMOS computing chips show higher performance when built atop a thin silicon on insulator See SOI. (SOI (Silicon On Insulator) A chip architecture that increases transistor switching speed by reducing capacitance (build-up of electrical charges in the transistor's elements), and thus reducing the discharge time. The power requirement is also reduced in some designs. ) wafer. However, traditional SiGe bipolar transistors cannot be built on a thin SOI wafer. Until now, no one had been able to find a technique to combine CMOS and SiGe bipolar onto one wafer that would maximize the performance of both. IBM is the first to build SiGe bipolar using a thin SOI wafer, thereby paving the way to build SiGe bipolar and CMOS on the same thin SOI wafer, maximizing the performance of both the computing and communications functions. "As the wireless industry continues to grow, new devices will require greater functionalities, performance, and reliability from their components," said Dr. T. C. Chen, VP Science and Technology, IBM Research IBM Research, a division of IBM, is a research and advanced development organization and currently consists of eight locations throughout the world and hundreds of projects. . "IBM continues to find new methods to improve chips to ensure that the industry can meet consumer demands. The new chip design could be implemented within five years, enabling applications such as video streaming See streaming video and video stream. on cell phones." IBM presented details of this new chip design today at the 2003 Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting taking place this week in Toulouse, France. This project was a collaboration between researchers and developers at the IBM Semiconductor Research and Development Center, IBM Research and IBM Microelectronics Division. For an image related to today's announcement, please visit: http://domino.research.ibm.com/Comm/bios.nsf/pages/bipolar.html About IBM IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key IBM Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business on demand. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com |
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