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The boards and data showcase the MMICs’ capabilities in actual base station transmitter device line-ups. The latest data shows that the devices’ current consumption can be reduced by almost 50 percent from the initial data sheet conditions with little penalty in linearity.


The new MMICs are the first of many planned Freescale MMIC devices currently under development to cover popular wireless bands and applications.


Freescale’s four new MMIC devices are planned for limited sampling by June 2010 and general sampling by August 2010. Planned product support includes reference designs and other support tools for designers.


World Expo uses LEDs and solar energy to go green


Green cutting-edge technologies used or showcased at the Expo will be widely introduced into real life says the Shanghai Daily


Officials from Shanghai Science and Technology Commission yesterday said that the World Expo in Shanghai will boost the concept of ecology and environmental protection and stimulate scientific research and technology development.


“Green, low-carbon and environmental protection are the themes of the World Expo,” said Shou Ziqi, Director of the commission.


New technologies such as a TD-LTE (time division-long term evolution), which is 40 times faster than any existing 3G network, the use of new energy vehicles and LED (light emitting diode) technology are expected to be widely adopted after their successful use at the Expo.


“The whole process of Expo designing, construction, operation and after-Expo use are all in line with the concept.”


Some 200,000 lights - 80 percent of night


lighting inside the Expo site use LED technology and the use of solar energy, has resulted in a 30% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions (from vehicles) inside the Expo zone.


TSMC to spend $5billion on additional fabs


Taiwanese firm will build new fab in Taiwan which will handle over 100,000 12” wafers per month


Semiconductor foundry TSMC is spending $5billion to enhance its manufacturing capacity. It will expand two of its fabs in Hsinchu and begin construction of a new ‘gigafab’ called Fab 15 in Tainan. The fab will be able to handle more than 100,000 12inch wafers per month when in full production.


Senior VP of R & D, Shang-Yi Chiang, said that TSMC will continue to use planar transistors for the while, but will start to shift to FinFETs from the 14nm node. He added, “Moving forward, it is likely we will … begin to use germanium or gallium arsenide as a channel material to enhance mobility. From the device physics point of view, FinFET transistors would allow us to carry on to about 7 to 8nm, so we still have about four generations to go based on the technology we know today.”


Pointing out the key measure for interconnect performance is resistance and capacitance, said Mr. Chiang said, “Everybody is trying to improve their interconnect speed by reducing capacitance using low K material. TSMC was the first company to ship low-K product and is the first to introduce a second generation low-K material. And we are the first to begin improving resistance – we call this low-R.”


“We have been using 193nm immersion lithography and will continue to use this for 20nm production. If extreme ultraviolet or multiple e-beam direct write become cost effective, we will switch to that because mass production for 20nm will begin in 2013.”


June www.compoundsemiconductor.net 61


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