Mostafa EMAM September 2018

CHARACTERIZATION & MODELING SERVICES

FOR SI, SOI & III-V TECHNOLOGIES, RF & RAD HARD APPLICATIONS

FOR FOUNDRIES, FABLESS & WAFER SUPPLIERS

Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

2011

Spin-off

2014

Substrate Characterization

SOI Wafer Suppl iers

2017

III-V Materials

GaN-on-Si

2015

Radiation Hardness

Space Applications

2016

Modeling and PDK Support

Foundries and Fabless

2018

C H IN A

NANJING

Substrates

> quality assessment using innovative

non-destructive RF techniques

Large Signal

> fundamental frequency: 0.9 – 6 GHz

> input power from -20 up to 43 dBm

> with a noise floor down to -170 dBm

Noise

> thermal noise: 1 – 60 GHz

> flicker noise: 1 – 100 kHz

Load-Pull

> frequency: 0.8 – 50 GHz

> temperature: -10 – 200°C

Optical

> Raman spectroscopy

> ellipsometry

Harsh Environment

> radiation hardness

> temperature: 4K – 600K

Our Characterization Services

Wafer

Suppl iers

Foundr ies

Space

3

8

5

Our Customers

Wafer suppliers

Foundries

Fabless

Space

16

93

MARKET FORECASTS

RF switch technologies, 2015 – 2022 (%)

The RF Switch market is dominated by SOI and will remain so.

Bulk-CMOS technology -currently the onlycompetition to SOI - coulddisappear, unless it ismonolithically integratedwith other components intoPAMs.

RF MEMS technologywill take off in 2019 and willslowly grow in the high-endantenna switch market.

©2017 | www.yole.fr | RF Front End modules & components for cellphones

93

MARKET FORECASTS

RF switch technologies, 2015 – 2022 (%)

The RF Switch market is dominated by SOI and will remain so.

Bulk-CMOS technology -currently the onlycompetition to SOI - coulddisappear, unless it ismonolithically integratedwith other components intoPAMs.

RF MEMS technologywill take off in 2019 and willslowly grow in the high-endantenna switch market.

©2017 | www.yole.fr | RF Front End modules & components for cellphones

C o u r t e s y :

61

RECEPTION AND TRANSMISSION CHAINS IN A FRONT-END MODULE

©2017 | www.yole.fr | RF Front End modules & components for cellphones

Rx Tx

93

MARKET FORECASTS

RF switch technologies, 2015 – 2022 (%)

The RF Switch market is dominated by SOI and will remain so.

Bulk-CMOS technology -currently the onlycompetition to SOI - coulddisappear, unless it ismonolithically integratedwith other components intoPAMs.

RF MEMS technologywill take off in 2019 and willslowly grow in the high-endantenna switch market.

©2017 | www.yole.fr | RF Front End modules & components for cellphones

C o u r t e s y :

Front End Module (FEM)

20092011

• SoitecSmart Cut™ SOI

• UCL R&D work on HR-SOI

Trap Rich SOI by UCL and Soitec

HR-SOI High Volume Manufacturing

eSI™ ramp

BondedSilicon-on-Sapphire by Soitec & Peregrine

2005

1992

2014

1st Power Amplifier on RF-SOI

RF switch demo on HR-SOI

2003

2012

RF switch on SOI becomes industry mainstream

PhD thesis

RF SOI

potentials

Technological

solution for

better substrates

Major industrial

player asks for

better, scalable

and cheaper

substrates

Mass market

products

15-20 years from discovery to products innovation

C o u r t e s y : P r o f . J . - P . R a s k i n , U C L

History of RF SOI

ON state OFF state

RON COFF

t = RON x COFF

FD SOI

RF switch

C o u r t e s y : P r o f . J . - P . R a s k i n , U C L

Linearity @ device and substrate levels

Trap-rich HR SOI substrate

RF switch

C o u r t e s y : P r o f . J . - P . R a s k i n , U C L

RF SOI Substrates – The Challenges

11

High Resistivity SOI substrats: how high should we go?

12

STD SOI: 20 Ω.cm → high losses

Si substrate

signal

Conductor losses (αcond)

Substrate losses (αsub)

>3 k

HR SOI of > 10 kΩ.cm

would correspond to a

lossless Si substrate

13

HR-SOI suffers from Parasitic Surface Conduction (PSC)

effect at the SiO2/Si interface.Parasitic Surface Conduction (PSC)

n-type

Mobile &

Interface trapped

charges

Accumulation

layer

Fixed

charges

Highly conductive

layer

10 kΩ.cm[C. Roda Neve et al., TED’12]

SiO2

HR-Si

Si

+ PSC ≈ 200 Ω.cm

RF SOI Substrates – Parasitic Surface Conduction

Trap rich layer

n-type

Mobile &

Interface trapped

charges

Accumulation

layer

Fixed

charges

Highly conductive

layer

High Resistivity SI Base

SiO2 (BOX)Trap rich layer

SiO2 (BOX)

Mono-crystal Top Silicon

Trap Rich layer freezes the highly

conductive layer at BOX – Handle interface

RF SOI Substrates – How to overcome PSC?

RF SOI Substrates – Characterization Techniques

.

900 MHz

CPW 2146 µm-long

Substrates – L a r g e - S i g n a l C h a r a c t e r i z a t i o n

900 MHz

.

900 MHz

CPW 2146 µm-long

Substrates – L a r g e - S i g n a l C h a r a c t e r i z a t i o n

900 MHz

Substrates – L a r g e - S i g n a l C h a r a c t e r i z a t i o n

.

CPW 2146 µm-long

Band 8

f1 = 900 MHz, f2 = 955 MHz

fim3 = 845 MHz

Substrates – L a r g e - S i g n a l C h a r a c t e r i z a t i o n

.

CPW 2146 µm-long

Band 8

f1 = 900 MHz, f2 = 955 MHz

fim3 = 845 MHz

RF SOI – Modeling

Model

S 21

Meas

Error: +0.23 % at 1 GHz

w1

L1L2

S

w2

Substrates – Modeling | Small-Signal

𝐶𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑣 1 =𝑲𝑪𝒗 ×𝜀0 ×𝜀𝑆𝑖 ×𝑤𝑠𝑢𝑏1 ×𝑙𝑠𝑢𝑏

𝑠𝑢𝑏 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑐𝑘

𝑅𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑣1 =𝑲𝑹𝒗 ×𝜌𝑠𝑢𝑏 ×𝜀0 ×𝜀𝑆𝑖

𝐶𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑣1

𝐶𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑙 =𝑲𝑪𝒍 ×𝜋×𝜀0 ×𝜀𝑆𝑖

2ln𝜋2 ×(𝑆 + ∆) 2

𝑤𝑠𝑢𝑏1 ×𝑤𝑠𝑢𝑏2

𝑙𝑠𝑢𝑏

𝑅𝑠𝑢𝑏 𝑙 =𝑲𝑹𝒍 ×𝜌𝑠𝑢𝑏 ×𝜀0 ×𝜀𝑆𝑖

𝐶𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑙

S

D

G

S

CBOX

wh

wb

wsub1

lsu

b

Rsubv Csubv

Rsubl

Csubl

D

G

S

CBOX

wh

wb

Rsubv Csubv

wsub2

Fudge factors

𝐶𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑣 2 =𝑲𝑪𝒗 ×𝜀0 ×𝜀𝑆𝑖 ×𝑤𝑠𝑢𝑏2 ×𝑙𝑠𝑢𝑏

𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑐𝑘

𝑅𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑣 2 =𝑲𝑹𝒗 ×𝜌𝑠𝑢𝑏 ×𝜀0 ×𝜀𝑆𝑖

𝐶𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑣 2

∆=(𝑤𝑠𝑢𝑏1 + 𝑤𝑠𝑢𝑏2 )

2×𝜋

KRv = 0.4; KCv = 0.85

KCl and KRl are represented by a polynomial function.

Substrates – Modeling | Large-Signal – Finite Inertia

[M. Rack et al, IMS 2017]

Let’s run our R(V) model…

At RF and mm-wave frequencies:

Carriers have some inertia, and

a certain finite response time!

Overestimation of

Harmonic Distortion!

Why?

Substrates – Modeling | Large Signal

[M. Rack et al, IMS 2017]

Carrier dynamics and finite inertia

10 MHz 100 MHz

1 GHz 10 GHz

High resistivity Si

1 kΩcm

Substrates – Modeling | Large Signal

[M. Rack et al, IMS 2017]

Carrier dynamics and finite inertia

Partial following in the GHz band → model needed!

Low frequencycan follow

High frequency = Dielectric modecan’t follow

Maximum

Harmonic

Distortion « Zero »

Harmonic

Distortion

GHz, wifi,

3G, 4G, 5G…

??

HD ≈ 0

HDmax

Frequency

HD

Introducing a time constant of 𝝉 = 𝟏. 𝟑 𝐧𝐬

Simulations no longer overestimated

Substrates – Modeling – Large SignalCarrier dynamics and finite inertia

[M. Rack et al, IMS 2017]

C H I N A

NANJING

W e a r e h i r i n g …

S i n c e 2 0 1 8

Thank You

Join us in Nanjing

谢谢