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Innovative characterization and modeling of silicon based semiconductor materials and devices

Country of Origin: Belgium
Reference Number: TOBE20150813001
Publication Date: 14 September 2015

Summary

A Belgian company, active in semiconductor characterization and modeling, offers, in the frame of outsourcing agreements, an innovative service for the characterization and modeling of silicon based semiconductor materials and devices, including substrates, active and passive devices for a wide range of applications - direct current DC/baseband, high frequency applications - and radiation hardness operation.

Description

A company, in close partnership with a prestigious Belgian university, holds an exclusive license from this university to commercialize a 3-decade know-how in semiconductor characterization and modeling for design of digital, analog/radio frequency (RF) and harsh environment applications. Concretely, the company is looking for partners interested in its skills, knowledge and expertise in characterization and modeling services. 

Regarding others traditional characterization services, this technology doesn't suffer from parasitic surface conduction (PSC) effects and so, reduces digital substrate noise (DSN) and shows no impact on active devices performance.

This technology is the most promising solution for RF system-on-ship (SoC), and future long-term evolution (LTE), 5G generations.



The agreements could take the form of outsourcing/services where the Belgian company would make available to its partners its technological services and tools in order to validate the quality of silicon substrates, active devices (e.g. transistors) or passive devices (e.g. inductors). The experts of the company offer also to work with their partners through the whole cycle starting from a new idea, Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) simulations to evaluate and validate the idea, design, fabrication and testing of the required test structures and the optimized modeling of the new material/device.



The partners could be for instance silicon wafer providers, foundries and Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs) or fabless companies.



Their services also cover radiation hardness characterization and modeling. They’re situated few steps from one of the most powerful cyclotrons in Europe where they perform their radiation hardness tests on materials, devices and circuits. For this service, the targeted market is the medical and space applications.



Hereafter is a non-exhaustive - because they work with their customers on new and custom solutions adapted to their needs - list of the services:



-	Wide band characterization (S-parameters) from few Hertz (Hz) to 220 gigahertz (GHz)

-	Non-linear harmonic distortion measurements for input power from -20 decibel milliwatts (dBm) till +40 dBm with a noise floor of -145 dBm

-	Cross-talk characterization for frequencies from 5 Hz till 26 GHz (for substrate assessments)

-	Low frequency (flicker) and high frequency (thermal) noise characterization and modelling

-	Load-pull and source-pull characterization

-	Design and fabrication of optimized test structures for specific characterization and modelling goals

-	Silicon substrate characterization and modelling for linear and nonlinear applications, wide band, high power, and radiation hardened applications

-	Harsh environment characterization including extremely low and high temperatures (from 4 Kelvin to 600 Kelvin)

-	Innovative techniques to measure and model self-heating in active devices

-	TCAD simulations for materials and devices in a wide range of operation

-	Geant 4 physical simulations for the effect of high energy particles on material and devices (for radiation and space applications)

Advantages and Innovations

The innovation is the business core of the company. Indeed, they offer services that are not, a priori, offered by their competitors. The companies usually outsource these tasks to the Belgian company to benefit from their long experience in the domain and the innovation/professional service that would have been much more expensive and time consuming if performed internally.



They employ innovative techniques based on their expertise in the RF domain. These techniques are adapted to all regimes of operation, not only RF, of electronic devices and circuits.



Nowaday, the company's experts are invited in major events and conferences worldwide to present the state-of-the-art advancement in this field.



Moreover, the company continues to invest in R&D to keep ahead in the field of innovation & technology and to be able to answer all specific demand with custom solutions.

Stage Of Development

Already on the market

Stage Of Development Comment

The services are already in the market and used by major players in the domain of silicon semiconductor wafer providers, foundries and fabless companies. The company continues to work on R&D projects - in partnership with major companies in the different fields - in order to keep the leading position in the market of innovative characterization and modeling of semiconductor devices.

Requested partner

The partners could be:



-	Silicon wafer providers; to ensure the quality of their wafers for specific applications like high power or high frequency applications



-	Foundries and Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs): for specific niche and state-of-the-art characterization and modeling services like the quality assurance of silicon wafers through the complete Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) process, non-conventional measurements like load-pull with high specs, or modeling (equivalent circuit or SPICE-like (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis)) of specific types of substrates for high performance/high frequency applications.



-	Fabless companies: to enhance their models or foundry qualified process design kits (PDKs) and qualify their technology before putting it to the market.