50-200 GHz silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor BICMOS technology and a computer-aided design environment for 2-50+ GHz very large-scale integration mixed-signal ICs

Silicon–germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) BICMOS technology is a stable, ultra-high performance, semiconductor technology capable of supporting mixed-signal, very large-scale integration (VLSI) circuit designs for a variety of emerging communication applications. This technology is supported by a computer-aided design (CAD) system that supports a variety of high-performance circuit designs, mixed-signal circuit block reuse, and the ability to accurately predict circuit performance at the highest frequencies. This paper summarizes the progress this technology has made in recent years in moving from the research laboratory to a production environment. We also specifically address performance, operating voltage, reliability and integration considerations for using 100–200 GHz SiGe HBTs in high-speed (10–40 Gb/s) network ICs, an application space previously only addressed by InP technology. All indications are that SiGe will be very successful at addressing this new application space, and all facets of the networking IC market.