Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation, today announced an exclusive joint development agreement with IBM for the development and manufacture of future generations of Peregrine’s patented UltraCMOS™ silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) process technology, the industry’s highest-performance radio frequency complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (RF CMOS) process. When fully qualified, the next-generation UltraCMOS RF ICs will be manufactured by IBM for Peregrine in the jointly-developed 180-nanometer process at IBM’s 200mm semiconductor manufacturing facility in Burlington, Vermont.

Peregrine’s UltraCMOS technology delivers unmatched levels of RF performance and monolithic integration for high-growth applications such as the RF front-end of mobile phones and multi-mode, multi-band mobile wireless devices; broadband communications including 4G LTE equipment and base stations; mobile DTV/CATV RF signal conditioning; and space satellite systems.

IBM, a global leader in microelectronics, adds Peregrine’s UltraCMOS technology to its advanced semiconductor processing capability. This development marks the first commercial use of 200mm (8-inch) wafer processing for silicon-on-sapphire process -- a patented variation of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology that incorporates an ultra-thin layer of silicon on a highly insulating sapphire substrate -- a milestone which will drive the next decade of UltraCMOS engineering.

"We are pleased to be working with Peregrine to enable the next generation of RF circuits on sapphire and extend our leadership in insulating substrates by adding the 180nm UltraCMOS process to our world-class portfolio of RFSOI technologies," said Regina Darmoni, director of IBM's Analog/Mixed-Signal and Digital Foundry business.

Migration to 200mm wafers facilitates the evolution of the process to advanced 180nm, 130nm and 90nm nodes. It also provides access to advanced manufacturing toolsets and enables significantly expanded digital integration capability. Further, the agreement with IBM provides, through its world-class Technology Alliance partners, unprecedented levels of manufacturing capacity and a robust supply chain.

“We are extremely proud to be developing future generations of UltraCMOS with one of the global leaders in semiconductor process technology,” stated Jim Cable, president and C.E.O. of Peregrine Semiconductor. “Our company has long been committed to driving technological change in RF by bringing our silicon-on-sapphire RF process into the global mainstream. By combining the strengths of our two companies, we are continuing to deliver the promise of Moore’s Law for high-performance RF CMOS.”

Collaboration between the two companies began in 2008 as the ability to use CMOS for RF designs emerged as a viable alternative to compound semiconductor processes such as gallium arsenide (GaAs). The benefits of CMOS include reliability, cost-effectiveness, high yields, portability, scalability and integration, all of which UltraCMOS demonstrates. Further, Peregrine is known for its pursuit of engineering inventions and intellectual property which advance UltraCMOS technology. One of the earliest innovations is the HaRPâ„¢ design methodology, which brought about unprecedented levels of harmonic performance. More recently, Peregrine introduced DuNEâ„¢ technology, which produced innovative digitally tunable capacitors that solve longstanding industry design challenges in RF tuning.