ABSTRACT
The general market acceptance of SiGe BiCMOS technologies can be attributed to the ability to address
the product performance at a very competitive cost by integrating high-performance SiGe HBTs, with
state-of-the-art CMOS, and high-quality passives. SiGe HBTs have shown to be highly reliable even
under extreme stress conditions [1, 2] and give superior yields compared to other compound semicon-
SiGe BiCMOS technologies offer the flexibility to be optimized based on the specific market applica-
tions. For example, performance focus applications such as wired, automotive, and instrumentation
require ultrahigh-performance SiGe HBTs. Integrating a simplified low-cost SiGe HBT is the focus,
however, for consumer applications such as wireless and storage. Therefore, a ‘‘one size fits all’’ approach
for technology optimization will not be optimal to address various market segments due to significant
tradeoffs one has to make on either performance or cost.
