HiRel
Discrete & Microwave Semiconductors
Introduction and Type Overview
Inf ineon Technologies A G 4 of 22 December 1999
2.2 SILICON DEVICES
Infineon Technologies has a long history in manufacturing high reliability discrete semiconductor devices.
Fundamental engineering work on a 1st generation of Si bipolar transistors was performed already in the
sixties and early seventies. Based on extensive and numerous reliability investigations the ESA/SCC
qualification status was granted to some Si component families, actually the PIN-diodes BXY 42, 43 and 44,
and the Schot t ky diodes BAS 70 and BAS 40 are ESA/SCC space qualified in their diff erent package variants.
The microwave bipolar junction transistors (BJT) of our 3rd generation headed by the BFY193 passed the
ambitious ESA evaluation and qualification programmes and received full ESA qualification (June 1996), this
family is completed by the larger type variant BFY196 (ESA/SCC qulification running). Also, the new
SIEGET microwave transistors, our 4th generation with it´s largest type variant, the BFY450, passed the
ESA/SCC qualif icat ion programme recently (June 1997).
Si micr owav e dev ic es , diodes as well as bipolar transis tors, have been us ed in num er ous s pac e pr ojec ts.
2.3 GaAs DEVICES
In compound semiconductor research Infineon Technologies has a background of more than 45 years. The
activ ities r ange from mater ial growth, tec hnology development thr ough dev ices to cir cuits inc luding m onolithic
microwave integrat ed circuit s (MMICs) and systems applicat ions of new components.
There are two main aspects driving these GaAs activities: The first is t o have this "high t echnology" available
inhouse for current and future enhanced systems. The second is to commercialise GaAs products as a
supplement to the Si semiconduct or programme. As a result, the company is engaged in the most important
application fields including especially low noise HEMTs and power FET devices for microwave applications,
discretes as well as MMICs, and has also ESA/SCC qualified GaAs devices in it´s delivery programme. In
1989 the GaAs Wafer Fab Line achieved a formal quality release to internal standards, followed later by
cert ificat ions ac c or ding CE CC 20 000 / CECC 50 000 cov er ing E N 29 001 ( ISO 9001) .
The history of the GaAs wafer production line started in 1980 with the fabrication of discrete low noise and
general purpose GaAs FETs for the open market. The world first commercially available GaAs MMICs were
released in 1982. A very important milestone was the invention of the Infineon Technologies specific,
propriet ary self-aligned gate process called G aAs DIOM technology. T he process exhibit s exceptional device
uniformity and reliability, it was released in 1984. First DIOM-MMICs (CGY40, CGY31) were marketed
according M IL883 quality alr eady in 1986.
Development of GaAs power devices at the Semiconductor Group started in 1987 after taking over
corresponding responsibilities from MSC, a former Infineon Technologies company. Already in 1992 the
production of corresponding high reliability Phased Array Radar MMICs (LNA, VGA, MPA, HPA) started. The
same technology is also used for large volume commercial power FETs in low cost plastic packages
introduced in 1993. Using similar chips in hermetically sealed packages gives high rel devices for the
professional market , proven through t he ESA/SCC evaluation programme successf ully completed in 1995.
Regarding low noise devices an important milestone was the introduction of a self aligned HEMT process.
GaAs LN-HEMT marketing started in 1989. A Space Evaluation and Qualification Programme to ESA / SCC
specifications was completed on the HEMT types CFY66 and CFY67 under DARA and ESA contracts in
1994, with the I nfineon T echnologies HE MTs becoming t he firs t ever space qualif ied HEMT s. F irst flight part s
have been delivered to the Artem is project, and the naked dies are chos en as the bas e line for t he LNA of the
ASAR / Envisat project.
The long and successfull history of DIOM Power FETs and MMICs at Infineon Technologies on commercial
devices and project work shall be explained in more detail. The large volume production of P-FETs and P-
MMICs for mobile communication (DECT, GSM, PCN) is based on surface mountable devices in low cost
plastic