Is SiGe the future of GaAs for RF applications?

Abstract

With the advent of a manufacturable Silicon Germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology, does Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) have a future in today's high volume high frequency wireless communications marketplace? This paper describes the capabilities of IBM SiGe HBT technology as it compares to GaAs HBT and Field Effect Transistor (FET) technologies for radio frequency (RF) applications. Comparisons are made at the device, single function, and highly integrated RF integrated circuit (RFIC) level for performance and cost.