WIN Semiconductors announces the beta release of a moisture rugged 0.1 µm pHEMT technology, PP10-29. Building on the mature and production proven PP10 platform, this high performance technology incorporates WIN’s second-generation humidity resistance process, EMRII, to provide mechanical protection and moisture ruggedness at the wafer-level. To minimize added parasitic capacitance, the EMRII layers form localized air-cavities over all transistors to provide moisture resistance with minimal impact to gain, noise figure and output power. This key feature of PP10-29 mitigates amplifier performance changes from packaging, plastic encapsulation or PCB embedding, and accelerates new product development.

The core of PP10-29 is a versatile 0.1 µm-gate D-mode with ft/fmax of 145GHz and 180GHz respectively and is qualified for 4 V operation. Manufactured on 150 mm GaAs substrates, this platform offers two interconnect metal layers, air-bridge crossovers, precision TaN resistors, monolithic PN-junction diodes for compact on-chip ESD protection circuits and through wafer vias for low inductance grounding. Providing a path to new packaging and assembly options, PP10-29 supports multiple DC and RF I/O configurations including standard wire-bonding, frontside Cu-bumps/RDL, and through-chip RF and DC transitions.

PP10-29 has reached beta release and is available for early access MPW runs. Qualifications testing is complete and final modeling/PDK generation is expected to conclude in August 2024 with full production release scheduled for late Q3 2024. Contact a WIN Semiconductors regional sales manager for information about sample kits and the timing of MPW runs.

WIN Semiconductors Corp. will be showcasing its compound semiconductor RF and mmWave solutions in booth #531 at the 2024 International Microwave Symposium being held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, June 16th through June 21st.