United Microelectronics Corporation announced the industry?s first 3D IC solution for RFSOI technology. Available on UMC?s 55nm RFSOI platform, the stacked silicon technology reduces die size by more than 45% without any degradation of radio frequency (RF) performance, enabling customers to efficiently integrate more RF components to address the greater bandwidth requirements of 5G. As mobile device manufacturers pack more frequency bands in newer generations of smartphones, the company?s 3D IC solution for RFSOI addresses the challenge of integrating more RF front-end modules (RF-FEM) - critical components in devices to transmit and receive data ?

in a device by vertically stacking dies to reduce surface area. RFSOI is the foundry process used for RF chips such as low noise amplifiers, switches, and antenna tuners. Utilizing wafer-to-wafer bonding technology, UMC?s 3D IC solution for RFSOI resolves the common issue of RF interference between stacked dies.

The company has received multiple patents for this process, which is now ready for production. UMC offers the most comprehensive RF front-end module IC solutions in the industry, catering to a broad range of applications including mobile, Wi-Fi, automotive, IoT, and satellite communications. With over 500 product tape-outs completed and more than 38 billion RFSOI chips shipped, UMC?s family of RFSOI solutions are available in 8-inch and 12-inch wafers, as well as in a variety of technology nodes from 130nm to 40nm.

In addition to RFSOI technologies, UMC?s 6-inch fab (Wavetek Microelectronics Corporation) offers compound semiconductor technologies gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) as well as RF filters to supplement the needs of RF-FEM applications.