SHANGHAI, China and BEAVERTON, Ore., March 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) today announced its partnership with Cascade Microtech to provide Chinese RF design engineers immediate access to state-of-the-art RF wafer-level test services for the development of advanced RFICs (radio-frequency integrated circuits). SMIC has opened a new Design Service Open Lab in Shanghai to support mixed-signal RFIC development. Cascade Microtech and SMIC share the goal of offering open lab services to foster the development of advanced wireless RFICs in China.
"There are numerous challenges designers face when developing mixed-signal RFICs in higher frequencies at geometries below 90nm," said Lee Yang, Ph.D. and Fellow, SMIC Design Service, Shanghai. "We chose the combined Cascade Microtech and Agilent Technologies wafer prober test system to provide the Chinese design market with the world's best expertise for wafer-level metrology."
"By creating this design center specifically for mixed-signal RFICs, we will bring unprecedented knowledge and expertise to this very important and rapidly growing market," said Tariq Alam, director of Asia-Pacific operations, Cascade Microtech.
"We are pleased to work in collaboration with SMIC and Cascade Microtech to develop cutting-edge test services for China," said Kevin Pan, field engineer, Agilent Technologies, Electronic Measurement Group. "It is Agilent's strategic intent to work with the leading research entities in order to facilitate innovation."
With this collaboration, RF designers in greater China will have access to the latest wafer-level RF testing technology. The lab will be equipped with high-performance, high-frequency measurement instrumentation, including Cascade Microtech's S300 300mm probe station and M150 150mm probe station, plus state-of-the-art RF probes. The probe stations are coupled with Agilent Technologies' PNA Series E8363D vector network analyzer -- capable of handling 300mm wafers with frequencies up to 67 GHz. The lab will enable research groups to perform precise electrical measurements on ICs directly on-wafer and will be fully supported by applications personnel. As part of their joint effort, both companies will offer application training and workshops.
About SMIC
SMIC is one of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world and the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing service at 0.35um to 90 nanometers and finer line technologies. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, SMIC operates three 200mm fabs in Shanghai and one in Tianjin, and one 300mm fab in Beijing, the first of its kind in mainland China. SMIC has customer service and marketing offices in the U.S., Italy, and Japan as well as a representative office in Hong Kong. For additional information, please visit http://www.smics.com/
About Cascade Microtech
Cascade Microtech, Inc. is a worldwide leader in the precise electrical measurement and test of integrated circuits (ICs) and other small structures. For technology businesses and scientific institutions who need to evaluate small structures, Cascade Microtech delivers access to, and extraction of, electrical data from wafers, integrated circuits (ICs), IC packages, circuit boards and modules, MEMS, biological structures, electro- optic devices and more. Cascade Microtech's highly reliable production wafer test solutions provide the semiconductor industry with leading-edge probe cards that reduce manufacturing costs of complex semiconductors. Information about Cascade Microtech can be found on the Web at http://www.cascademicrotech.com/.
