(Invited) SiGe Applications in Automotive Radars

An overview of the SiGe technologies used at Infineon Technologies for radar applications will be given. The production of bare-die chips started in 2009 using the bipolar technology B7HF200. Since 2012 packaged MMICs in an embedded wafer level ball grid array (eWLB) are available. Process challenges and solutions for radar chips in an eWLB package are presented. Examples of commercial SiGe radar chips in production are shown. Furthermore Infineon’s next generation BiCMOS technology B11HFC with fT of 250 GHz and fmax of 370 GHz is described. In addition, significant improvements of the cut-off frequencies can be achieved by replacing the currently used double-poly self-aligned configuration by a more advanced SiGe HBT architecture like IHP’s transistor module with selective base link epitaxy. The capability of this transistor cell for future BiCMOS generations was demonstrated by integrating it into Infineon’s 130 nm CMOS process. A transistor performance with fmax of 500 GHz was achieved.