Xanoptix Inc. (Merrimack, NH), an innovator of high-performance components for next-generation data communications and computing equipment, announced the development of a wafer-scale manufacturing process for the three-dimensional stacking of silicon and compound semiconductors. The company's hybrid integrated circuit technology creates devices that combine silicon chip designs with semiconductor materials, and the new technology creates components with lower cost and power consumption, improved high-frequency performance, and greater packaging density.
Xanoptix's process integrates thousands of devices in silicon or compound materials (such as GaAs- or InP-based lasers, detectors, and transistors) with a third-party silicon IC (such as transceivers, network processors and DRAMs). The silicon may be fabbed in any conventional silicon foundry. A series of integration and post-processing steps ensures the proper attachment of the stacked materials.
"Creating three-dimensional, stacked structures from silicon or compound semiconductors through a highly manufacturable process is of great commercial importance," stated James Norrod, chief executive officer of Xanoptix. "It allows the use of low-cost chip technology and mainstream silicon designs for applications that up to this point, relied on expensive specialty processes."
