Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) Technology

Introduction

O. Kononchuk and B.-Y. Nguyen

After starting as a niche market, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology has now reached maturity. The technology first developed in the early1980s with rad-hard (military) and power applications. Wider SOI adoption began with high-performance computing applications within the integrated device manufacturer (IDM) community in the late 1990s. Currently SOI technology is challenging traditional CMOS technology based on bulk silicon wafers in all sectors of the market, including RF, analog, general purpose and ultra low power computing, photonics, memory, and MEMS. As an example, more than 60% of mobile devices and more than 80% of game consoles produced in ...