When disintegration is a good thing

EDN technical editor Paul Rako is working on a January cover story on what he calls disintegration–not stuff falling apart, but rather the idea that it’s not always a good idea to cram more and more into a single IC.As Paul puts it, “There has been a historical tradition in electronics to integrate as many functions as possible into one chip,” but his article looks at cases where “dis-integrating chips” is preferable. He goes on, “Situations include where processes other than fine-line CMOS are needed for analog performance, or where the penalty to the CMOS chip far exceeds any cost advantage of integration.” In addition, he says, if you face challenges relating to transmission-line problems from a main chip, a peripheral chip can make sense. Specific examples that can benefit from disintegration, he says, include analog signal-processing chips, equalizers, analog front ends, high-performance analog functions, SAW filters, ESD protected interface chips, and FET drivers.

Last year, I wrote about EPCOS and its SAW filter technology (see “RF modules pose tough test challenges“), which it combines with GaAs and other devices to form complete analog front-ends for multiband cell phones and other applications. And just yesterday I got a press release describing an impressive application that might fit into Paul’s definition of disintegration in Hittite Microwave’s HMC-C070 MicroSynth 5.5- to 10.5-GHz integrated broadband synthesizer. That module combines SiGe, GaAs pHEMT, and InGaP HBT technologies into a 1.36 x 0.75-in. hermetic package to deliver noise performance of -117 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz.

If you’ve got thoughts on integrated-circuit disintegration, visit Paul’s blog and drop him a note.