SOI Reduces Dynamic Power, Wafer Costs Coming Down

摘要

Soitec (Grenoble, France) is pushing to cut the cost of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, particularly for ICs used in mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and smart phones.rnAlthough servers and other high-performance systems have been able to bear the cost of SOI wafers, companies making price-sensitive mobile systems thus far have avoided SOI technology on cost grounds, for the most part. "Our cost structure is already achieving the target we believe is the right one to penetrate the mobilernmarket," said Jocelyne Wasselin, director of marketing and business development at Soitec. Customers can anticipate seeing volume wafer prices in the $500 range, she said, down sharply from two years ago when Soitec was quoting -$800 price levels. Soitec has a high-volume 300 mm SOI wafer plant in operation, and is counting on lower prices to stimulate volume use in the mobile space.