Agere demonstrates circuitry with 90 nm low-k technology
Agere manufactured the SerDes technology at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Agere tested and validated the capability of the SerDes sub-blocks to meet the performance required for 12 Gbits/s in both NRZ and PAM-4 encoding configurations, allowing customers to choose the optimum configuration based on their system requirements for existing and new applications.
Agere is one of a few companies successfully implementing new chips based on the industry's process technology from TSMC based on 90 nanometers and low k. Agere and TSMC have done extensive research to prove the reliability of low-k dielectrics for use in advanced integrated circuits, thereby solving a problem vexing the industry for several years. This year, Agere's DSP16411 was the first communications chip mass-produced using a low-k dielectric, which provided a higher level of performance than competing chips.
