Mobile data networks are facing challenges when it comes to managing the amount of data that is being created by consumers around the world. Telecoms are using Wi-Fi hotspots, white space and any other resource available to them to avoid communication bottlenecks. However, the popularity of mobile devices and increasing availability of broadband technology is making this very difficult. A new solution that is ready for application is the 9HP silicon germanium (SiGe) chip technology from IBM.

This technology has been responsible for driving several different types of wireless applications, including Wi-Fi radios, high-speed optical links and satellite global positioning systems, by providing faster and more power-efficient components. The new 9HP will give carriers a tool to move data through their networks using different transmission technologies such as LTE (News - Alert) cellular, Wi-Fi, wireless backhaul and high-speed optical communications.

Previous generations of SiGe technology, such as 7HP and 8HP, are the reason service providers are able to keep up with the large volumes of data being created by mobile devices. Silicon germanium helped create a lower cost and higher performance technology for manufacturing wireless equipment.

The benefit of SiGe is that it did not require expensive shrinkage when the chips were being manufactured, keeping the cost low while providing high performance. The persistence of IBM’s (News - Alert) Dr. Bernard Meyerson and David Harame is what has led to the current evolution of SiGe chips. This journey began with an accidental discovery when Meyerson unintentionally dropped a one-inch piece of silicon he’d just cleaned in hydrofluoric acid while he was a doctoral student at the City College of New York. That protective layer would be the catalyst for creating the SiGe chips.

“That was the epiphany,” explains Meyerson. “The layer that everybody thought you had to remove didn’t exist until you actually formed it on your way up to 1000°C. Simply growing materials below 600°C avoided the whole problem. It was the most bizarre finding I've ever had, but it also gave us a 10-year head start on the rest of the world because nobody understood the effect, so away we went.”

This head start gave IBM a lead that it has not relinquished in silicon germanium technology.