TriQuint Optoelectronics Fab, Matamoros

TriQuint Semiconductor is increasing capacity at its Matamoros fab in Mexico for optoelectronic components and modules. The company has released few details yet, but confirms that expansion will double the manufacturing space from 2,000m² to 4,000m². Work on the expansion began in January 2003 and completion is expected in July 2003. The facility will employ around 200 people.

Matamoros is TriQuint’s primary location for assembling and testing its optical transmitters, receivers, transceivers and transponders. The expansion will add the manufacturing of optical engines for 2.5Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s to address TriQuint’s internal need for optical transceivers and transponder modules, as well as supplying the OEM market.

AIMS AT NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

As cellular handsets become smaller and retail prices continue to plunge, RFICs can replace the 20 to 30 discrete devices of earlier analog cellular phone generations. TriQuint produces transmit and receiver ICs and modules, power amplifiers, switches, filters and up/down converters.

New services such as Multimedia on the Internet and the continuously increasing demand for broadband connections like DSL and Cable Modem all require higher bandwidth. TriQuint makes the high-speed data communication devices needed in these systems.

TriQuint’s telecom products including lasers, transmitters, receivers and transponders hence concentrate on DWDM, SONET, SDH and ATM, while data products like SFF/SFP transceivers, XFP and X2 go into applications such as Fibre Channel, ESCON and Gigabit Ethernet.

10 GBIT/S OPTICAL

A strength of TriQuint is its ability to manufacture and integrate the optical receive and transmit engines with electronic drivers, multiplexers and clock circuits, and in turn place these into transceivers and transponders. TriQuint’s internal supply of ICs, optoelectronics engines and its design expertise enables the optimisation of critical parameters such as power dissipation and jitter. TriQuint’s modules hence provide optical interface solutions to industry standard overhead processor/cell mapping IC devices.

Standard product offerings include 622Mbit/s, and 2.5Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s devices for MSPs, cross-connects, switches, hubs and routers, and servers.

NEW TELECOM/DATACOM PRODUCTS FOR MATAMOROS

Matamoros will be producing TriQuint’s transponders, transceivers, transmitters and receivers. Transponders include 10 Gb/s versions for SONET/SDH, 10Gb Ethernet and 10G Fiber Channel, and there are pluggable 10Gb/s transceivers for the 10Gb/s modules. The uncooled lasers and transmitter modules work in Metro and Access applications. TriQuint offers both Fabry-Perot and DFB solutions, including 1.5µm DFB products for reaches up to 85km at 2.5Gb/s.

Along with the fab expansion, TriQuint also announced the availability of new product samples that will be produced there. The devices are part of the company’s Netlight® Transceiver small form factor/small form pluggable (SFF/SFP) line. They now cover all applications of SONET/SDH, GbE and Fiber Channel. Also made in Matamoros are the optical transmit and receive engines to support all reach distance versions of XFP transceiver and X2 transponder modules.

Typical of the Netlight® family are the NLP12 transceivers, which aim at 1.25Gbit/s Gigabit Ethernet 1000BASE-LX and 1000BASE-SX applications. The transmitter has a 1,300nm FP (1000BASE-LX version) or 850nm VCSEL (1000BASE-SX version) laser transmitter with automatic output control. It has ac-coupled differential data inputs, with LVTTL logic level disable input and transmitter fault indicator output. The receiver likewise has ac-coupled differential data outputs and LVTTL loss-of-signal output. Diagnostic monitoring is compliant to SFF-8472. The devices take 3.3V and have a hot pluggable electrical interface. TriQuint’s transceiver housings are metal for best EMI performance.

The latest additions to the Netlight series are also being made at Matamoros. The NLP3 series has Gigabit Ethernet transceivers working up to 120km, SONET/SDH OC-3, OC-12 and OC-48 transceivers up to 80km and Fibre Channel transceivers.

SAW PRODUCTION ALSO RISING

TriQuint makes its own optical components, chips, and transceiver modules, and also provides foundry services for developing custom ASICs. These services are also being expanded with the new manufacturing facility, and TriQuint is likewise increasing production in its other Divisions. In early 2003, for example, the company completed a test facility for its SAW devices in Tianjin, China.

SAW components go into wireless handsets and infrastructure, working from 30MHz to nearly 3GHz for telecommunications, cellular, modem, wireless data transmission, radar, cordless phones, cable television, and other signal processing applications. Devices include bandpass filters, low-loss and high-selectivity filters, resonator filters, oscillators, ID tags, and SAW-based subsystems. The SAW components are designed and produced in TriQuint’s Orlando, Florida division headquarters as well as its test and assembly facility in San José, Costa Rica.

RF/IF AND OPTICAL COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCTS

TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. is headquartered at Hillsboro, Oregon (USA), and supplies communications products, particularly for RF/IF and optical applications. Markets include wireless phones, base stations, optical networks, broadband and microwave equipment. TriQuint provides standard and custom products and foundry services, based on GaAs, InP, SiGe and SAW (surface acoustic wave) processes.

Manufacturing facilities are located in Oregon, Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida, production assembly plants in Costa Rica and Mexico, and design centers in New England and Germany.