May 20, 2025 By Alex Margomenos Director, RF Product Management at GlobalFoundries Providing broadband and cellular connectivity from space has become feasible due to advancements in rocket engineering, satellite technology, and RF semiconductors. Through these advancements and innovations, we are now able to build sufficient satellite constellations and offer affordable ground terminals to support seamless global communications networks with reliable connectivity. When designing a SATCOM ground terminal, the goal is to receive the signal from space at a quality that allows the demodulation of the received data. This specification is quantified by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is influenced by the power and bandwidth of the transmitted signal from the satellite, the altitude of its orbit, and the receiver gain over noise temperature (G/T). Among these factors, the G/T ratio is the only parameter that can be controlled by the ground terminal designer. In this context, the gain (G) in the numerator is determined by the area of the phased array, which correlates to the number of phased array elements. The noise temperature (T) in the denominator is determined by the noise figure (NF) of the low noise amplifiers (LNA). By decreasing the NF of the LNA, a designer can reduce the gain of the phased array while maintaining the same SNR (keeping G/T constant). Consequently, lowering the NF directly decreases the required number of phased array elements. Each 0.1 dB improvement in NF results in a 5% reduction in the number of phased array elements. Fewer antenna elements require fewer chips, emphasizing the significant impact of selecting the appropriate technology with the suitable NF on the overall cost of a ground terminal. GlobalFoundries provides three, US-manufactured RF process technologies for SATCOM front-ends and beamformers, ranked by digital density: 45RFSOI, 45RFE, and 130NSX. 45RFSOI is a partially depleted RF SOI technology developed for mmWave phased arrays with 40nm logic. The platform offers matched, high performance nFET/pFET regular Vt (RVT) devices (ft/fmax of 290/330GHz and 245/300GHz respectively) and an advanced nFET (ADNFET) with ft/fmax of 230/400GHz and a 20% increase in maximum voltage compared to RVT devices [Jain 2021]. It comes with a full suite of passive devices (capacitors, resistors, diodes, ESD, eFuse) as well as SRAM. Finally, it provides three back end of the line metal stacks and supports dual thick Cu and thick Al for very high Q inductors. During the last decade, our customers, university partners, and internal reference designers have published over 300 papers on 45RFSOI circuits. Some recent examples include Ka-, Q- and D- band beamformers [Baek 2025, Ren 2024, Ahmed 2024, Khalil 2021], 1.3dB NF Ku-band LNA [Kanar 2023], 27dBm/44% PAE Ku-band PA [Alluri 2024], 19dBm/48% PAE Ka-band PA [Syed 2020], 20dBm/38% PAE Doherty Ka-band PA [Ibrahim 2025], and a high linearity Ku-band mixer [Hassan 2025]. 45RFE is a partially depleted RF SOI on a high resistivity substrate, offering two gate dielectrics for optimal RF performance, high voltage support, and low leakage. It includes three types of nFETs: RVT, ADNFET, and DGADNFET, with increasing voltage handling capabilities. The platform supports passive devices such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, ESD, and eFuse. An 8-metal layer stack with 2 thick copper layers enables high Q-passives. GF announced this technology in 2024 [Jain 2024], highlighting 1.3dB LNA and 21dBm/44% PAE PA at Ka band. 130NSX is a bulk CMOS technology on high resistivity substrate. It offers thin oxide devices for LNA applications that have demonstrated excellent performance at Ku/Ka frequency bands. It includes thick oxide digital logic, passives (capacitors, resistors, ESD, eFuse) and different back end of the line metal stacks with thick copper and aluminum that enable high Q inductors. GF’s reference design team has published a series of circuit examples showcasing the excellent performance of 130NSX for SATCOM applications. These include a 0.95dB NF LNA at Ku band [Das 2024], a 1.2dB NF LNA at Ka band [Kakara 2024], and a 16dBm / 50% PAE PA at Ku band [Bantupalli 2024]. If you would like to learn more about GF’s differentiated RF and ultra-low power CMOS portfolio for SATCOM applications, we invite you to visit our booth (#149) at the upcoming 2025 International Microwave Symposium (IMS), happening June 17-19 in San Francisco, CA. We look forward to connecting with you and discussing how GF can support your next-gen innovations. Alex Margomenos oversees the product management of the RF Product Line at GlobalFoundries. The RF Product Line encompasses RFSOI, RF GaN, and SiGe technologies, which support cellular RF front-ends, satellite communications, aerospace and defense, and cellular infrastructure. He has been with GlobalFoundries for four years. Previously, he held managerial and individual contributor positions at Apple, Intel, Infineon, and HRL Laboratories.
