Flip-chip High-throw antenna switches enable 40% size reduction in front-end modules
San Diego, California, June 5, 2007 — Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation, a supplier of the industry’s most advanced RF CMOS and mixed-signal communications ICs, has advanced its highly successful RF switch line for quad-band GSM and GSM/WCDMA handset applications by introducing RFICs utilizing advanced chip scale packaging. The HaRP™-enhanced PE42632 SP6T and the PE42674 SP7T flip-chip devices enable 40% size reduction in front end modules by eliminating the area consumed by wire bonds.
PE42674 is the world’s first flip-chip monolithic SP7T WEDGE switch with on-board CMOS decoder. This highly integrated solution simplifies and lowers the cost of RF designs by eliminating up to 20 wire bonds and reducing overall footprint with a single die placement. It offers one WEDGE-compliant port (TX1), two GSM/EDGE TX ports, and four RX ports. The device shatters RF performance of competitive solutions by offering exceptional linearity (2fo of -85 dBc and 3fo of -79 dBc); IIP3 of +67 dBm; TX-RX isolation of 38.5 dB (900 MHz); 0.65 dB insertion loss (900 MHz); and IMD3 of -109 dBm.
“The robust mechanical strength of sapphire, the base substrate used for UltraCMOS, allows Peregrine to offer low-cost chip scale packaging,” stated Rodd Novak, vice president of marketing and business development for Peregrine. “It enables our customers to continue to advance their product roadmaps by greatly reducing the area needed to implement the switch function as well as lowering their overall production costs,” he added.
The PE42632 SP6T switch also delivers excellent performance: low harmonics (2fo of -90 dBc and 3fo of -82 dBc); TX-RX Isolation of 38 dB (900 MHz) and 31 dB (1900 MHz); P1dB compression point of 41 dBm; and 0.55 dB of insertion loss at 900 MHz.
Both devices feature world-class 1.5 KV ESD tolerance on all ports, 2.75 V operating voltage and ultra-low power consumption, while on-chip CMOS decode logic facilitates both 1.8 V and 2.75 V three-pin CMOS control inputs. No blocking capacitors and on-chip SAW filter over-voltage protection devices ensure ease- of-integration.
The PE42674 is priced at $0.70 ea. (10K units) and the PE42632 is priced at $0.60 ea. (10K units). The devices are in volume production and are available in die form from Peregrine.
About UltraCMOS™ Technology and the HaRP™ Technology Invention
UltraCMOS™ mixed-signal process technology is a proprietary, patented variation of silicon-on insulator (SOI) technology on a sapphire substrate providing with high yields and competitive costs. It combines the RF, mixed-signal, and digital capabilities of any other CMOS process, yet tolerates the high power required for high-performance wireless applications. The Company’s revolutionary HaRP™ technology enables dramatic improvements in harmonic results, linearity and overall RF performance; specifications required by the 3GPP standards body for GSM/WCDMA applications which are unmatched in the industry. In particular, long-awaited accomplishments in Intermodulation Distortion (IMD) handling are now available monolithically to multi-band front-end module and handset manufacturers. These significant performance advantages exist over competing processes such as GaAs, SiGe, BiCMOS and bulk silicon CMOS in applications where RF performance, low power and integration are paramount.
About Peregrine Semiconductor
Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets high-performance communications RF ICs for the wireless infrastructure and mobile wireless; broadband CATV/DTV; communications infrastructure; and aerospace and avionics markets. Manufactured on the Company’s proprietary UltraCMOS™ mixed-signal process technology, Peregrine products are uniquely poised to meet the needs of a global RF design community in high-growth applications such as WCDMA, EDGE and GSM digital cellular, broadband, DTV, DVR and rad-hard space and defense programs. Peregrine UltraCMOS devices are manufactured in its CMOS facility located in Sydney, Australia and in Tokyo, Japan through an alliance with OKI Electric Industry Co., Ltd. The Company, headquartered in San Diego, California, maintains global sales support operations and a worldwide technical distribution network. Additional information is available on the web at psemi.com. Contact Peregrine’s worldwide distribution partner, Richardson Electronics (NASDAQ: RELL), for sales information at 1-800-737-6937.
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