New Generation of UltraCMOS Technology Delivers Significant First Step in Solving the Challenges Encountered in RF Front-End Integration Design
SAN DIEGO – Oct. 29, 2013 – Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: PSMI), founder of RF SOI (silicon on insulator) and pioneer of advanced RF solutions, announces the UltraCMOS 10 platform, the newest advancement in Peregrine’s UltraCMOS technology. UltraCMOS 10 RF SOI delivers both flexibility and unparalleled performance for addressing the ever-increasing challenges of RF front-end design. It offers the performance of UltraCMOS technology with the economies of SOI, and it delivers a more than 50-percent performance improvement over comparable solutions.
Peregrine’s versatile, new 130 nm UltraCMOS 10 technology delivers the support needed for the latest generation of LTE-Advanced smartphones and, for the first time, will allow the company to deliver cost-competitive products for 3G smartphones.
Peregrine is enhancing a long-term relationship and leveraging a new one for the UltraCMOS 10 introduction – Soitec’s breakthrough semiconductor materials coupled with tier-one fab GLOBALFOUNDARIES’ custom fabrication flow. Paul Boudre, COO at Soitec says, “We are very pleased that Soitec’s revolutionary-engineered semiconductor materials support Peregrine’s next-generation UltraCMOS 10 technology.”
Ajit Manocha, CEO at GLOBALFOUNDRIES describes the collaboration with Peregrine as follows: “GLOBALFOUNDRIES seeks partnerships with leaders in their market categories, and we are delighted the opportunity arose to work with Peregrine Semiconductor. Together, we co- developed a custom flow to help make Peregrine’s new UltraCMOS 10 generation a truly cutting-edge advance in RF SOI.”
Smartphone manufacturers face a number of tough design challenges, including balancing performance requirements with cost and maintaining consumers’ signal quality and data-rate speeds despite the increasing number of frequency bands and volume of data. Mobile Experts’ Principal Analyst of Radio Access and RF Semiconductors Joe Madden offers his perspective on the challenges and growth curve of the smartphone market by stating, “The iPhone 5S has more than double the frequency bands than the iPhone 5, and this is just one example of how dramatically the requirements for smartphone components are increasing. LTE units are expected to grow from 150 million in 2012 to 1.2 billion in 2018 (42 percent CAGR).” Peregrine’s UltraCMOS 10 technology will outpace these increasing performance needs so consumers will continue to see improved connectivity.
The UltraCMOS 10 130 nm generation delivers the industry’s best RON COFF performance and enables improved performance and scaling. The RON COFF figure of merit is a ratio of how much loss occurs when a radio signal goes through a switch in its ON state (RON, or on-resistance) and how much the radio signal leaks through the capacitor in its OFF state (COFF, or off capacitance). The RON COFF performance metric for UltraCMOS 10 technology is 113 fsec. This is a five-fold improvement over the first generation released by Peregrine 10 years ago. It represents Peregrine’s expertise in using best-in-class engineering methodologies and materials to lower insertion loss without sacrificing isolation performance. In addition to improved RON COFF performance, UltraCMOS 10 platform leverages Peregrine’s patented design technology, which delivers linearity of more than 75 dBm at 900 MHz and equates to higher data rates and improved co-existence for consumers.
Jim Cable, CEO at Peregrine Semiconductor, sums up Peregrine’s latest milestone as follows: “Peregrine is applying 25 years of RF SOI knowledge to deliver the market’s highest level of integration for RF front-end design capability. UltraCMOS 10 technology offers the industry’s highest performance at a competitive cost. The platform reinforces Peregrine’s commitment to continual innovation and honors our legacy of delivering the very best solutions for our customers.”
USE OF FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our management’s future expectations, beliefs, intentions, goals, strategies, plans and prospects. Such statements constitute “forward-looking” statements which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The achievement of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results, performance or achievements could be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward- looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our dependence on a limited number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenues; intellectual property risks; intense competition in our industry; our ability to develop and introduce new and enhanced products on a timely basis and achieve market acceptance of those products; consumer acceptance of our customers’ products that incorporate our solutions; our lack of long-term supply contracts and dependence on limited sources of supply; and potential decreases in average selling prices for our products.
For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Peregrine’s business, please refer to the filings that we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including those set forth in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 29, 2012, which should be read in conjunction with these financial results. These documents are available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Relations section of our website at http://investors.psemi.com/. Please also note that forward-looking statements represent our management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information, becomes available in the future.
ABOUT PEREGRINE SEMICONDUCTOR
Peregrine Semiconductor (NASDAQ: PSMI), founder of RF SOI (silicon on insulator), is a leading fabless provider of high-performance, integrated RF solutions. Since 1988 Peregrine has been perfecting UltraCMOS® technology – a patented, advanced form of SOI – to deliver the performance edge needed to solve the RF market’s biggest challenges, such as linearity. With products that deliver best-in-class performance and monolithic integration, Peregrine is the trusted choice for market leaders in automotive, broadband, industrial, Internet of Things, military, mobile devices, smartphones, space, test-and- measurement equipment and wireless infrastructure. Peregrine holds more than 150 filed and pending patents and has shipped 2 billion UltraCMOS units. For more information, visit https://psemi.com.
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