Microwave Engineering Europe - March 2008 - (Page 4)

4 NEWS By JP Joosting, Microwave Engineering Europe IN BRIEF Laird acquires Ezurio to boost M2M portfolio Laird Technologies Inc. has announced that it has acquired Ezurio Ltd., a privately-held company and supplier of Bluetooth and 802.11 (WiFi) embedded RF modules, as well as M2M (Machine-toMachine) solutions for wireless data communication applications serving the retail, automotive, health care, and other market segments including EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale). The acquisition of Ezurio aims to enhance Laird Technologies’ position in the supply of customized wireless communications systems for customers who want their products to communicate wirelessly but do not have an internal wireless development group. Ezurio’s sales revenues in the 12 months ending 31 December 2007, were approximately $8 million — an increase of 24 percent over the same period in 2006. www.mwee.com/206800292 First LTE basestation reference design from picoChip, mimoOn partnership A collaboration between picoChip and mimoOn is set to deliver the ﬁrst complete LTE (Long Term Evolution) basestation reference design. The PC86xx family of LTE reference designs cover the full range of eNode Bs from femtocells to multi-sector macrocells and is supported on the same common hardware platforms as picoChip’s WiMAX products. The system and its MIMO capabilities were recently demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona. LTE is the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) 4G architecture and has been designed to improve the UMTS mobile phone standard to cope with future requirements. These include improving efﬁciency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum opportunities, and better integration with other open standards. LTE has signiﬁcant commonality with WiMAX, both being based on OFDMA in the downlink, all-IP architecture together with MIMO and adaptive antenna systems (AAS). The PC86xx builds on picoChip’s success as the industry-standard WiMAX reference design, and both standards run on the same common hardware (picoChip PHY plus Wintegra MAC) platforms. “The cellular world playing ﬁeld has opened up with the transition to 4G and the battle lines for suppliers have never been more complex. Cellular giants have accelerated LTE at breakneck speed to shut out competing OFDM formats,” said Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Research. “But WiMAX has shown how new entrants have become credible suppliers even to top tier operators. Some had believed LTE would be less open, but the introduction of such a reference design and common platform will enable many competitors. The industry aristocrats need be concerned — the revolution has begun.” The PC86xx LTE design runs on the same picoChip and Wintegra hardware platforms as the companies’ industry standard WiMAX basestation reference designs. As in WiMAX, the family includes PHY and MAC and scales from singlechip femtocell access points (‘Home eNode B’) to sophisticated multi-sector carrier macrocells from 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz. Both TDD and FDD modes are supported. www.mwee.com/206104685 Drop-in modules ease ISM-band design Nordic Semiconductor and RF Digital have teamed up on a range of ISMband modules that have been preapproved by regulatory agencies (FCC and IC). The modules are intended for ultra-low power applications that might, for example, utilize a buttoncell battery. The drop-in modules make it possible for designers without RF expertise to build an Ultra-Low Power (ULP) ISM-band wireless link into a product or application within hours. The modules were developed by RF Digital based on a reference design and ﬁve Nordic Semiconductor ULP transceivers. Because all the RF development work has been done, they only require a digital I/O, power (+V) and ground (GND) connection. The modules work in almost any operating environment or product design with the exception of sealed metal enclosures — as the container itself shields to RF. www.mwee.com/206800292 Skyworks increases shipments of GPRS front-end modules for SoC applications Skyworks Solutions has expanded its position in (GPRS) front-end modules (FEMs) through strategic engagements with leading system on chip (SoC) providers. To date, Skyworks has shipped more than 750 million GPRS power ampliﬁers (PAs) and FEMs, supporting increasing demand for entry-level handsets in emerging markets. Part of Skyworks’ InteraLite™ portfolio of solutions, the low cost and small-form factor FEMs are now in volume production with several leading SOC providers including Inﬁneon, MediaTek, Texas Instruments and NXP Semiconductors. Integrating a PA, PA controller and a switch, the FEMs leverage the company’s advanced manufacturing techniques to reduce the radio frequency (RF) footprint and overall bill-of-materials — two key challenges original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) face when designing low-cost phones. In emerging markets, both consumers and operators require handsets that are inexpensive, yet meet or exceed speciﬁc requirements for size, quality and reliability. Given its high-power efﬁciency, these solutions also maintain overall thermal performance and improve battery life. The InteraLite Portfolio is led by three key devices. The SKY77318 module is designed for quad-band cellular GSM850/900, DCS1800 and PCS1900 handset applications, while the SKY77518 is a Tx-Rx FEM with integrated PA control (iPAC™) for dual-band cellular handsets comprising GSM900 and DCS1900 operation. Both solutions support GPRS multi-slot operation. The SKY77531, now in volume production, is a high-power efﬁciency Tx-Rx quad-band FEM with iPAC that contains a quad-band gallium arsenide (GaAs) heterojunction bipolar (HBT) PA, a 1P6T switch to enable ﬂexible phone layout, and an integrated complementary metaloxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based controller to manage the PA and switch. In addition, Skyworks’ family of Intera™ and InteraLite FEMs and PAs support all key air interfaces and market segments, expanding the company’s highly successful GPRS, EDGE, CDMA and WCDMA product portfolio. www.mwee.com/206800227 Microwave Engineering Europe ● March 2008 ● www.mwee.com 004_MWEE.indd 4 22/02/08 12:04:07 http://www.mwee.com/206800292 http://www.mwee.com/206104685 http://www.mwee.com/206800292 http://www.mwee.com/206800227 http://www.mwee.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Microwave Engineering Europe - March 2008

Microwave Engineering Europe - March 2008 News Contents Comment Wireless Infrastructure: A Direct Conversion I/Q Demodulatordrives Favorable Basestation Cost-performance Metrics Wireless Infrastructure: Mobile World Set to Reshape the Internet RF Amplifiers: Latest Advances in RF Amplifiers Include a CMOS PA Operating at 77 GHz and Significant Advances in PAs for WiMAX and Broadband Applications Many Applications Still Require Unique Performance Benefits of BeO ACE Automated Circuit Extraction Returns to Real Design by Exploring Design Alternatives and Changes in Seconds Exceeding the Standard for Wireless Sensor Networks Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - March 2008

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