Qorvo acquires Cavendish Kinetics
Company adds RF MEMs to its portfolio
RF firm Qorvo has announced that it has acquired Cavendish Kinetics (CK), a provider of high-performance RF MEMS technology for antenna tuning applications. CK company was founded in 1994 by Charles Smith, a professor in the Semiconductor Physics group at Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory.
The CK team will continue to develop RF MEMS technology for applications across Qorvo's product lines and transition the technology into high-volume manufacturing for mobile devices and other markets.
Eric Creviston, president of Qorvo mobile products said: "The addition of Cavendish Kinetics allows us to build on Qorvo's market leadership in antenna tuning. Several of the world's leading smartphone suppliers have validated significant improvements in antenna performance through lower losses and higher linearity delivered by CK's RF MEMS technology. Qorvo will build on the great work CK has done by optimising and scaling the technology and applying it to other applications like infrastructure and defence."
RF MEMS devices are used to tune both main and diversity smartphone antennas across low, mid and high bands, resulting in stronger signals and faster data rates. RF MEMS maximize performance through outstanding Q-factor, improved linearity and extremely low insertion losses, offering great potential for improving 4G and 5G system performance.
Qorvo has been a strategic investor in San Jose-based Cavendish Kinetics since 2015. Qorvo will provide additional details about the Cavendish Kinetics transaction during its fiscal 2020 second quarter earnings conference call.
