Skyworks launches first dime-sized handset radio
Skyworks says that the radio system and packaging breakthrough saves handset designers significant space, cost and design-cycle time while providing a roadmap for quad-band and 3G handsets in the future.
"As one of our highest-priority product development areas, this radio-in-a-package solution exemplifies the synergy created from the merger of Alpha Industries and Conexant s wireless business," said David Aldrich, Skyworks president and CEO.
"Skyworks is leading the way in support of our customers drive towards simplified handset architectures, smaller form factors, shorter product life cycles and lower system costs," said Mohy Abdelgany, VP of RF Systems. "At the same time, we re creating a significant opportunity for Skyworks to capture additional semiconductor content within the handset, and gain market share by virtue of our strong product differentiation."
The Single Package Radio solution combines a transceiver, power amplifier and associated controller, two surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters, and a switchplexer module that includes switches and low-pass filters in a compact 40-pin 13 x 13 mm laminate multi-chip module (MCM) package with excellent insulation properties.
Until now, handset manufacturers had to combine discrete components in an area three times the size, while also resolving difficult board- and circuit-level RF design issues and bearing the costs of shielding, insertion/assembly and other discrete-component integration tasks.
The SKY74073 s package significantly reduces these and other design and engineering costs, as well as the three to five RF-board design turns that are typically required over as many as eight to nine months in design-cycle time.
Skyworks uses the same wafer-level testing and packaging technology for the SKY74073 product that it has used to produce and ship more than 200 million PA modules to date and more than 300 million switches each year.
At the heart of Skyworks SKY74073 is the company s award-winning Full Type-approved (FTA) single-chip direct conversion transceiver technology, which is included in more than 50 mobile platform designs. The transceiver s direct conversion architecture eliminates costly intermediate-frequency (IF) conversion steps while reducing the number of components required to support multi-band GSM/GPRS handsets and agile channel switching enables support of GPRS multi-slot operation.
PA functionality is provided by a proven Skyworks module that incorporates an EGSM900 PA block, a DCS1800/PCS1900 PA block, impedance-matching circuitry for 50 ohm input and output and bias control circuitry. Two separate HBT PA blocks are fabricated on a single GaAs die to provide maximum performance in the smallest possible footprint.
The SKY74073 is sampling now with volume production scheduled to take place in the third calendar quarter of 2003. The module is priced at $12.95 in quantities of 10,000.
