Jazz wins Magnolia deal to make SiGe chipsets
Magnolia Broadband, Inc., a fabless designer of RF chipsets for cell phones based in Clinton, NJ, has selected Jazz Semiconductor as its foundry partner to manufacture its flagship product, the SiGe-based DiversityPlus.
The new chipset is designed to exploit antenna diversity architectures in mobile terminals, and is said to extend cell phone battery life, while improving coverage, capacity and data rates of existing cellular networks.
Magnolia had previously used Jazz Semiconductor’s specialty SiGe BiCMOS manufacturing process technology to design DiversityPlus.
The chipset is initially targeted at wireless service providers using CDMA technology. However, Magnolia is planning to expand to other markets including W-CDMA, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max and EDGE. The company is currently shipping engineering samples, with full production slated for the second half of 2004.
"Jazz was selected as our foundry partner because of its leadership position in this industry and its expertise in RF and mixed signal process technology," said William Reinisch, Magnolia’s senior VP of operations and engineering.
"We were confident that Jazz could meet our aggressive schedule, cost and performance requirements while providing us with a comprehensive design platform and exceptional customer service."
Magnolia claims that DiversityPlus is the first chipset to improve both transmission and reception capabilities in mobile terminals using dual antenna inputs and outputs to create more robust signals through its diversity algorithm processing.
Cell phones using the product will have longer battery life and enable carriers to improve coverage and data throughput, as well as serve twice as many subscribers with the same infrastructure, it says.
"Jazz is pleased to partner with Magnolia to enable design and manufacture of innovative RF solutions that provide measurable advancements in the mobile handset," said Paul Kempf, Jazz Semiconductor’s chief marketing and technology officer.
