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Freescale slims RF chipset with SiGe-GaAs blend

Motorola's chip manufacturing spin-off says that its latest RF subsystem slashes both component count and board space for high-end handsets.

Freescale Semiconductor says that its latest RF subsystem will usher in a new breed of high-end cell phone designs.

The Austin, TX, company, which was spun out of its parent company Motorola last year, claims to have reduced the number of components required from over 100 to around 35. The multimode subsystem also takes up 70% less board space than previous solutions, it says.

In all the subsystem comprises four components: a tri-band W-CDMA transceiver; a W-CDMA integrated power amplifier (PA) module with power detection; a quad-band GSM/EDGE transceiver; and a GSM/EDGE PA module with power control.

Freescale told Compoundsemiconductor.net that the GSM/EDGE PA module uses multiple processes on separate ICs. "We are using SiGe as drivers and GaAs for the final power amplifiers," said the company.

It adds that its customers are already planning to implement the new chipset in their high-end phones featuring music players, GPS and digital cameras. Volume production of the subsystem is expected to begin in the third quarter.

Will Strauss from the market research firm Forward Concepts expects the W-CDMA/EDGE multimode handset market to grow 168% this year with a unit sales volume of nearly 50 million.

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