News Article
RFMD 3G/4G products power the latest smartphones
RFMD says its PowerSmart power platform and RF724x modules deliver unmatched performance in next-generation smartphones.
RF Micro Devices has commenced volume production of multiple 3G/4G power amplifiers (PAs) in support of two leading smartphone families.
The two most recent smartphones are supported by RFMD's PowerSmart power platform and the firm's RF724x family of ultra-high efficiency PAs.
The first smartphone, featuring RFMD's PowerSmart, is a stylish, all-touch handset featuring a brilliant 3.2" high resolution display, a 5MP camera with flash and video recording, and preinstalled social networking apps for a smoothly integrated mobile experience.
The second smartphone, featuring RFMD's RF7241, RF7242, RF7244, RF7245, and RF7258, is a powerful, full-featured smartphone with a high resolution touch display, a highly tactile keyboard, and a precise optical trackpad. The smartphone will be available in multiple triple-band 3G versions featuring RFMD's 3G/4G PAs exclusively. Both smartphones are manufactured by a leading North America-based smartphone manufacturer.
Eric Creviston, president of RFMD's Cellular Products Group (CPG), said, "RFMD's industry-leading 3G/4G products continue to gain design momentum with the world's leading smartphone manufacturers. Similar to calendar 2011, we believe RFMD will be a clear share gainer during calendar 2012, not only in UMTS/HSPA+, but also in 4G LTE."
RFMD claims its RF724x UMTS/HSPA+ PAs are ultra-high efficiency, single-mode 3G/4G components that reset the bar for performance in smartphones, tablets, and other high-performance data-centric connected devices.
The RF724x PAs deliver peak efficiencies of 48% - 51%. RFMD says this is significantly above current competitive offerings. The product family currently covers WCDMA bands 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8, addressing the most common UMTS/HSPA+ frequency bands and band combinations.
RFMD's PowerSmart power platform is a new product category reshaping the future of multimode, multi-band cellular RF architectures. PowerSmart features a revolutionary new RF Configurable Power Core that delivers multiband, multi-mode coverage of all cellular communications modulation schemes, including GSM/GPRS, EDGE, EDGE Evolution, CDMA, 3G (TD-SCDMA or WCDMA) and 4G (HSPA+, LTE or WiMAX). The RF Configurable Power Core in PowerSmart is compliant with all current and known future 4G data standards (HSPA+, LTE QPSK, LTE 16QAM, and LTE 64QAM).
In addition to the RF Configurable Power Core, which performs all power amplification and power management functionality the PowerSmart power platform includes all necessary switching and signal conditioning functionality in a compact reference design, providing smartphone manufacturers a single scalable source for the entire cellular front end.
RFMD offers a broad portfolio of 3G/4G solutions in single-mode and multimode converged and hybrid architectures to ensure compatibility with leading chipset providers and enable global platform manufacturing. RFMD's 3G/4G product portfolio reduces the thermal impact of data usage in smartphones while enabling increased battery life during data-based applications, such as web surfing, video calls and internet radio services.
