Global 1, the Industry’s First Reconfigurable RF Front End, Enables a Single Platform Design and Supports TDD-LTE Networks
BEIJING – EDI CON 2014 – April 9, 2014 – Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: PSMI), founder of RF SOI (silicon on insulator) and pioneer of advanced RF solutions, today announces the Greater China debut of UltraCMOS Global 1, the industry’s first reconfigurable RF front-end (RFFE) system, at EDI CON 2014. By integrating all the components of the RFFE on a single chip, UltraCMOS Global 1 delivers one platform design – a single, global SKU – that operates in all regions worldwide. The system includes the industry’s first LTE CMOS power amplifier (PA) to meet the performance of gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology. The UltraCMOS Global 1 PA offers a high- band PA path that supports China’s recently licensed TDD-LTE technology networks.
UltraCMOS Global 1 Is a Reconfigurable System
The rapidly growing LTE device market has put unprecedented demands on the performance of the RFFE. To support more than 40 frequency bands and a more than 5,000-fold increase in the number of possible operating states, a reconfigurable and tunable RFFE is now an industry requirement. Peregrine’s UltraCMOS Global 1 provides easy-to-use digitally controlled adaptation across modes and bands, high isolation to solve interoperability issues and scalability to easily support higher band counts with low-loss switching and tunability. This level of reconfigurability is available exclusively on Peregrine’s UltraCMOS 10 technology platform, an advanced CMOS process that uses RF SOI substrates and delivers a 50-percent performance improvement over comparable solutions. Global 1 is fabricated on this advanced-technology platform.
On a single chip, Global 1 integrates Peregrine’s established, best-in-class RF switches and tuners seamlessly with a CMOS PA. The UltraCMOS Global 1 RFFE system includes:
- 3-path MMMB PA, post-PA switch, antenna switch and antenna tuner
- Support for envelope tracking
- Common RFFE MIPI interface
UltraCMOS Global 1 benefits the entire wireless ecosystem. Platform providers and OEMs can accelerate their time to market by creating a single platform design for global markets. Consumers can enjoy longer battery life, better reception, faster data rates and wider roaming range. Finally, wireless operators can reduce capital investments in their network with improved RFFE performance, resulting in better coverage and reductions in dropped calls.
The UltraCMOS Global 1 RFFE system will complete platform integration in 2014 and will be in volume production in late 2015.
UltraCMOS Global 1 PA Delivers Several Performance Advantages
Global 1 features the industry’s first LTE CMOS PA with the same raw performance as the leading GaAs PAs. Using a WCDMA (voice) waveform at an ACLR (adjacent channel leakage ratio) of -38 dBc, the performance of the UltraCMOS Global 1 PA approaches 50-percent PAE (power- added efficiency). This is on par with the leading GaAs PAs and exceeds the performance of other CMOS PAs by 10 percentage points, which represents a 33-percent efficiency increase. Further, the UltraCMOS Global 1 PA maintains GaAs-equivalent PAE for LTE waveforms with varying resource-block allocations. This level of performance is reached without enhancements from envelope tracking or digital predistortion, which is often used when benchmarking CMOS PAs with GaAs PAs.
“Peregrine Semiconductor’s UltraCMOS Global 1 PA is a market disrupter that could hasten a transition of the PA front-end market from GaAs-based to CMOS,” says Christopher Taylor, director of RF and Wireless Components at Strategy Analytics. “In a demonstration at Mobile World Congress 2014, Peregrine’s UltraCMOS Global 1 PA apparently matched the performance of a leading-edge GaAs PA at all power levels, and on top of this, Peregrine’s PA can offer more flexibility through the integration capabilities of CMOS.”
UltraCMOS Global 1 Supports TDD-LTE Networks
China’s recently licensed TDD-LTE networks have increased demand for bands in the 2.3 to 2.7 GHz frequency range. The UltraCMOS Global 1 PA offers a high-band PA path that supports this frequency range.
“Peregrine is committed to the Greater China market,” says Jim Cable, CEO at Peregrine Semiconductor. “To better serve our customers, we recently expanded our China office to include new lab facilities and additional technical resources. Today, at EDI CON, we introduce UltraCMOS Global 1 as a RFFE solution for TDD-LTE network demands.”
USE OF FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding our management’s future expectations, beliefs, intentions, goals, strategies, plans and prospects. Such statements constitute “forward-looking” statements which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The achievement of the matters covered by such forward- looking statements involves risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results, performance or achievements could be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, our dependence on a limited number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenues; intellectual property risks; intense competition in our industry; our ability to develop and introduce new and enhanced products on a timely basis and achieve market acceptance of those products; consumer acceptance of our customers’ products that incorporate our solutions; our lack of long-term supply contracts and dependence on limited sources of supply; and potential decreases in average selling prices for our products.
For further information regarding risks and uncertainties associated with Peregrine’s business, please refer to the filings that we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, including those set forth in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 29, 2012 and additional information that will be set forth in our Form 10-K that will be filed for the year ended December 28, 2013, which should be read in conjunction with these financial results. These documents are available on the SEC Filings section of the Investor Relations section of our website at http://investors.psemi.com/. Please also note that forward- looking statements represent our management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information, becomes available in the future.
ABOUT PEREGRINE SEMICONDUCTOR
Peregrine Semiconductor (NASDAQ: PSMI), founder of RF SOI (silicon on insulator), is a leading fabless provider of high-performance, integrated RF solutions. Since 1988 Peregrine and its founding team have been perfecting UltraCMOS® technology – a patented, advanced form of SOI – to deliver the performance edge needed to solve the RF market’s biggest challenges, such as linearity. With products that deliver best-in-class performance and monolithic integration, Peregrine is the trusted choice for market leaders in automotive, broadband, industrial, Internet of Things, military, mobile devices, smartphones, space, test-and-measurement equipment and wireless
infrastructure. Peregrine holds more than 170 filed and pending patents and has shipped more than 2 billion UltraCMOS units. For more information, visit https://psemi.bonfirela.com.
###
The Peregrine Semiconductor name, logo, and UltraCMOS are registered trademarks of Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation in the U.S.A., and other countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.