RFMD Expands Family of Transmit Modules for 3G Entry Phones

26th February 2010

ES Admin

0 0

RF Micro Devices, Inc. today announced the addition of four new products to RFMD's portfolio of 3G transmit modules. The four new products – the RF3230, RF3231, RF3232, and RF3171 – are designed to accelerate the implementation of 3G entry-level feature phones supporting one-to-two bands of WCDMA and two-to-four bands of GSM/GPRS (also referred to as WGPRS). Each new transmit module (TxM) features a GSM/GPRS power amplifier (PA) and an integrated pHEMT switch to support stringent 3G linearity requirements, providing a highly integrated, low cost alternative to discrete RF front end implementations.

Eric Creviston, president of RFMD's Cellular Products Group (CPG), said, “As our customers are working to bring smartphone-type features to mass market feature phones, RFMD is first to deliver a broad product family that is cost- and feature set-optimized for this emerging and high growth category. We are forecasting strong customer adoption of this new product family, and we continue to expect robust growth in 3G devices in calendar 2010.”

RFMD's RF3231 and RF3232 are optimized to support Infineon as well as other leading open-market 3G chipset suppliers. The RF3231 is a dual-band GSM/GPRS TxM with one low-loss wideband transmit/receive (TRx) port and two interchangeable GSM Rx ports. The RF3231 also features an integrated switch, integrated harmonic filtering and RFMD's patented PowerStar® integrated power control technology. The RF3232 shares a feature set with the RF3231 and increases functionality with one additional wideband TRx port. The RF3230 is a quad-band TxM with two low-loss wideband TRx ports and four interchangeable GSM Rx ports. The RF3171 adds Large Signal Polar EDGE capability to the lineup and is optimized to support Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson 3G chipsets.

RFMD offers the industry's broadest and most innovative portfolio of radio frequency components, including cellular power amplifier modules, cellular transmit modules, cellular switch and filter modules, and front ends for Wi-Fi, WiMAX and GPS applications. RFMD's product portfolio for 3G applications accommodates all major RF architectures, including existing mode-specific/band-specific and mode-specific/multi-band architectures as well as emerging multimode/multi-band, converged architectures. RFMD also supplies a broad portfolio of 2G/2.5G power amplifier-based and switch-based components optimized for 3G handsets, providing a comprehensive RF product portfolio covering the entire cellular front end.

RFMD's broad product portfolio is enabling a new generation of energy efficient, reduced size and lower cost smartphones, cellular handsets and other mobile devices.