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JULY 12th, 2005
Applied Wave Research, Inc. (AWR), a notable leader in the area
of high frequency wireless design tools, has entered into a technology and marketing agreement with Astra Microelectronics
Technology, Ltd., (AMTL) of Hyderabad, India. As part of the agreement AMTL will use AWR’s award winning Microwave Office
design tools for the design of integrated circuits and microwave components at both its new monolithic microwave integrated
circuit (MMIC) design center, known as Astra Microwave Products, Ltd. (AMPL), and at its parent company location. As part
of the joint marketing plan, AMTL and AWR will offer AMTL’ custom design services. These include radio frequency and
microwave designs for applications such as satellite communications.
Ramanan Ramamurti, AMTL's Chief Operating Officer on announcement
of the agreement indicated that AWR’s design software was easy to use, resulted in first pass design success and that
AWA was easy an easy company to work with, "We were attracted to AWR by the performance and ease-of-use of their design solutions.
When we began working with AWR support personnel, we were pleasantly surprised at the level of service and commitment to ensuring
Astra's success. We instantly recognized that this was the sort of 'win-win' situation that makes for a successful relationship
and wanted to broaden ours with AWR. We are already realizing first pass success in our IC designs."
AMTL was founded in 2004 as a subsidiary of Astra Microwave Products,
Ltd.
JULY 1st, 2005
New Wireless Remote Control Mouse Offers Long Distance Internet
Surfing, Game Playing and Movie Watching
Cypress Semiconductor (NYSE:CY) reported that its WirelessUSB radio-system-on-a-chip has been
incorporated into Gyration Incorporated’s new wireless mouse and keyboard. The chip, combined with Gyration’s
on-board motion-sensing gyroscope, the MG1101 MicroGryo, permits the user to surf the web from a distance. Particularly useful
for those with large PC screens or projector screens, one can point and click or use one of 15 Internet/multimedia hot keys
to program which web site to view or where to place that soccer player.
According to Tom Quinn, Senior VP and General Manager of Gyration.
"Gyration products provide effortless remote cursor control that allows users to roam freely around the office or home. With
the powerful range of WirelessUSB, users can just sit back on the couch and surf the Internet or watch their favorite DVD.
WirelessUSB provides unparalleled interference immunity to assure uninterrupted performance in the presence of other 2.4-GHz
systems such as Bluetooth or cordless phones."
Cypress Semiconductor with the announcement, said that its
WirelessUSB radio-system-on-a-chip has had 88 design wins to date.
JUNE 30th, 2005
Xceive Receives $13.5 Million for Mobile TV Generation
Xceive Corporation, a company that offers multi-standard RF-to-baseband transceiver chips for deployment in
televisions, mobile phones, set top boxes and personal computers, has closed its Series C funding round. Investors in the
$13.5 million round included lead investor Sequoia Capital as well as Alliance Ventures, BA Venture Partners and Ignite Group.
The funds are planned for increased R&D, expanded production and to add staff at strategically picked locations.
JUNE 28th, 2005
ParkerVision Goes Fabless – High Volume Accounts
from Wireless Market Noted
ParkerVision, Inc. (NASDAQ NMS: PRKR) has announced plans to drop its retail business and change
its business model to that of a pure fabless semiconductor company. The company’s digital power amplifier chips are
considered a way to reduce power consumption in wireless devices such as cellular phones – a critical concern as power
hungry multimedia cellular phones enter the market.
Jeffrey L. Parker, CEO at ParkerVision, indicated that the company’s
semiconductor technology has been well received in the wireless markets, "Our new digital ultra-efficient power amplifiers,
which we call Direct-to-RF-Power (D2P), have been extremely well received by the OEM community. The interest from our OEM
prospects has reached a level where we believe it is clear that the greatest shareholder value can be achieved in the least
amount of time by exclusively pursuing OEM opportunities as aggressively as possible and becoming a significant component
supplier to OEMs that build high volume wireless products. Our initial D2P IC designs are applicable to battery powered, portable
wireless devices such as cellular phones, wireless networking devices, cordless phones and Bluetooth devices. The preliminary
success of our D2P initiative has also resulted in a renewal of interest by OEM prospects in our original D2D based ICs. We
believe our product development efforts for the retail market will ultimately be leveraged through our product offerings to
OEMs.”
JUNE 24th, 2005
Photron Technologies Implements Ultra Spectral Modulation Design
on FPGA
Photron Technologies Ltd. has demonstrated a new technology, known as Ultra Spectral Modulation
(USM) with an FPGA designed with AccelChip's FPGA design platform. The FPGA-based design, a digital filter, is part of a solution
that permits wireless transmission rates of 100 bps per Hertz. The high per Hertz rate technology permits a 5 Mbps data transmission
rate through a 50 KHz channel, which is reported as 25 times more than current technologies permit.
Larry Garcia, Senior Technical and Operational Advisor for aeroTelesis,
the company that exclusively licenses USM had this to say about the chip design milestone, "The transition from MATLAB simulations
to FPGA devices is a monumental milestone and unequivocally brings us ever closer to the launch of a breakthrough technology
that will become a new standard for wireless communications." USM is expected to substantially reduce the cost and increase
the transmission speed of wireless communications.
JUNE 24th, 2005
picoChip Obtains $20.5 Million in Third Round
picoChip, a wireless semiconductor company, has obtained $20.5 million in a third round of
funding led by Scottish Equity Partners. Other investors included Rothschild, Intel Capital, Pond Venture Partners and Atlas
Venture.
Guillaume d'Eyssautier, President at picoChip, indicated the company
planned to further its efforts in WiMAX market with the funding, "The quality of our backers is an endorsement of our leading
position in WiMAX. We will use this funding to expand on picoChip's success in WiMAX and deliver products for WCDMA, TD-SCDMA
and other wireless markets."
JUNE 15th, 2005
Series A Funding Brings $15 Million for SiBEAM's Gbps Wireless
Chip Technology
SiBEAM, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company founded just this year, has secured $15 million
in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates, US Venture Partners, and Foundation Capital. The company plans to used
the funds for the development of wireless technology that permits data communication rates in the gigabit range.
To develop the new high speed wireless technology, the company has
as its chairman, Dr. Bob Broderson, who also was affiliated with the founding of Atheros Communications, one of the fabless
market leaders in the WiFi wireless network chip space. Mr. Broderson has been a UC Berkeley professor for 33 years and co-director
of the Berkeley Wireless Research Center.
JUNE 14th, 2005
Turbo Code Software Tool Provides Path to Wireless Power Savings,
Improved Coverage and Data Rates
Cambridge Consultants now offers a software program called TurboDesigner used in the design
of wireless base stations and terminals. The tool has been developed to help select the best forward error correction (FEC)
code for a wireless design. . The software, which is available as part of the company's consultant services, will generate
test vectors for HDL simulations to assist in the development of ASICs and FPGAs.
The selection of the right code will have a significant effect on
the performance of a design, according to Monty Barlow, DSP Group Leader with Cambridge Consultants, "Our experience has taught
us that the right turbo coding implementation can double the coverage or data rate of a wireless system, or halve the amount
of transmission power required. The technology is extremely desirable - but the problem comes with real-world implementations
of decoders - especially those designed for high data rate applications like WiMAX. There are a large number of factors a
designer needs to tweak, each with its own subtle effect on performance and cost. This software produces accurate and quick
measurement of turbo code performance".
Mr. Barlow went on to say that "Shrinking silicon costs are now
enabling wider exploitation of the relatively new technology of turbo codes. For us, the first major focus has been for WiMAX
development work - where no suitable off-the-shelf cores exist and we need to design our own hardware - but we also expect
turbo codes to be a significant enabler for other emerging wireless systems such as digital broadcasting, and even UWB."
JUNE 10th, 2005
Optichron
Reduces Nonlinear Distortion 90 Percent - New Module Includes Linearizer Technology
Optichron Inc. a fabless semiconductor company, which just this March received $17 million
in Series B venture capital funding, has introduced its first products that incorporate its advanced nonlinear signal processing
technology, called Turbolinear. The company states that Turbolinear reduces nonlinear distortion by more than 90 percent in
high-speed piplelined data converters.
The Turbolinear technology is now available in the company's analog
to digital converter modules for applications such as multi-channel / multi-mode receivers, base stations and medical imaging
equipment. Specifications for one of the modules, the M1400A-105 ADC module, which incorporates Optichron's Linearizer integrated
circuit along with an AD6645 ADC and AD8351 amplifier, include a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of 70 dB and a Spurious Free
Dynamic Range (SFDR) of 90 dB. Both specifications are based on an input frequency of 150 MHz. Volume production of the 105
is expected in the fourth quarter of 2005.
Roy Batruni, CEO of Optichron noted the cost significance of the
encapsulated achievement, "Optichron's Turbolinear technology is the first of its kind to transform nonlinear signal processing
from the realm of pure science into a practical engineering language uniquely suited to address the pervasive problem of nonlinear
distortion. Turbolinear technology allows engineers to utilize versatile filter architectures that eliminate nonlinear distortion
in a way that is both cost-effective and easy to implement in low-power semiconductor products."
JUNE 8th, 2005
Cygnus Communications, Inc, a fabless semiconductor company, has
completed the acquisition of SiWorks, Inc. SiWorks, based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, provides Wireless Semiconductor Intellectual
Property for a number of wireless standards. These include the IEEE-802.16d standard or the WiMAX standard, UWB-MBOA or the
Multiband-OFDM Alliance standard, and the IEEE-802.11a/b/g standard, otherwise known as the WiFi standard.
Kenneth Stanwood, Cygnus Communications' CEO commented on the acquisition,
"SiWorks IEEE-802.16d compliant SDR is a perfect complement to the Cygnus Communications ASIC development effort in support
of WiMAX compliant Fixed and Mobile Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks. The acquisition of SiWorks accelerates our entry
into the huge IEEE-802.16e market, and we're leveraging the success of the IEEE-802.16d development to be the first to introduce
802.16e compliant ASIC products."
JUNE 7th, 2005
Microtune and DiBcom Enter into Agreement to Develop High Performance
Car TV
TV reception in cars has long been a problem. One of the reasons is the car is moving, a situation
that requires Doppler compensation to solve. With a solution to that problem, and a strategy that foresees a demand
for television in automobiles, two fabless companies, MicroTune, Inc. (Nasdaq:TUNE) and DiBcom have entered into an agreement
to develop a reference design for a premium car digital television. The reference design, which is planned to be available
in August of 2005, for $1950, is based on DiBcom's chipset, which permits, according to the companies, portable TV reception
everywhere and at almost any speed (greater than 100 mph). DiBcom's chips feature patented technology, which provide for accurate
channel estimation and Doppler compensation, and are compliant with the Digital Video Broadcast standards, DVB-T and DVB-H.
JUNE 6th, 2005
Microsoft's Wireless Xbox 360 Vendors Unearthed
Microsoft's Xbox 360, its latest wireless video game, intended to be released just before the
2005 Christmas season, is one sought after client in the electronics market. So far reports indicate that ATI Technologies
will supply the graphics chip, replacing long-time vendor, NVidia. NEC will supply embedded DRAM technology, IBM will supply
its latest multi microprocessor, the cell processor, and RTX Telecom, will be the development partner for the wireless interface
to the game pad for the video game system.
Indications are that National Semiconductor also has a role as a
supplier. According to Richard Lum, Xbox Program Manager at Microsoft., "With the National Semiconductor ASIC, choosing RTX
Telecom for developing the wireless game pad was a natural choice. Few other companies have the ability to meet our specifications
and time requirements. The RTX engineers have a strong track record in implementing the core wireless technology selected
for Xbox 360."
That statement was released with the announcement of the decision
to select RTX Telecom. Besides the wireless game pad, RTX also was given responsibility to supply the needed high-volume test
equipment. RTX Telecom, listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, is a wireless solutions development company, with an emphasis
on wireless communications standards such as Bluetooth, DECT, GSM/GPRS, VoIP, WiFi 802.11, and TD-SCDMA.
According to NEC Electronics Corp. the next generation Xbox graphics
subsystem will include its eDRAM graphics chip manufactured on its most advanced processes at its 300 millimeter wafer fabrication
facility. IBM, which won out over microprocessor leader Intel, also has won other important video game design wins with its
cell processor. These include Nintendo Revolution and Sony's PlayStation 2.
Microsoft plans to ship the wireless game pads standard with its
video game. The Xbox accommodates up to 16 players via an Ethernet/LAN connection and also offers users the capability to
listen to music as they play games that simulate everything from soccer to war.
JUNE 6th, 2005
EnOcean Brings Out Solar Powered Wireless Sensor - Transmits
300 Meters
Designed for a number of wireless sensor applications, which range from industrial to household
applications, EnOcean has introduced its STM100 solar powered wireless sensor module. Based on a custom two-stage solar cell,
the (2 x 4 x 1 cm) device includes a solar cell energy source, an energy reservoir, sensor interface, analog and digital sensor,
a microprocessor and a radio transmitter.
Armin Anders, EnOcean's VP of Product Marketing gave further details
about EnOcean's technology, "EnOcean's patented technology lets STM100 generate a surprisingly long-range radio signal with
extremely minute amounts of harvested energy. With just 50 microwatts, a standard EnOcean transmitter will comfortably send
a signal 300 meters outdoors, 30 meters indoors through walls. The secret is in the signal duration; the entire process is
initiated, undertaken and completed in approximately 1/1000 of a second."
Christian Genter, CEO of Omnio AG, a manufacturer of building automation
systems, noted the battery free and other benefits of EnOcean's product, "EnOcean-based systems allow us to deliver unmatched
sensor networking flexibility via battery-free, maintenance-free wireless switches, temperature sensors and window contacts.
The system provides unmatched simplicity through an ingenious 'learn-in' programming feature that doesn't require time-consuming
PC programming or personnel training."
JUNE 2, 2005
Paratek Microwave, Inc., a company that has several patents and
RF wireless products based on nano-cyrstalline thin films, has raised $14 million in a Series C financing round. Investors
included Polaris Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Novak Biddle Venture Partners, Investor Growth, and ABS Ventures
The company, which earlier this year won a $1.125 million contract
from the University of California at Riverside, for Nanoscale Science and Engineering, foresees its next generation technology
resulting in products with real-time adaptive impedance matching, which will in turn result in lower power consumption. That
technology combines the company's tunable RF and microwave dielectric materials with its miniaturized 3D circuit and module
designs, Indications are that the company's technology can be applied to a broad range of RF circuits and frequency bands.
James DiLorenzo, Paratek's CEO commented on the acceptance of the
company's products, "Our electronically tunable products have been well received in the marketplace and, working in partnership
with several major industry players, we will release a new generation of even more capable products later this year."
MAY 27th, 2005
High Power RF Transistors Shipments at Freescale Pass 10
Million
Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE: FSL) (NYSE: FSL.B) this month announced
that it had shipped over "10 million high-power, high-frequency RF power transistors in plastic packages." The power transistors,
with output power ratings up to 130 watts and operating frequencies above 2 GHz, are used in 2.5G and 3G wireless base station
amplifiers.
MAY 26th, 2005
FreeLinc to Integrate Aura’s Wireless Headset Technology
Aura Communications, a fabless semiconductor company, with the announcement of new products
from FreeLinc, reported that FreeLinc would integrate its LibertyLink near field magnetic solution. Aura is noted for its
low power and low cost solution, which is attributed to its “radio frequency free” technology.
Kenneth Kokinakis, Aura's president and CEO emphasized the adoption of near field technology
for a wide range of popular consumer electronic products, "LibertyLink is ideally suited for wireless headsets that operate
aside any mobile electronic device -- including MP3 players, portable DVD players and two-way radios. Our technology is poised
to become the de facto standard for any short-range wireless application that requires secure, efficient transmission of streaming
audio, voice or data. With LibertyLink, FreeLinc's customers will enjoy the most reliable personal-range wireless available."
MAY 20th, 2005
Sonics' SMART Interconnects IP technology, like many leading chips,
has been almost everywhere in the world. On May 13th, 2005 the company announced that over 100 million SoC integrated circuits
have shipped with the technology. Among the company's tier one semiconductor companies are Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Toshiba
Corp., Samsung and several unnamed Original Equipment Manufacturers. The technology, which is used in a number of different
end-market applications is believed to be specifically pervasive in the wireless and handheld markets. One reason is that
SonicsMX, one of Sonic's products, was designed for those system architectures. SonixsMX product, which has silicon area and
power reduction features, was developed with Texas Instruments for that company's OMAP processor chip.
Grant Pierce, Sonics' President indicated that the product should
reach a shipment rate higher than most others, "This milestone places Sonics among the top intellectual property (IP) suppliers
in the semiconductor industry. And, because our designs span a very wide range of served markets, and our adoption rate is
accelerating, we expect our shipments to outpace even the well established IP suppliers in the future." A new version of SonicsMX
, released in March 2005, is also expected to help sustain the momentum. The product, which incorporates 128-bit data widths
and supports AHB bus connections, is now, according to Sonics, under evaluation at nearly all the major wireless and handheld
SoC developers. Sonics other products, SiliconBackplane, SMART Interconnect, SonicsS3220 and MemMax are also reported as being
well received.
Sonics IP based design methodology has been developed to standardize
and automate the IP block interconnection process for specific chip design architectures. The process has been attributed
to the reduction of design time, layout planning time, reroute time, in addition to the reduction of silicon area, power consumption
and timing delays. Other sited benefits include easy IP core reuses - all of which add up to reduced development and manufacturing
costs.
MAY 13th, 2005
Bio-Nano Files Patent for Wireless Biosensors - For Real-Time
Medical Treatment Applications
Advance Nanotech, Inc., (OTC BB:AVNA.OB) through its subsidiary, Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies, reported
that it has filed a patent for imbedded biosensors that have potential applications for the treatment of a number of serious
heath problems. These include diabetes, coronary and asthma. The patent relates to a technology that enables wireless biosensors
to meet the different frequency and operating standards countries and regions have for radio frequency transmission.
Stephanie Interbartolo, Vice President of Business Development at Advance
Nanotech elaborated on the hurdle that has been overcome, "Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies is advancing science, and ensuring
the comfort of patients of chronic illness. The company has removed a significant barrier to the widespread use of wireless
devices for medical applications, bringing down costs of ownership and facilitating practical new treatments."
Back in February of this year, Advance Nanotech and Toumaz Technology Ltd.
announced their joint venture called Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies. At that time the company indicated that the goal was to
develop implantable bio-nano sensors. These sensors are to diagnose and treat medical conditions. Toumaz Technology has a
background in low-power mixed signal design, used widely in medical devices.
MAY 12th, 2005
Chipcon Announces
Low-Cost RF Chip Solution for Wireless Control Markets
Chipcon AS has introduced
a low-cost RF chip solution intended for a wide range of consumer and industrial control applications. The company lists a
number of applications markets. These include sensor networking, automatic meter reading, lighting and heating control, alarm
and security, automotive, toys and walkie-talkies for the low cost set of chips.
The chips, the CC1100
multi-channel RF transceiver and the CC1150 multi-channel RF transmitter, are intended for one-way and two-way RF links for
applications in the 315, 433, 868 and 915 MHz license-free ISM bands.
Svein Anders Tunheim,
CTO of Chipcon briefed the press on solutions’ functionality and the elimination of the need for external components,
"The CC1100 and CC1150 usher in a new era for sub-1 GHz RF chips, with their advanced digital functionality including forward-error
correction (FEC), large 64-byte FIFOs and software compatibility with Chipcon's latest 2.4 GHz radios. The devices also require
extremely few external components, dispersing with the SAW filters and tight-tolerance inductors often used in competing solutions."
Chipcon's Birgit Opland,
the VP of Marketing emphasized that designers could now replace single-channel systems with multi-channel systems, "The very
low cost means that for the first time, multi-channel systems can be considered to replace obsolescent single-channel systems.
A multi-channel solution will have much better coexistence capabilities, and provide a much better fit to regulatory requirements
such as frequency hopping in the US and listen-before-transmit protocols in Europe."
The solution also permits
the designer to lower power consumption through the programmable RF data rate (1.2 to 500 kbps) feature. This gives the designer
the ability to sacrifice range for lower power consumption. The two chips are priced for very high-volume markets. In million
unit quantities, the CC1100 is priced at $1.30 and the CC1150 at $0.80.
APRIL 29th, 2005
Samsung Design Center Opens in Atlanta
Georgia's Department of Economic Development has announced The Samsung Electro-Mechanics Company,
Ltd. (SEM) has opened a design center in Atlanta, Georgia for the development of radio frequency integrated circuit technology.
Chang-Ho Lee was named director of the design center. He was formerly with the Georgia Institute of Technology's Georgia Electronic
Design Center (GEDC).
The connection with the Georgia Institute of Technology was welcomed
by SEM. Dr. Byeongcheon Koh, chief technical officer of SEM commented, "The opening of this RFIC Design Center is just the
starting point with Georgia Tech and the state of Georgia and it will expand our ability to play an even greater role in bringing
high function, high quality and low cost products to the world marketplace. Locating in Atlanta and partnering with Georgia
Tech assures us of access to both the best faculty and student researchers. We have been most impressed with the support being
offered by the state of Georgia and the welcome we are receiving here at the university." The design center is located on
the campus.
APRIL 29th, 2005
Broadcom Links Up with Game Giant Nintendo for Gaming Console
As a sign that the game market is going wireless, Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ:BRCM) has teamed
up with game giant Nintendo to develop gaming systems. Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director, General Manager, Integrated
Research & Development Division at Nintendo indicated that wireless technology is a major concern in the game marketplace,
"The depth and breadth of Broadcom's wireless expertise will enable Nintendo to deliver the industry's most innovative gaming
solutions. By integrating Broadcom wireless solutions into our next-generation systems, we can provide the high performance
gaming and connectivity capabilities that will delight users of 'Revolution'." Revolution is the code name of Nintendo's next
generation gaming console.
APRIL 27th, 2005
Tialinx, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, was awarded a Small
Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I award for the development of its wafer scale antenna module. The company, which
focuses on Integrated Active Antenna Arrays, lists technology applications as point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless
connectivity, passive-medical imaging, mobility aids for the blind and collision avoidance systems.
APRIL 8th, 2005
Wisair announced its second generation WiMedia-MBOA Radio Frequency
(RF) transceiver 502 chip intended for ultra wideband (UWB) applications. The pre-production chip is based on IBM's 0.18 micron
SiGe BiCMOS process technology. According to Teddy O'Connell, Manager for Business Development, IBM Systems & Technology
Group, Semiconductor Offerings, "IBM is pleased that Wisair has selected our 0.18um SiGe BiCMOS technology for their pre-production
UWB RF transceiver chip. This is the second successful RF chip that Wisair has developed using IBM SiGe technology and its
price, performance and model maturity enables Wisair to ship competitive UWB solutions to its customers."
The MB-OFDM standard compliant chip supercedes Wisair's first UWB
501 chip, which was shipped to over 35 customers in a variety of different end markets. The new 502 chip offers a number of
improvements over the first version. David Yaish, Wisair President and CEO explained, "In preparation towards our pre- production
phase we have developed a second generation proven performance silicon RF chip that is poised to help our customers significantly
reduce their power consumption and overall cost of UWB solutions. Our small die-size 502 RF chip is a fully integrated MB-OFDM
RF transceiver with less than 10 external passive components."
The 502 chip also supports two antennas simultaneously and both
MB-OFDM TFI and FFI modes. It operates in between 3.1 GHz and 4.8 GHz and has three sub-bands, each 528 MHz.
Wisair, founded in May 2001, was funded through investments from
APAX partners, Bynet VC, Intel, NIF, NTT Leasing, RAD VC, Tamar and Vertex. Wisair's target markets, which its addresses through
international offices in the USA, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, include the consumer electronics, PC, mobile and automotive industries.
Wisair has been active in the Wireless USB Promoters Group and the MB-OFDM standards process.
MARCH 16th, 2005
Mimix Broadband to Acquire Celeritek's GaAs Assets
Mimix Broadband, Inc. and
Celeritek, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLTK) have entered into an agreement whereby Mimix will purchase substantially all of the GaAs assets
of Celeritek. The purchase price is estimated at $2.8 million in cash and includes Celeritek's radio frequency integrated
circuits, low noise amplifiers, gain blocks and power amplifier modules - all of which are based on the GaAs semiconductor
manufacturing process.
Mimix Broadband, Inc. is
involved in a related and complimentary area. The company designs and markets microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) for microwave
and millimeter-wave for wireless communications applications.
MARCH 4, 2005
Ember Based ZigBee Wireless Energy Meters Open New Markets
for Utility Companies
NURI Telecom, a Korean based meter company, has announced plans to
market its ZigBee-based automatic meter readers (AMR) into the United States market. The meters will be used to read electric,
gas and water meters. Additionally, the meter technology is expected to be the basis for new markets that the utility markets
may want to tap. These include home security, home appliance and anti-fire system services. NURL's Ember-based ARM meters
are already in use in Korea. Ember develops both wireless semiconductors and software used to permit wireless communications
between machines. The company's ZigBee wireless chips have also been incorporated into wireless navigation systems for boats.
Raymarine's autopilot system lets users navigate the boat with a wireless control device, which permits navigation of the
boat from any location on the boat - from stern to mast.
The landing of the account is partly attributed to Ember's recent
partnership with Atmel Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) for the development of an ultra-low power ZigBee semiconductor platform.
The platform includes Atmel's AVR 8-bit Flash microcontrollers and Ember's wireless semiconductor design and system network
architecture. Jarle Boe, Atmel's AVR Marketing Manager concluded that Ember is a great partner, in part because of Ember's
strong support of the ZigBee Alliance and the fact that Ember's IEEE 802.15.3 platform is used by National Technical Systems
as a Golden Suite for the evaluation of other 802.15.4 products.
MARCH 3, 2005
Wireless Nanocrystal Technology Central to Paratek’s Contract Win
Paratek Microwave, Inc, which offers innovative RF tunable filters and antennas, based on a novel tunable materials
technology, has won a $1.125 million contract from the University of California at Riverside, for Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Paratek indicates that the award will enable the company to advance its tunable materials technology. The
company anticipates that it will lower tunable materials operating voltage to less than 10 volts, improve the package quality,
and lower the wafer fabrication costs for the tunable RF filters, which are manufactured on 4 and 6 inch wafer fabrication
equipment.
Paratek has a line of tunable RF and microwave components based on its electrically tunable dielectric materials technology
it calls Parascan. Parascan is based on a thin film integrated circuit deposition methodology that draws on the power of nano-cyrstalline thin films. According to the company, these films are characterized
by low loss, low leakage current, and the capability to readily change capacitance with an applied voltage – as does
a varactor. Paratek has numerous United
States patents that are related to the material and the design of its components.
FEBRUARY 17th, 2005
Freescale UWB Solution Provides Wireless Direct Connection
Between Cell Phones and Laptops
Freescale Semiconductor appears to be well ahead in the Ultra-Wideband
(UWB) market. The company's UWB solution has been designed into one of Samsung's UWB enabled cell phones. The phone was demonstrated
at the 3GSM World Congress, an event in France that features cellular technology advances. At that demonstration, the phone
was connected directly (through a wireless connection) to a laptop and used to download MP3 music files.
Kwan-Soo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Research and Development
Center, Telecommunication Network Business at Samsung and Franz Fink, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Freescale's
wireless business both praised the design concept in action. With Samsung's digital cellular camera phone, a picture can be
taken and instantly displayed in vivid color on a nearby laptop. From there the picture can be transferred to numerous locations
throughout the world via a low cost internet connection. .
FEBRUARY 16th, 2005
Bluetooth Chip
Sales Results In, Up 247 Percent At CSR
CSR plc with the announcement of its unaudited financials stated that
it has grown its Bluetooth chip market share to over 50 percent in the fourth quarter. CSR provides Bluetooth chips to a growing
number of handset and headset companies. For the latest fourth quarter, CSR says that 41 percent of its design wins were from
handsets and headsets. This included 14 mobile phone design wins and 33 headset design wins. Mobile phone wins included Nokia,
Samsung and Motorola. Headset design wins included Motorola, LG and Logitech. In 2004, CSR landed design wins, which the company
estimates is 69 percent of the industry total. CSR points out that its closest competitor had 37 design wins in 2004.
Notable events in CSR’s fourth quarter include design wins in
the automobile market from such notable companies as Honda, Cellink, Hosiden, Harman Becker and Motorola. Other notable design
wins that CRS listed included Kyocera, Philips, Nokia, Dell and Logitech. CSR products were used in a Bluetooth reference
design, a MP3 players, a GPS modules, a PC card and mouse keyboard and media pad, respectively.
FEBRUARY 15th, 2005
Ember Corporation, a wireless fabless semiconductor company and Tendril Networks entered into an agreement to develop Zigbee networks based
on Ember’s semiconductor technology. Ember hopes its semiconductors will help network together the over eight billion
microcontrollers shipped in a myriad of electronic devices to eventually communicate with each other. Applications for such
a broad network of interconnected devices include energy conservation and machine maintenance applications. Request
More Information - Specify Company, Product, Etc.
FEBRUARY 15th, 2005
Sequans Communications
and ARM announced that Sequans would utilize the ARM processor core in its WiMAX chip sets, expected to be introduced in 2005.
Sequans has licensed the In addition to the ARM926EJ-S processor and the VFP9-S(TM) vector floating-point coprocessor. Request
More Information - Specify Company, Product, Etc.
FEBRUARY 8TH, 2005
Stacked Wireless Technology May Replace MCP Stacked Chips
The Jiji Press reports
that the University of Hiroshima has developed a new
type of wireless stacked chip. Today’s traditional stacked chips, stack
one die on top of another and then use a vertical interconnects to connect the chip die together. At the University of Hiroshima, the design also stacks
the chips vertically, but instead of a vertical interconnect, the design uses a very small antenna in each chip die to transfer
data. The technology also permits a relatively large number of chips to be stacked,
over 10 compared to about 3 used in today’s MCP stacked chips. The
work was done at the university’s Research Center on Nanodevices and Systems. Professor Atsushi Iwata, who heads the center, was
responsible for the research. In 2004, the center in 2004 also presented a paper on wireless stacked chips at The 2nd Hiroshima International Workshop. That paper
was presented by Professor Takamaro Kikkawa, also of Hiroshima
University.
FEBRUARY 1, 2005
UMC and AnSoft Place
Inductive Touch On RFCMOS Design Flow
Ansoft Corp. announced
along with United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) one of Taiwan’s
top chip foundries, the availability of one of the first parameterized spiral inductor design kits. The design kit links directly
between Ansoft’s RF design software and UMC’s process parameters. The inductor design kit is part of Ansoft and
UMC’s efforts to develop a completely qualified and tested electromagnetic based design flow for radio frequency based
CMOS chips. Such a flow permits the design of new high-growth market chips such as ultra wideband (UWB) radio chips.
JANUARY 19th, 2005
Sierra Wireless Heart of Intronix’s GoBook Laptop
Intronix Corp selected Sierra Wireless’s EM5625 modules for use in GoBook wireless rugged notebooks. The module will allow the GoBook to have complete Internet and corporate server access.
JANUARY 17th, 2005
Comlent and Jazz Semiconductor
Set to Capture Europe’s Cordless Market
With the introduction of Comlent’s BiCMOS 1.9 GHZ power amplifier,
Comlent and its foundry partner, Jazz Semiconductor may envision Europe as a golden goose. The amplifier targets the Digital
Enhanced Cordless Telephony (DECT) standard, which is the European standard for cordless phones. This market, which Comlent
believes, is around 30 million units a year (2003) may continue to grow. However, not only in Europe, Comlent sees North America
eventually adopting DECT cordless phones also.
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MARCH 3, 2005
CTIA Wireless Show is World Showcase of Everything Wireless under the Clear Blue Sky
The CTIA Wireless Show, billed as the world's largest wireless technology event, is scheduled for three days between
March 14 and March 16, 2005. It is to be held at the Ernest N. Morial
Convention Center in New Orleans,
Louisiana, USA. The show is
expected to be attended by over 35,000 high technology professionals with an expressed interest in wireless technology.
The show reads like a World's Fair Exhibition of the future. One will find 12 Special Interest Pavilions there. These
include the Accessories Pavilion, Canadian Pavilion, Developers Pavilion, Enterprise Mobility, Finnish Pavilion, Irish Pavilion,
Korean Pavilion, M2M Pavilion, Mtertainment Pavilion, Taiwan
Pavilion, UK
Pavilion and Wireless Imaging Pavilion.
The show, with over 700 companies exhibiting, contains everything you needed to have or know about wireless technology.
Wireless products that extend the complete wireless infrastructure from service provider to subscriber, from hardware to software,
for every application one can dream up - from an oversized model of the completely wireless home onward to the completely
wireless factory and wireless office.
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