Peregrine Semiconductor Announces SP4T Antenna Tuning Switch

San Diego, CA - Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation recently released the UltraCMOS PE42641 SP4T antenna tuning switch delivering an unparalleled IMD performance of -110 dBm, making it ideal for converged designs requiring high linearity and low distortion. A variety of emerging market applications benefit from the exceptional RF performance advantages of the PE42641 switch, including 3G GSM/EDGE/WCDMA and CDMA handset and PC card applications; machine-to-machine applications such as vending machines and parking meters; or designs requiring antenna tuning, such as repeater and telematics applications.

The UltraCMOS silicon-on-sapphire based PE42641 incorporates Peregrine's revolutionary HaRP technology enhancements to deliver exceptional harmonic results, linearity and overall RF performance: high linearity of +68 dBm IP3 or -110 dBm IMD; harmonics better than -80 dBc, low insertion loss of 0.5 dB (typ); high isolation 35 dB at critical paths; and complete monolithic integration. Additionally, the new switch offers Class 2 ESD (2 kV HBM) on all pins, and Class 3 (4 kV HBM) at the antenna, which is the highest ANT-pin ESD protection available today.

"With the UltraCMOS PE42641, the industry is finally able to deliver on the promise of tuning capability in mobile devices, a challenge which has been on the whiteboards of antenna designers for many years," commented Rodd Novak, vice-president of marketing and business development. "The PE42641 is our first step in supporting the emerging market of tunable components. Further, as with the entire Peregrine portfolio, this SP4T is developed on UltraCMOS which is a standard CMOS technology. It leverages all the same low-cost, high-value benefits in manufacturing yields, scalability and ease-of-use, while delivering the unprecedented performance offered only with our proprietary sapphire substrate," he added. "For high-performance switch applications at any throw-count, UltraCMOS is the future."

Peregrine's 50-Ohm PE42641 2.75V RF switch operates from 100 – 3000 MHz and provides many additional features, including on-board CMOS logic which facilitates 1.8 V or 2.75 V control; 4.5 Ohm series ON resistance; no blocking capacitors; and fast switch settling time. The device is available in the ultra-compact, RoHS-compliant 3x3x0.75 mm TQFN package and is priced at $0.91 in volume (100K units).

About UltraCMOS Technology and the HaRP Technology Invention

UltraCMOS mixed-signal process technology is a proprietary, patented variation of silicon-on insulator (SOI) technology on a sapphire substrate providing with high yields and competitive costs. It combines the RF, mixed-signal, and digital capabilities of any other CMOS process, yet tolerates the high power required for high-performance wireless applications. The Company's revolutionary HaRP technology enables dramatic improvements in harmonic results, linearity and overall RF performance; specifications required by the 3GPP standards body for GSM/WCDMA applications which are unmatched in the industry. In particular, long-awaited accomplishments in Intermodulation Distortion (IMD) handling are now available monolithically to multi-band front-end module and handset manufacturers. These significant performance advantages exist over competing processes such as GaAs, SiGe, BiCMOS and bulk silicon CMOS in applications where RF performance, low power and integration are paramount.

SOURCE: Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation