VT Silicon's RF front-end IC for 4G

LONDON, UK: VT Silicon Incorporated, the fabless chip company based in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, is developing an RF front-end IC for 4G communications.

The device, named VFM2500, is to be made by Tower Semiconductor Limited (which trades as TowerJazz), headquartered in Migdal, Haemek, Israel.

VT Silicon said in a press release that the VFM2500 will cover the 2.5-GHz to 2.7-GHz WiMax and 2.4-GHz WiFi bands and also integrate all of the RF front-end functions on a single silicon die – including support for s 2 x 2 MIMO, with all of the transmit and receive filters and baluns.

Tower Semiconductor Limited said it has been selected to make the VFM2500 using its 0.18-micron SiGe process.

The VFM2500 will be available for testing in the first quarter of 2010. Its production has been planned for the fourth quarter of 2010.

VT Silicon said it made the chip after a 2-year-long privately funded development programme that used the company’s patented linearity-enhancement technology as well as a new RF front-end topology.

According to Tower Semiconductor Limited, its SiGe offers performance that is competitive with GaAs, with 40% lower die cost.

Bipolar devices in the process, according to Tower Semiconductor, can be used to integrate the low-noise amplifier, the antenna transmit/receive and transmit diversity switches, and the power amplifier – thus eliminating the need for a number of costly discrete GaAs devices.