Infineon Ships One Billionth RF transceiver – Approximately Every Fourth Mobile Phone Worldwide Includes Infineon’s RF Solutions

Nov 20, 2007 | Business & Financial Press

Neubiberg, Germany – November 20, 2007 – Over one billion RF transceivers, miniature radio frequency chips that establish the radio link between mobile phone and the base station, have been shipped to date by Infineon Technologies, a leading supplier of communication ICs. Last year the figure stood at 230 million. The market research firm Strategy Analytics confirms that in 2006 the largest share of the one billion unit market was in Infineon’s hands. Infineon has been supplying the tier 1 mobile phone manufacturers with RF chips for 15 years.

Seven RF transceivers leave Infineon’s plants every second. Infineon’s radio-frequency technologies are to be found in approximately every fourth mobile phone worldwide. “This is a gauge for the high quality of our products and the innovative engineering development,” says Stefan Wolff, head of the RF Engine business unit at Infineon. “The world’s best-known mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG buy our devices for their mobile phones. Our chips support all the mobile phone standards from GSM, EDGE through UMTS all the way to future technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE).”

Infineon’s innovative and highly integrated solutions put the company in an ideal position to meet the market requirements for the upcoming years. Its success and leading position are bolstered by the smallest and highest-performance devices, which cover all the frequency bands in just one chip.

In the mobile world, a RF transceiver is required to enable every aspect of its functionality: the speech signals converted into digital signals are modulated via the RF transceiver onto a radio-frequency carrier signal, which can then be transmitted and received by the antenna. The RF transceiver is the device in the mobile phone, which is responsible for good speech and link quality as well as long standby and talk time. The high integration perfected by Infineon, such as the process of packing multiple functions on one chip, significantly reduces size and cost. In addition, the devices are more robust and efficient than solutions with two or more chips.

History

Infineon looks back on a long and successful history with RF transceivers (transceiver: neologism formed from transmitter and receiver). In 1999 the Munich Group was one of the world’s first semiconductor manufacturers to integrate the transmitter and receiver on one chip in the SMARTi®. This new level of integration was well received by the market and over 30 customers used the SMARTi for their mobile phones. Further integration steps followed and the chip shrank as the performance characteristics increased. Since November 2007 Infineon has supplied the world’s smallest quad-band RF transceiver for GPRS/EDGE, the SMARTi PM+ measuring just 3x3 mm. Further innovations in the product portfolio are the SMARTi UE, the world’s first single-chip UMTS/EDGE transceiver with a digital transceiver-to-baseband interface. The SMARTi LTE which has been announced by Infineon today, is the world’s smallest and most miniaturized, highly integrated single chip for the UMTS successor Long Term Evolution (LTE).

Now the company has pulled off a remarkable milestone by shipping one billion RF transceivers. If one billion chips are strung together, the distance covered would be about Munich to New York.

You can download an in-depth interview on RF transceivers and challenges in developing these modules at: www.infineon.com/podcast

About Infineon

Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, communications, and security. In the 2007 fiscal year (ending September), the company reported sales of Euro 7.7 billion (including Qimonda sales of Euro 3.6 billion) with approximately 43,000 employees worldwide (including approximately 13,500 Qimonda employees). With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the U.S. from Milpitas, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore, and in Japan from Tokyo. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX).

Information Number

INFCOM200711.020

Press Photos

  • Without an RF transceiver, there's no chance to make a phone call
    Without an RF transceiver, there's no chance to make a phone call
    SMARTi_LTE_tp

    JPG | 231 kb | 800 x 601 px

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