Infineon and Toshiba Jointly Develop Bluetooth Solution for Consumer Products - Breakthrough towards Mass Market for Wireless Interface

Dec 5, 2001 | Market News

Munich, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan, December 5, 2001 - Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX) and the semiconductor branch of Toshiba today announced a jointly developed Bluetooth system solution for a variety of consumer products especially for PC related applications such as desktop PCs, notebooks and printers. The joint solution is based on a radio frequency transceiver chip, manufactured by Infineon and the corresponding baseband controller chip produced by Toshiba. This allows the two companies to offer their customers a total solution in Bluetooth wireless communications. The complete Bluetooth solution will be available within the first quarter 2002, thus simplifying the integration of Bluetooth technology into consumer products for a rapid expansion in the number of products supporting Bluetooth.

Bluetooth, an industrial wireless system specification, which uses the unlicensed 2.4 gigahertz radio spectrum to easily connect digital consumer products over short distances, is designed to transmit up to one million bits of data per second using very low power. According to Cahners In-Stat (as of November 2001) more than 2,500 companies now support the Bluetooth standard and they predict there will be hundreds of millions of Bluetooth-enabled devices by 2005.

“Our cooperation with Toshiba will further accelerate Bluetooth penetration into consumer products,” explained Christian Baumgart, vice president and general manager, Short Range Wireless at Infineon Technologies. “The new transmitter and receiver IC is complementing our successful BlueMoon family and represents a major step towards embedded Bluetooth applications. The cooperation with Toshiba semiconductor endorses the Infineon Bluetooth solutions and roadmap which are primarily targeting at the market of size critical applications such as mobile phones and PDAs.”

“We are very excited by this opportunity to bring our baseband IC and Infineon’s transceiver IC to our customers,” said Shigeru Komatsu, general manager of Network & Telecommunication System LSI Division of Toshiba’s Semiconductor Company. “We see Bluetooth as the most promising digital communications technology. Toshiba is a founding member of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group and promotes Bluetooth related products. Our baseband IC together with Infineon’s transceiver IC will help us establishing a leading position in the emerging digital consumer market."

Infineon further expands BlueMoon™ Family


In order to complement the successful BlueMoon family of Bluetooth system solutions, Infineon has developed the new Bluetooth RF transceiver PMB 6626, which provides a pure digital baseband interface to embedded baseband solutions. Due to the highest level of integration, the PMB 6626 combines overall cost effectiveness due to reduced Bill of Material with highest performance, such as an input sensitivity level of –91dBm. Major building blocks as for example integrated 13MHz oscillator cell and Gaussian pulse shaper are completely integrated into this new RF transceiver solution.

PMB 6626 samples have already been delivered to key customers who adapted the PMB 6626 as the perfect match for Toshiba’s Bluetooth baseband LSI. Volume production will start in first quarter of 2002.

Toshiba Introduces Baseband LSI “TC35651”


Toshiba’s Bluetooth baseband LSI is fabricated with 0.18µ complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process technology and has a 1.5V power supply. It incorporates a reduced instruction set computer (RISC)-based processor, embedded SRAM and a PCM digital audio interface that enables transmission of audio data. It also integrates interface circuits for USB1.1 and UART. In developing this LSI, Toshiba has adopted core circuit technology from Nokia, the world leader in cellular phones, which achieves highly reliable interoperability between multiple Bluetooth-enabled platforms.

TC35651 samples also have already been delivered to key customers. Mass production of LSI will start in the first quarter of 2002.


About Infineon


Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smartcards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 2001 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 5.67 billion with about 33,800 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

About Toshiba Corporation


Toshiba Corporation’s wide-ranging capabilities assure the company’s position as a world leader in semiconductors, LCDs and other electronic devices, and allow it to support customers around the world with a complete portfolio of semiconductor solutions. Toshiba has 188,000 employees and annual sales of over US$47 billion. Visit Toshiba's website at www.infineon.comwww.toshiba.co.jp.

*Bluetooth is a trademark owned by its proprietor and used by Infineon Technologies under license.

Information Number

INFWS200112-018e