Infineon Announces Availability of Innovative Integrated Semiconductor Solutions to Drive Future Mobile Communications

Feb 10, 2006 | Business & Financial Press

Presentation of Prof. Dr. Hermann Eul on the occation of a press briefing on February 10 in Munich (pdf / 6.8 MB)

Munich – February 10, 2006 - Infineon Technologies (FSE/NYSE: IFX), a leading supplier of advanced communication ICs and solutions, today announced sample availability of its latest baseband processor for multimedia mobile phones of the so-called 3.5 generation as well as its second generation platform for ultra-low-cost handsets.

In addition to the existing platform solutions, Infineon now supports all of the world’s major mobile phone standards and can address all market segments. The 3.5G baseband processor S-GOLD3H provides data rates of up to 7.2 Megabit per second and represents the world’s first chip for the mid-range multimedia phone segment with such high data rates. The ultra-low-cost 2 mobile phone platform featuring the new EGOLDvoice chip may further reduce the number of components in a basic cell phone from currently 100 to less than 50. Both new semiconductor solutions represent innovative integrated circuits combining several functions in one chip.

“For the last fifty years the mantra of the semiconductor industry was “shrink, shrink, shrink”,” said Prof. Dr. Hermann Eul, member of the board and head of the Communication Solutions business group of Infineon. “Now we have entered the area of “innovative integration” by combining leading-edge and proven technologies, functions and features on the smallest possible piece of silicon. While using established and well known processes, we will be offering breakthrough solutions for the demand driver in our industry.”

The S-GOLD3H is the heart of Infineon’s next generation mobile multimedia platform, which it calls the MP-EH, supporting HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) data rates of up to 7.2 megabits per second (Mbit/s). Other components of the MP-EH are a power management chip SM-Power3; a RF transceiver SMARTi 3GE; a six-band WCDMA and quad-band EDGE RF transceiver; a “Bluemoon UniCellular” chip for Bluetooth connectivity; an A-GPS (Assisted GPS) positioning single-chip “Hammerhead”; as well as a WLAN low power chip called “Wildcard LP”. The S-GOLD3H supports GSM, EDGE, GPRS and WCDMA mobile phone networks. Innovative design by Infineon successfully integrated high quality video capabilities into the S-GOLD3H, which makes application processors or companion chips obsolete in most cases.

The E-GOLDvoice chip is the heart of Infineon’s second platform generation for ultra-low-cost handsets, ULC2. The new chip includes the baseband processor, the radio frequency transceiver, SRAM memory, and even power management for the mobile telephone. Compared the ULC1 platform now offered by Infineon, this new platform can lower the already cutting edge bill-of-material costs for an ultra-low-cost mobile phone by approximately 20 percent, to about US-Dollar 16. The innovative concept includes all areas of costs of the complete telephone with all its electronic components, printed circuit board, connectors, casing with keypad and display, all software components, rechargeable batteries, charger, packaging, and operating manual. E-GOLDvoice, the most highly integrated GSM chip available today, shrinks the space required for the electronics in a mobile handset with basic functionality to just four square centimeters.

“Market analysts see an increasing demand for ultra-low-cost handsets as well as for multimedia applications in the mobile phone market,” Eul said. “With our new solutions, we are well positioned to drive the development of these segments.”

About Infineon

Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for automotive, industrial and multi market sectors, for applications in communication, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In fiscal year 2005 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 6.76 billion with about 36,400 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.

Information Number

INFCOM200602.039

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