World’s First 3G CMOS RF Power Amplifier
World’s First 3G CMOS RF Power Amplifier
8th September , 2009
US : Black Sand Technologies announced that it has produced the world’s first 3G CMOS RF Power Amplifier (PA). Black Sand’s proprietary CMOS PA architecture offers a breakthrough in combined performance, cost, battery life, and reliability for mobile devices such as mobile phones and datacards.
Inset shows the 3G CMOS RF Power Amplifier board.
The company also announced today that it has received US$10 million in its second round of funding. The round was led by Northbridge Venture Partners and joined by Austin Ventures, bringing the total investment in the company to US$18.2 million. Black Sand will use the funding to bring its power amplifiers into mass production and accelerate development of additional products.
Black Sand’s RF PA products are targeted at mobile phones and other 3G wireless devices, such as datacards and netbooks. Mobile phones and wireless products today use power amplifiers based on Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor technology. Replacing GaAs with CMOS silicon technology improves manufacturing yield, performance, cost, battery life, and call quality.
Over time CMOS has replaced GaAs technology in many other applications from audio chips to DVD decoders. However, CMOS does not lend itself easily to use in power amplifiers, so a revolutionary architecture was required. “By leveraging our breakthrough PA architecture, Black Sand, as the first company to deliver 3G PAs in CMOS, is ready to capitalize on the historic shift from GaAs to CMOS, and benefit from the explosion in demand for new 3G devices appearing on the market today,” said John Diehl, CEO of Black Sand Technologies.
“The RF front end of mobile phones is continuing to grow in complexity and with the development of linear, 3G CMOS PA technology, enabling advances such as integrated digital control circuits, Black Sand is in a unique position to profit from this technological shift as the market moves from 2G to 3G,” added Brian Modoff, Senior Wireless Equipment Analyst at Deutsche Bank.
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