Infineon Introduces Single-Chip Combining Baseband Processor, RF Transceiver
Munich, Germany -- Infineon Technologies today announced its E-GOLDradio chip, a GSM/GPRS single-chip that combines a quadband radio transceiver part with a baseband processor. The E-GOLDradio enables the baseband and RF functionality to be realized on a board space of less than 4 square centimeters, which is about 30% less than the area previously occupied by two-chip solutions. Featuring E-GOLDradio, Infineon's new BP3 platform comprises all hardware and software components necessary to design a mobile phone, such as power management, filter, power amplifier, memory, as well as a GSM/GPRS protocol stack and application framework (APOXI) with a reference man-machine interface.
Furthermore, the E-GOLDradio reduces the bill of material by about 30% through the elimination of external components, such as capacitors and discrete components which were necessary in a two-chip solution for the communication between RF and baseband logic within a mobile phone. Particularly designers of clamshell or slider mobile phones are expected to significantly benefit from higher design flexibility due to the chip's high-integration and exceptionally small footprint of only 9 mm by 9 mm. The E-GOLDradio chip is especially suited for use in cost-driven mid-range and low-range mobile phones where it supports numerous functionalities without the necessity of an additional companion chip, such as camera, dual display, polyphonic ringer, and MP3 playback.
"Infineon ranks first in overcoming the technical challenges of monolithic integration of GSM/GPRS ICs thus, again, reinforcing its leading position in the wireless semiconductors space, as we did before, being the first in the world to offer a two-chip GSM/GPRS solution and a single-chip Bluetooth product," said Kin Wah Loh, member of the management board, and head of the Communications business group at Infineon Technologies. "With the introduction of the E-GOLDradio, and the platform BP3, we enable our customers to achieve a faster time-to-market through the provision of a complete solution. The BP3 comprises a very attractive form factor hardware reference design featuring the E-GOLDradio and all necessary software. The Infineon software suite has been proven in more than 30 million phones."
The E-GOLDradio is the latest member of Infineon's E-GOLD family. It integrates the complete functionality of two CMOS chips already produced in high-volume: Infineon's baseband chip, E-GOLDlite (PMB 7860), and its quadband RF transceiver, SMARTi SD2 (PMB 6270). Without compromise in performance, E-GOLDradio provides a high monolithic integration level. Infineon successfully overcame one of the most-challenging issues when integrating baseband logic and RF part close to each other on one single chip, such as crosstalk attenuation. The new IC supports up to GPRS class 12.
The package dimensions of E-GOLDradio are only 9 mm by 9 mm. Mobile phone manufacturers benefit from an extremely compact GSM/GPRS system design for entry-level phones with best-in-class system costs.
Infineon will offer the E-GOLDradio as the key component of a comprehensive platform solution, the BP3. The BP3 is a small form-factor hardware reference design featuring all necessary hardware components comprising E-GOLDradio, power supply, memory, keypad, camera, and color displays. The platform comes with a software solution containing Infineon's GSM/GPRS Release 99 protocol stack, the APOXI (Application Programming Object-oriented Extendable Interface) application framework, and MMI (Man-Machine-Interface) reference implementation. The APOXI significantly simplifies integration of further applications, such as e.g. Push-to-Talk, Java MIDP2.0, Bluetooth, MP3, MMS, and allows to shorten customization times by several months in order to meet specific operator requirements or special regional aspects.
Source: Infineon