3G RF Power Transistor Breakthrough

Agere Systems unveiled 21 breakthrough transistors targeting the wireless base station power amplifier market. Agere's innovative products--the world's coolest temperature wireless radio frequency power transistors--are targeted for third-generation (3G), 2.5 generation (2.5G), and second generation (2G) base station equipment.

Inset is Ozzie Lopez, Director of RF Power Products at Agere Systems.

Agere's power amplifier transistors can enable much cooler, smaller, and less expensive wireless base stations than are possible using any other RF power transistor technology. The transistors lower overall wireless amplifier and base station costs, and deliver lower capital and operating expenses for wireless service providers. Agere's products have the potential to save billions of dollars annually in combined operating and capital expenses for the wireless service provider industry.*

In addition, Agere's new products help accelerate the industry trend to shrink the size and shift the location of today's typical base stations, about the size of a backyard toolshed and installed on the ground, to the size of a suitcase and installed above the ground on wireless antenna towers.

With these products, the company is the first to achieve the transistor temperature (thermal) performance level the industry has been striving to attain for the past 10 years. The transistors achieve 10-15 percent lower operating temperatures than all other competing transistors available today.

Agere's lower temperature transistors can cut in half the number of cooling fans in base stations compared with hotter transistor products. Reducing the number of fans also reduces noise pollution, a major issue in the base station market.

"The wireless transistor market represents an important new growth opportunity for Agere, and with our technological breakthroughs, we believe we are poised for success in this space," said Sohail Khan, executive vice president of Agere's Infrastructure Systems Group. "By delivering significant cost reductions, our new products will enable wireless service providers to accelerate delivery of lower-cost, feature-rich, high data rate services to cell phone users, such as video streaming, instant messaging and gaming. These products are a strong strategic fit with our existing portfolio for wireless base station manufacturers, and will allow us to further expand our position as a leading provider of components to the wireless infrastructure market."

Agere Making "Bold and Positive" Move

An RF power transistor is a packaged stand-alone electronic device roughly the size of a nickel. The transistor is the key active building block on power amplifier circuit boards, which are about the size of a laptop computer and installed within base stations. The transistor boosts voice, data, and video signals in various frequency ranges before the signals are delivered to wireless subscribers. A wireless base station functions as the conduit for routing, transmitting and receiving wireless voice, data, and video signals. Agere is targeting sales of its product to manufacturers of base stations who also build their own amplifiers, as well as companies that manufacture amplifiers that are sold to base station manufacturers. More than 20 companies are evaluating Agere's transistors.

"Entering this market is a bold and positive move by Agere that has resulted from the company's technical innovation and smart investment," said Edward Rerisi, a wireless semiconductor analyst with Allied Business Intelligence. "The potential performance gains enabled by these devices could yield enormous operational savings for existing technologies, while easing some of the financial burden of 3G deployment."

Two Breakthroughs

Agere's transistor technology consists of two key innovations aimed at improving power transistor performance and reliability. The first innovation resolves the issue of how to eliminate defects in chips when making ultra-thin silicon wafers, which are roughly half the width of a human hair. Thicker chips tend be warmer because they don't conduct heat as well as thin chips. Agere created a proprietary wafer scale low cost, and high yield "die (chip) thinning" technique that eliminates chip defects that occur using other companies' approaches. Agere's method results in thinner and more thermally efficient (cooler) chips.

Agere's technology breakthrough results in unparalleled transistor performance. They can be designed to be 30 percent shorter in length and are 50 percent thinner than all competing transistors. These thinner and shorter transistors get rid of heat more effectively than thicker and longer transistors.

The second advance improves the transistor's performance when amplifying wireless signals. Using its patent-pending, high-density, low resistance electrical connections, Agere created a transistor with reduced resistance and parasitic capacitance. This leads to transistors with higher gain and efficiency, two key parameters in selecting transistors for use in wireless power amplifiers.

Transistors Use High Performance LDMOS Technology

The new product family features laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) process technology, the highest performing and most widely deployed for RF power transistors.

These 21 new products substantially broaden Agere's leading portfolio of base station components, such as digital signal processors and network processors, and help the company offer a comprehensive system solution for these applications. Agere plans to sell these transistors both in tandem with and separate from all the other components it sells for wireless base stations.

Agere is shipping the transistors in sample quantities and expects to ship in production quantities in the third quarter of this year. Prices for Agere's transistors range from $12 to $207 in quantities of 10,000.

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