Atmel Significantly Reduces Digital Cordless Phone Production Costs With Introduction of Highly Integrated High-Performance 5.8-GHz RF ICs
Reduces Manufacturing Cost by About 25% and Board Size by About 50%
HEILBRONN, Germany, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Atmel(R) Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML) announced today the availability of a highly integrated high-performance complete RF solution for digital cordless phones operating at the license-free 5.8 GHz frequency band. Thanks to their high integration, low number of external components and easy handling, the new devices will help to reduce manufacturing costs of cordless phones by about 25%, depending on the design. This solution also supports multi-handset applications.
Currently, the RF part of 5.8 GHz cordless phones is manufactured using discrete circuitry, involving more than 200 components and a large Printed Circuit Board. Using Atmel's 5.8-GHz RF solution enables cordless phone designers to reduce the number of external components down to 80 and the board size by nearly 50%. Atmel's reference boards demonstrate excellent performance in terms of sensitivity (-97 dBm) and power output (27 dBm), resulting in improved phone coverage externally at distances of more than 300 meters.
The digital 5.8 GHz cordless technology is the latest phone technology, which offers many additional advantages and new features. Most cordless phone manufacturers already have decided to offer high-end products with an increased number of features in the 5.8-GHz frequency range. A key benefit is the absence of interferences due to pagers; micro oven; Bluetooth(R), WLAN etc. since this frequency band is not used for any other application than cordless phones.
On the base-station side, Atmel's 5.8-GHz solution contains a 2.9- /2.4-GHz transceiver IC ATR2808, which is a single-chip device with integrated synthesizer and VCO including resonator, and the up-conversion mixer ATR7039 as frequency doubler. The 2nd harmonic is selected by a dielectric bandpass filter directly supplying the input of the 5.8-GHz power amplifier ATR7035 with an output power of 28 dBm. Both the ATR7035 and the ATR7039 are devices manufactured in Atmel's advanced SiGe technology, which requires only a single 3-V supply voltage. They feature a high output power of 11 dBm and require only very few external components. On the base-station's receiving side, the solution includes a highly integrated 2.4-GHz SiGe LNA T7024 with a typical gain of 18 dB and a noise figure of typically 2.1 dB.
The dualband 5.8 GHz RF for the handset receives at 5.8 GHz and transmits at 2.4 GHz.
In the RF module's handset portion, the 5.8-GHz signal is down-converted by an extremely versatile mixer, the ATR2809 alongside a fixed local oscillator of approximately 3.3 GHz generated by the VCO/PLL IC ATR2807. This VCO/ PLL IC features an auxiliary voltage regulator on-chip (3.2 V - 4.6 V) and a fast settling synthesizer. The resulting IF frequency in the range of 2.4 GHz is demodulated by the transceiver IC T2802. Its ramp-signal generator for power ramping and power control of external amplifiers makes this device well suited to work in combination with the T7026, a highly efficient 2.4 GHz power amplifier with 26 dBm output power.
Samples are available now, pricing for the entire set starts at US$ 13 (10 k). The following packages are available:
ATR2807: QFN32, ATR2808: QFN48, ATR2809: QFN16, ATR7035: QFN16, ATR7039: QFN16, T2802: QFN48, T7024: SSOP20, T7026: QFN20.
Reference boards for the handset and the base station to speed up the design-in time are also available, pricing is US$ 2000. They can be ordered via Atmel's local sales offices (see http://www.atmel.com/contacts/ ).
Footnote
IF = Intermediate Frequency
LNA = Low Noise Amplifier
PLL = Phase Locked Loop
VCO = Voltage Controlled Oscillator
WLAN = Wireless Local Area Network
About Atmel
Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose, California with manufacturing facilities in North America and Europe. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets worldwide, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system-level integration semiconductor solutions using CMOS, BiCMOS, SiGe, and high-voltage BCDMOS process technologies. More information can be retrieved at http://www.atmel.com/ .
NOTE: Atmel(R) and combinations thereof are the registered trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. The Bluetooth name and the Bluetooth trademarks are owned by Bluetooth SIG. Other terms and product names may be the trademarks of others.
Information
Atmel's 5.8-GHz Cordless Phone IC product information may be retrieved at: http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=3427 (ATR2807) http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=3428 (ATR2808) http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=3429 (ATR2809) http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=3425 (ATR7035) http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=3426 (ATR7039) http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=2236 (T2802) http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=2975 (T7026)
Press Contacts Atmel
Dr. Susanne van Clewe, Marcom Manager Communications and Automotive
Products
Phone: +49 7131 67-2081, Email: susanne.van-clewe@hno.atmel.com
Clive Over, Director of Press Relations - USA and Asia
Phone: +1 408 451 2855, Email: cliveover@atmel.com
Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager - Europe
Phone: +33 1 30 60 70 68, Email: veronique.sablereau@atmel.com
CONTACT: Dr. Susanne van Clewe, Marcom Manager Communications and
Automotive Products, +49 7131 67-2081, or susanne.van-clewe@hno.atmel.com; or
Clive Over, Director of Press Relations - USA and Asia, +1-408-451-2855, or
cliveover@atmel.com; or Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager
- Europe, +33 1 30 60 70 68, or veronique.sablereau@atmel.com, all of Atmel
Corporation
Web site: http://www.atmel.com/
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