Infineon Hits Bulk-CMOS RF Switch Milestone

Article By : Infineon

5 billion units shipped

Singapore – 29 August 2018 – Bulk-CMOS radio frequency (RF) switches, crucial to wireless communications, have grown in tandem with the unprecedented growth in mobile communication devices over the past decade. Innovators in wireless markets across the world welcome Infineon Technologies’ well-engineered portfolio and products. By now, the company reached a yearly run-rate far above one billion and a cumulated number of five billion radio frequency bulk-CMOS switch shipments to its valued customers.

Highest quality standards and industry-leading semiconductor components through innovation and manufacturing from Infineon: underscoring strong RF front-end system understanding and proven expertise in semiconductor manufacturing. This made Infineon a preferred partner of all original equipment and design manufacturers and chipset distributors.

Bulk-CMOS offers multiple product integration advantages. Design technologies for RF switches fall into two categories: electromechanical switches (MEMS) and solid-state switches. Low switching speed, weak repeatability and reliability of MEMS exclude itself automatically from being an ideal candidate for 5G applications.

While solid-state technologies like gallium arsenide and gallium nitride offer higher potential, transistor-to-transistor logic based on bulk-CMOS manifested best integration capability. This ultimately enables space-constrained designs on printed circuit boards. Unlike these alternatives, bulk-CMOS requires neither extra oxide layer, nor different materials as part of wafer processing, which implies direct economic benefit.

The advent of the 5G telecommunication is placing ambitious challenges on an array of technical parameters in the hands of OEMs and OMDs in the midst of an ever-accelerating pace for the industry. Infineon is about to develop more products that foster RF-designers’ ambitions.

Availability

The industry-leading electrical performance is proven by available samples of the next-generation bulk-CMOS RF switches, the new antenna swapping devices BGSX22G5A10 and BGSX33MA16. Volume production will start in late summer 2018, guaranteeing continued supply of RF switches.