Microwave Journal
www.microwavejournal.com/articles/9128-rfmd-expands-family-of-transmit-modules-for-3g-entry-phones

RFMD Expands Family of Transmit Modules for 3G Entry Phones

February 26, 2010

RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD), a leader in the design and manufacture of high performance radio frequency components and compound semiconductor technologies, announced the addition of four new products to RFMD's portfolio of 3G transmit modules.

The four new products – the RF3230, RF3231, RF3232 and RF3171 – are designed to accelerate the implementation of 3G entry-level feature phones supporting one-to-two bands of WCDMA and two-to-four bands of GSM/GPRS (also referred to as WGPRS). Each new transmit module (TxM) features a GSM/GPRS power amplifier (PA) and an integrated PHEMT switch to support stringent 3G linearity requirements, providing a highly integrated, low cost alternative to discrete RF front end implementations.

Eric Creviston, President of RFMD's Cellular Products Group (CPG), said, “As our customers are working to bring smartphone-type features to mass market feature phones, RFMD is first to deliver a broad product family that is cost- and feature set-optimized for this emerging and high growth category. We are forecasting strong customer adoption of this new product family, and we continue to expect robust growth in 3G devices in calendar 2010.”

RFMD's RF3231 and RF3232 are optimized to support Infineon as well as other leading open-market 3G chipset suppliers. The RF3231 is a dual-band GSM/GPRS TxM with one low-loss wideband transmit/receive (TRx) port and two interchangeable GSM Rx ports. The RF3231 also features an integrated switch, integrated harmonic filtering and RFMD's patented PowerStar® integrated power control technology. The RF3232 shares a feature set with the RF3231 and increases functionality with one additional wideband TRx port. The RF3230 is a quad-band TxM with two low-loss wideband TRx ports and four interchangeable GSM Rx ports. The RF3171 adds Large Signal Polar EDGE capability to the lineup and is optimized to support Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson 3G chipsets.