Peregrine Semiconductor, now known as pSemi, can claim credit for the development and wide adoption of silicon on insulator — or SOI — as a semiconductor technology for RFICs.

Ron Reedy, Mark Burgener and Rory Moore founded the company in 1990. Jim Cable joined in 1996 and became CEO in 2002. He led Peregrine through the early design wins and rapid growth, as it gained share in mobile phones — as silicon on sapphire displaced pHEMT as the incumbent switch technology.

This success led to an IPO in 2012. However, Peregrine’s time as a public company was short: two years later, Murata, its largest customer, acquired it.

After the acquisition, Jim Cable remained CEO, then became CTO, chaired the board and served as the semiconductor R&D director for parent Murata. After some 23 years with the company, he retired at the first of the year.

January 10, only seven days into retirement, Jim graciously spent an hour on the phone with me, reminiscing about his career and the trajectory of pSemi. I hope you enjoy our conversation, which archives the history of an important time in the RFIC industry.