NEUBIBERG, Germany, 8 Feb. 2008.Infineon Technologies AG in Neubiberg, Germany, is shipping in volume RF switches manufactured in a CMOS-based process on silicon wafers, achieving equivalent performance of RF switches manufactured in gallium arsenide (GaAs) that previously required expensive sapphire wafers, company officials say.
The first CMOS RF switch of a new family, the BGS12A, is available in a fine-pitch wafer-level package with dimensions of 0.79 by 0.54 millimeters, which the company says is 60 percent less printed circuit board (PCB) space compared to the smallest packaged GaAs RF switch. Target markets are low- and medium-power applications up to 3 GHz.
Wireless products like GPS navigation systems and cell phones typically have RF switches for receiving and transmitting data, band select or antenna diversity applications, and to enable worldwide roaming.
The CMOS-based RF switches require no further external components, such as level shifters, says Michael Mauer, senior director, silicon discretes at Infineon, adding that he expects the market for RF switches to double between 2006 and 2011 as replacements for PIN diodes.
This story appeared 4 Feb. in Advanced Packaging. For more information contact Infineon online at www.infineon.com.
