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Sequoia Communications Demonstrates the Industry’s First Single-Chip,
Multi-Mode WEDGE RF Transceiver at 3GSM

 

Company solves WCDMA multi-mode RF dilemma to deliver reduced cost, size and power consumption requirements for 3G handsets

 

3GSM World Congress, Barcelona, Spain February 13, 2006 –
Sequoia Communications, the RF semiconductor company setting new benchmarks in multi-mode design and integration, today announced the Company will conduct live demonstrations of SEQ5400, the industry’s first single-chip, multi-mode WEDGE (WCDMA, HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS, GSM) RF transceiver, based on Sequoia Communications’ FullSpectra™ polar architecture. The demonstrations will take place during the 2006 3GSM World Conference in Barcelona, Spain, February 13-16, in Booths J26 and J27, Hall 2, Level 1. Sequoia Communications will show the modulation of GSM/GPRS, EDGE and WCDMA signals using a polar architecture—an industry first.

Polar modulation splits the signal into its phase and amplitude components and is the basis for most GSM and EDGE phones due to its ability to reduce power consumption. By extending polar architecture to WCDMA, it is possible to eliminate the redundancies within the transceiver chip inherent to today’s approaches, which require completely separate transmit paths for WCDMA and EDGE. Most of the industry previously believed that it was not possible to use a polar transmitter to send WCDMA signals. Sequoia Communications will show that WCDMA polar modulation is in fact possible and is the most efficient architecture.

“With more modes, bands and multimedia capabilities, wireless phone makers today are concerned with the three key metrics: component costs, size and battery life,” said Dave Shepard, CEO of Sequoia Communications. “Sequoia Communications actually has a value proposition based on all three—our SEQ5400 WEDGE transceiver is the smallest and lowest power consumption multi-mode solution in the industry.”

“The demonstration of SEQ5400 at 3GSM will illustrate the advantage of extending polar architecture across all modes, which will greatly benefit wireless handset manufacturers in their ability to lower the cost, shrink the size and increase the battery life of multi-mode handsets,” added Shepard.

The SEQ5400 chip is a fundamental breakthrough in RF IC technology. Thanks to its innovative architecture, the chip significantly reduces the complexity of multi-mode handsets.

“Highly integrated RF solutions that reduce size, power consumption and costs are essential for the adoption of mass market 3G products,” said Alan Brown, research director at Gartner. “Companies that are able to diminish size and power concerns, as well as minimize costs and time-to-market, will be best positioned to benefit from the fast-growing multi-mode market.”

Sequoia Communications’ proprietary technology delivers the highest level of integration to the multi-mode mobile device market with a polar modulation transmitter and a direct conversion receiver. The device handles WCDMA, HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS and GSM modes across multiple frequency bands, making it applicable to networks worldwide. SEQ5400 reduces overall component count and PCB area more than 50 percent above the best available solution on the market.

SEQ5400 is in a 68-pin QFN package. Samples are available now and volume production is anticipated in the first half of 2006.

 

About Sequoia Communications

Sequoia Communications enables wireless handset manufacturers to accelerate their time to market by shortening the RF design cycle of integrated multi-mode solutions.  The company uniquely integrates different modes using a common architecture on a single chip enabling effective communications across multiple wireless standards including GSM/GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, GPS, WLAN and more.  Single-chip RF transceivers developed using Sequoia Communications’ innovative approach and common architecture will set new industry benchmarks in chip cost, component count, PCB size and power consumption.  Founded in 2000, Sequoia Communications is headquartered in San Diego.  For more information, please visit www.sequoiacommunications.com.