IMEC, ANSEM launch design service for innovative radio chips

LEUVEN, BELGIUM: IMEC, Europe’s largest independent research centre on nanoelectronics and ANSEM, the IMEC spinoff specialized in analog and mixed-signal design, announce a collaboration to offer services for the customized design of radio ICs for wireless communication applications.

The joint offering is targeted at companies that want to integrate IMEC’s innovative research results, and choose to outsource the design and customized development of their advanced communication ICs. The technology that is offered includes IMEC's first generation of flexible radio's, reconfigurable transceivers that can be tuned to operate with all present and future cellular, WLAN, WPAN, broadcast, and positioning standards.

In IMEC’s first generation of flexible radios, all parameters are reconfigurable over a wide range (RF carrier frequency, channel bandwidth, noise figure, linearity, filter characteristic, etc.).

This allows to tune the performance and power consumption to the specific requirement of any application, such as satellite and terrestrial TV broadcast systems, navigation systems, mobile phones, or wireless access points.

The technology enables both single-standard implementations, in which the front-end transceiver spans a single-channel bandwidth in a single-frequency band, and multi-standard or multi-mode designs, spanning multiple-channel bandwidths or multiple-frequency bands.

The reconfigurable radio front-end IC in 130nm technology uses a 1.2V supply voltage and has an active area of 7.7mm². Depending on its configuration it has a power consumption ranging from 60 to 120mA, which is comparable to a single-mode radio.

Liesbet Van der Perre, program director wireless communication in IMEC, said: “This service answers a need in the electronics market. It lowers the threshold for companies to launch innovative communication products, and reduces the risk, effort, and time to market.”

Stefan Gogaert, CEO of AnSem: “Both IMEC and AnSem bring their complementary expertise to the table. IMEC has a strong background in technology innovation and exploration, while AnSem is the expert in design services for analog and mixed-signal ICs. The combination is a unique customization and productization offering”.