WiSpry and IBM to develop next-generation of tunable mobile terminal front-end technology

IRVINE, USA: WiSpry Inc., a leader in tunable RF semiconductor products for the wireless industry, announced that it is working with IBM to develop MEMS process technology and manufacture its tunable RF product roadmap.

This development includes WiSpry's current generation of tunable impedance matching products, slated for production with a major tier-one OEM this fall, as well as future generations of highly integrated products for the entire mobile terminal front-end.

Enabled by proprietary micro-electromechanical machine systems (MEMS), WiSpry's tunable RF devices deliver unparalleled levels of performance; providing over 3dB of link resilience as well as up to 25 percent increased talk or web surfing time on a mobile device. IBM's standard 0.18m process allows for WiSpry to integrate previously unintegratable functions, providing a smaller footprint and lowering BOM costs.

WiSpry's monolithic integration is targeted towards high-growth applications such as 3G multi-mode, multi-band mobile wireless devices; broadband communications, and 4G LTE terminals and infrastructure equipment.

IBM, a global leader in the development and manufacturing of semiconductors and process technologies, offers a rich roadmap of digital, analog-mixed signal and specialty process technologies.

"Our joint development will enable handset OEMs to provide broadband tunability today, and provides a future-proof roadmap to monolithic tunable front-end devices," stated Jeff Hilbert, WiSpry's president and founder. "Working with IBM provides access to high volume and high performance silicon and to a roadmap synergistic with ours. In less than 18 months, we have developed an integrated RF-CMOS MEMS manufacturing process, achieved first pass functional integrated CMOS/MEMS silicon and demonstrated product performance that exceeds our initial customer specifications. IBM's execution has been flawless."

"IBM has a rich portfolio of specialty technology solutions for the RF/wireless market, that we plan to deploy as we enable the WiSpry RF-MEMS technology," said Michael Cadigan, general manager, IBM Microelectronics. "We believe that tunability will be a key enabler for the future of wireless front-ends and we support WiSpry's vision of RF-MEMS solutions for this market."