SWID selects TowerJazz as strategic foundry for high performance RF ICs

SHENZHEN, CHINA & NEWPORT BEACH, USA: Southwest Integrated Circuit Design (SWID), a fabless IC design company, and TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, announced that SWID has selected TowerJazz’s proven SiGe BiCMOS process technologies to develop its latest high performance RF integrated circuits (ICs). SWID is announcing availability of an integrated walkie-talkie chip (XN239) and a low noise amplifier (XN255) to complement its fully integrated RF tuner previously announced.

SWID’s XN239 is manufactured using TowerJazz’s SBC35 process and is a multi-functional transceiver chip for walkie-talkies. It includes a built-in power detector as well as an MPU to perform functional control through a serial interface which can significantly reduce the need of other discrete components and reduce the total BOM cost of the walkie-talkie.

XN239 realizes a good noise figure for the transmission and receiver design of audio-frequency walkie-talkies; its radio frequency is 460Mhz; its first-order IF (intermediate frequency) is 21.7Mhz; and its 2nd IF is 450Khz or 455Khz which can support dual frequency conversion.

SWID’s XN255 is built using TowerJazz’s SBC18 process and is a low noise amplifier (LNA) for GPS applications. SiGe BiCMOS technology enables both the high gain and low noise required for sensitive GPS receivers. With XN255 placed at the front-end of a GPS receiver, it can increase the sensitivity of the signal receiver so the GPS can be used in many different environments. XN255 can be operated with a 2.7V ~ 3.3V voltage source, and its current consumption is only 3mA, with an idle current less than 10uA which allows very low power consumption.

“Again we have chosen TowerJazz to manufacture our successful products as they offer very reliable technologies, extremely accurate models and excellent technical support which enables us to achieve first time silicon success and to reduce our design cycle time,” said Lin Fan, president of SWID. “We fully trust TowerJazz as a strong technology and solution provider and we look forward to continuing to work together on several other products.”

“SWID leverages our SiGe BiCMOS process to enable better noise performance over standard CMOS and better integration of RF functions,” said Dr. Marco Racanelli, senior VP and GM, RF and High Performance Analog Business Group, TowerJazz. “SWID is a very important customer and an RF communication applications leader as well as a significant company within the Chinese region and we will continue to support them as their strategic foundry of choice for SiGe solutions.”