Comlent Commences Pilot Production of China’s First Complete RFIC Transceiver for Cellular Handset – Comlent Completes Entire Qualification Process for PHS Handset in Less than Eight Months

Shanghai, China (PRWEB) May 16, 2005

Comlent, China’s first fabless radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design house headquartered in Shanghai Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, announced today that it has begun volume shipment of its CL3110 RFIC transceiver for the PHS/PAS handset market using Jazz Semiconductor’s RF process platform. With the shipment of its complete RF transceiver solution, Comlent becomes the first Chinese company to commence pilot production for one of the industry’s most complex RF products.

Radio Frequency ICs are widely recognized as one of most challenging chips to develop due to the requirements for experienced designers and multiple design iterations and tapeouts to achieve the desired results. In addition, the overall handset qualification cycle time can require up to a year in itself due to reference designs, debugging, field trials, and the overall qualification of each. Due to Comlent’s close collaboration with its supply chain partners, including its foundry partner, Jazz Semiconductor as well as handset vendors and design houses, the company has completed the entire qualification process of its PHS transceiver in less than eight months.

Comlent’s CL3110 RFIC transceiver eliminates the costly surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter required by most existing transceiver solutions and it includes an integrated VCO and fractional-N PLL. This high level of integration is achieved by using a low-IF (10.8MHz) architecture enabled by Comlent’s proprietary intellectual property (IP) and design techniques. Existing RF transceiver solutions use older “super-heterodyne” architectures that require expensive SAW filters on board. Comlent’s design can significantly lower the bill of material (BOM) cost for both the RF module and the entire handset. This has resulted in multiple design wins for Comlent with leading PHS handset suppliers and design houses based on the latest SIM card standards.

Comlent believes that the new SIM card standard, which allows physical separation of the phone card from the PHS handset itself, may stimulate further demand for the PHS handset business in China. The PHS market has already seen explosive growth in the past few years, with the number of PHS subscribers having exceeded 72 million and expected addition of 25 million new users each year. The PHS business continues to attract newcomers from the U.S., Taiwan, and Korea in addition to traditional Japanese chip suppliers. Within the PHS market, Comlent’s CL3110, available in a 48-pin LGA package, has won multiple design-ins due to its maturity and competitiveness.

“Since Comlent was founded in China less than three years ago, our vision and mission have been to provide the most cost effective and competitive RF technology to the local wireless market – the largest and fastest growing in the world,” said Dr. Kai Chen, Comlent co-founder, president and CEO. “Through heavy investment in both technology and business, we have accrued extensive RFIC IP and have developed several RFIC chips, now in pilot production. We will continue to develop future RFIC products targeting wireless consumer electronics, serving niche markets such as the PHS handset. By focusing on our core competency of combining product innovation with cost efficiency, we can offer the most competitive solution to our local customers who compete in both domestic and global marketplaces.”

“Due to the challenge of developing RFIC transceivers with relatively long design-in cycles, it is a significant achievement for an RFIC start-up to reach the pilot production stage. As Comlent’s strategic foundry partner, Jazz is pleased to have enabled Comlent to reach their key milestones using our RF foundry platform to integrate key analog functions and provide a highly integrated solution to the PHS market,” stated Paul Kempf, chief technology and strategy officer at Jazz Semiconductor. “Comlent’s continued success in meeting its technology and business milestones reinforces our confidence and commitment to offer the right analog and RF process technologies to support these emerging markets in China.”

About Comlent

Established in 2002, Comlent, a fabless radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) design house headquartered in Zhangjiang High Tech Park, Shanghai, China, is a leading RFIC provider that focuses on the exploding wireless communication market of China. Initial products of Comlent include RFIC transceivers in both CMOS and BiCMOS technologies for mobile handsets in 1.9GHz-2.4GHz frequency range. Comlent provides enabling RFIC technology, strong support and quality service to serve China’s mobile communication market that has 350+ million mobile phone and 72 million PHS/PAS subscribers, 400+ million domestic TV sets and manufacturers of 70+ million cordless phone units per year. For more information, please visit http://www.comlent.com.

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