LTE RF Transceiver Availability Announced By 4G Chip Maker Altair Semiconductor

August 7, 2009 – FourGee™-6150 RF chip complements Altair’s baseband processors to create comprehensive LTE solution

August 7, 2009 – FourGee™-6150 RF chip complements Altair’s baseband processors to create comprehensive LTE solution

Altair Semiconductor, a 4G chip company developing the world’s most advanced mobile semiconductors for handheld devices, today announced the immediate availability of its LTE RF transceiver, the FourGeeâ„¢-6150.   The FourGeeâ„¢-6150 is an LTE-TDD RF transceiver which, in addition to LTE, also complements Altair’s baseband processors for mobile WiMAX and XGP, offering a complete, turn-key 4G solution to handheld devices makers across the industry. Built with cost effective CMOS process technology and based on a single conversion architecture, the FourGee-6150 delivers state of the art radio performance, ultra-low power consumption and minimal external component count.   “Having an RF transceiver developed in-house is one of the cornerstones of Altair’s strategy for LTE,” said Oded Melamed, Co-Founder and CEO of Altair Semiconductor. “The FourGeeâ„¢-6150 is optimized to interface with all of Altair’s 4G baseband processors, minimizing power consumption and solution cost.  We view this as being a strong competitive advantage for Altair over companies only developing baseband processors.”   Altair’s FourGeeâ„¢-6150 Feature Highlights Include:  

• LTE-TDD RF transceiver IC
• Operates in the 1.9-2.7GHz band
• Very low power consumption
• Highly integrated including VCO & PLL, PA driver and LNA
• Excellent receiver sensitivity and LO leakage rejection
• Optimized for operation with Altair’s FourGeeâ„¢ baseband processor series for LTE, WiMAX and XGP
• Built in low cost CMOS process technology
• Ultra small size (4.4×2.9mm2 WLCSP package)

  “The LTE landscape is much more complex than that of other 4G technologies due to the fragmented global spectrum map and varying combinations of frequency bands and duplex methods,” said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development for Altair. “The investment required to develop a global LTE solution is significant. This, combined with the fact that most of a chipset’s value lies within the baseband processor, has left many pure play RF transceiver companies reluctant to invest in the technology.  Offering a complete chipset solution that covers world-wide frequency bands and duplex methods puts Altair in a strong position as LTE technology rolls out in the coming months.”   The FourGeeâ„¢-6150 is part of Altair’s comprehensive portfolio for LTE, which also includes:  

• FourGeeâ„¢-3100 – a fully optimized LTE CAT-3 baseband processor that will operate with devices from mobile handsets, data cards and USB dongles to various handheld consumer electronics devices.

• FourGeeâ„¢-6200 – a multi-band LTE-FDD MIMO transceiver that supports the most popular LTE bands in North America, Japan and Europe.

• FourGeeâ„¢ LTE USB ExpressCard UE (User Equipment) – intended for Altair customers and partners for the purposes of testing, IOT and field trials, available to order in 4Q09.

  Visit http://www.altair-semi.com for more information.