ChipIdea, a leading analog and mixed-signal IP and SoC solutions provider, announces a new generation of analog front-ends (AFEs) for 802.11 Wireless LAN applications

Tagus Park (Porto Salvo,Portugal), 16th of March, 2004. ChipIdea Microelectronica, S.A., a leading analog and mixed-signal IP and SoC solutions provider, announces a new generation of analog front-ends (AFEs) for 802.11 Wireless LAN applications (see CI7600tg, CI7610tg, CI7611tg, CI7612tl, CI7613tg, CI7372tg, etc. at www.chipidea.com).

The new W-LAN AFEs are designed in TSMC 0.18 µm and 0.13 µm logic processes and can be ported to other processes in the same technology nodes. The IP cells embedded in the AFEs include one or several I&Q ADC and DAC pairs featuring on-chip self-calibrated offset, a multiplexed auxiliary ADC, an RSSI ADC, several auxiliary DACs as well as all reference generation circuits. The number of converters in the AFE can be tailored according to specific customer requests. Each converter has individual power-mode controls. The power-down consumption of a complete AFE draws less than 10µA of standby current. For further details, please visit www.chipidea.com.

“On-chip supply regulation for high PSRR performance is also available, both to feed the AFE and the external radio. Extensive programming features namely, programmable input and output ranges, widely adjustable common-mode voltage on the I&Q converters and scalable sampling frequency, allow easy interoperability with commonly available types of radio architectures. Several loop-back test modes are also included,” said Dr. Carlos Azeredo Leme, CTO of ChipIdea.

About ChipIdea Microelectrónica, S.A.

ChipIdea is a world-leading supplier of high performance analog and mixed-signal IP and SoC solutions implemented in technologies ranging from 0.35µm to 90nm. Design Services include custom solutions for high performance IP, turn-key SoC chip design, IP technology porting, etc.

ChipIdea IP capabilities span the areas of high-performance data conversion, radio communications, baseband front-ends, voice, audio and video codecs, physical interfaces, notably USB PHY, as well as clock and power management platforms. As an ISO 9001:2000 certified Company, ChipIdea has extensive and robust design quality and reliability control procedures that closely monitor each step of the IP and SoC design flows. ChipIdea uses CMOS technology for its entire mainstream IP and SoC developments, while BiCMOS and SiGe are used for special applications requiring stringent noise and speed performance.

ChipIdea employs today 153 people located in 5 design centers in Portugal (Taguspark and Porto), Poland (Gdansk) and China (Macau and Suzhou), as well as 5 regional sales offices in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe and Israel.