Arctic Semiconductor, a leader in low-power universal RF chipsets, announced it has rebranded from SiTune Corporation to Arctic Semiconductor, to emphasize its focus on 5G RF products. The company has started shipping its first 5G Si chipset, IceWings, in mass production. IceWings has already been chosen by several customers for its programmable, high performance and low power features. Arctic has been developing IceWings and other 5G chipsets for more than three years and holds over 40 patents for its cutting-edge technology. Arctic’s low-power universal RF chipsets provide exceptional signal quality and low power consumption to help equipment manufacturers build 5G wireless radios for various applications including small cells, private networks, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), macro base stations and massive MIMO platforms.
Telecommunications and IT together use five to nine percent of the world's electricity supply and with the shift to 5G, energy consumption is expected to rise 160 percent by 2030 (Datacenter Forum). Lowering the electricity usage, the efficient management of heat, and the reduction of infrastructure costs are crucial to the successful deployment of 5G. Arctic solutions aim to lower power consumption while offering top-of-the-line performance for both network equipment and user devices.
“Our mission at Arctic Semiconductor is to design and develop the most energy efficient 5G RF IC solutions on the market,” said Vahid Toosi, founder and CEO of Arctic Semiconductor. “The benefits of 5G will be felt for decades, but the energy and infrastructure costs are a challenge today. Offering cost-effective components that beats 3GPP specification while lowering power consumption are the key to fully scale 5G globally. That’s why we’ve chosen to focus on 5G and are committed to create solutions that are energy efficient as well as high performance.”
“Enterprises are continuing to invest in their digital business to build their competitive advantage. This investment will continue the exponential growth and widescale deployment and use of IoT and 5G-enabled devices driving strong demand for 5G RF transceivers,” said Brandon Hoff, research director, enabling technologies: networking and communication at IDC. “The rapid growth in digitization creates critical hurdles in 5G deployment: power and cost. Companies like Arctic that are focused on low-power, versatile transceivers, are a pivotal addition to the 5G ecosystem.”
IceWings is an innovative RF transceiver with four integrated transmitters and receivers. IceWings supports a wide range of standards in signal frequencies below 7.2GHz and enables mmWave applications by intermediate to baseband conversion. IceWings flexibility and integration allows customers to create more reliable platforms, with better yield, lower power consumption and at a lower cost. IceWings’ innovative design streamlines the production of 5G equipment, allowing customers to utilize the same hardware design with minor updates across a diverse set of use cases.
“We are pleased to collaborate with Arctic Semiconductor, an innovator in 5G RF solutions. The IceWings RF transceiver takes advantage of the energy efficiency capability offered by our 22FDX technology platform,” said Hiren Majmudar, VP & GM of datacenter and infrastructure end market/business units at GlobalFoundries. “With its high performance, low power consumption and broad feature integration, IceWings RF transceiver enabled by GF’s 22FDX platform is providing a differentiated solution for the 5G market.”