RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD) announced a major expansion at its Beijing, China, facility. The expansion includes increased assembly capacity and the addition of new advanced capabilities.
The expansion is expected to support RFMD's POLARIS™ 3 RF solution, which is currently scheduled to ramp production in the current quarter.
The increased capacity will approximately double assembly capabilities related to RFMD's industry-leading transmit modules. Capacity of wire bond and test capabilities will be expanded in the current quarter, and full capacity will be available by November 2007.
In addition, new advanced capabilities added in RFMD's Beijing facility will include flip chip packaging technology and the company's patent-pending internal RF shielding technology.
RFMD is also developing proprietary RF test platforms internally, as well as working in conjunction with third party suppliers, for advanced transceiver module testing. At completion, the 200,000-square foot expansion and new enabling technologies are expected to streamline RFMD's supply chain, speed time to market, and reduce manufacturing and inventory carrying costs.
"Our Beijing expansion reflects our commitment to support our customers with operational scale, technological innovation and an industry-leading cost structure," said Bob Bruggeworth, RFMD's president and CEO. "We are introducing new enabling technologies that support our market leadership in cellular front ends and position RFMD to deliver more highly integrated RF solutions that reduce overall costs and increase our dollar content in current- and next-generation cellular phones.
Our patent-pending self-shielding technology, in particular, reduces the volume required for RF solutions by 30 to 50 percent and provides customers with RF components that are not sensitive to board placement. We expect our Beijing facility expansion will positively impact our ability to meet demand for our POLARIS 3 RF solution, as it ramps in the coming months and grows sequentially throughout calendar year 2008."
RFMD's POLARIS 3 is a complete RF solution. It features a highly integrated radio transceiver module that incorporates a single-chip CMOS EDGE transceiver, the full crystal oscillator and all necessary receive filter functionality. The solution also features RFMD's industry-leading front end technology, including the power amplifier and transmit/receive switch. Finally, the revolutionary POLARIS 3 RF solution includes integrated RF shielding and will benefit from RFMD's patent-pending integrated RF shielding technology.
When implemented, POLARIS 3 eliminates the need for costly and cumbersome metal RF shields on the phone board while reducing component placements by approximately 80 percent, leading to a remarkable savings in solution size and height.