NXP, the independent semiconductor company founded by Philips, recently underpinned its leadership in radio frequency with highly advanced QUBIC4 BiCMOS silicon technology, delivering higher levels of integration and performance at high frequencies, all in a cost-effective way. NXP’s commitment to furthering the development of QUBIC4 BiCMOS will now enable future generations of RF products such as low noise amplifiers, medium power amplifiers and LO generators for e.g. mobile phones and communications infrastructure equipment to operate at a higher performance level.

The innovative SiGe:C process of NXP now allows customers to incorporate more functionality into devices at competitive cost and requiring less space. The state-of-the-art QUBIC4 technology speeds the migration from GaAs components to silicon by enabling cutting-edge low noise performance and IP availability, ensuring consumers can enjoy improved voice, picture and data signal clarity with more bandwidth for all two-way data transmissions. In particular, NXP’s QUBIC4 process can help speed satellite tracking and fix for GPS systems, improve base station performance, enable e-metering utilities deployments as well as boosting WLAN, satellite and microwave radio applications.

“The world has gone wireless,” said Stan Bruederle, Research VP, Gartner. “Both at home and on the move, consumers are continuously interacting with a growing number of mobile devices that deliver exciting new applications and entertainment possibilities. However, as ever more data gets pushed down to these devices, the boundaries of performance and frequency are pressed to the limit. The semiconductor industry is now enabling previously unachievable levels of RF integration and performance to ensure device manufacturers can capture emerging application markets and that consumers get an ever improved level of functionality.”

NXP’s QUBIC4 process is also available for ASIC service, combining RF and microwave design IP and application knowledge, state-of-the-art low cost RF packaging and in-house fabrication for volume production.

“The RF market continues to be driven by consumer demands for greater levels of connectivity with mass-price cost structures," said John Croteau, VP Analog Mixed Signal, NXP Semiconductors. “As a silicon-based technology with the performance of GaAs, QUBIC4 enables more robust, more integrated and more cost-effective solutions while ensuring excellence in signal quality. It perfectly demonstrates our commitment to delivering new, high-performance RF technologies that enable new classes of connected devices.”