Product category:
Communications ICs (Wireless)
News Release from: BitWave Semiconductor | Subject: BW1102
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 12 February 2008
Programmable transceiver covers a broad
band
Fully software configurable across all channels in the frequency bands between 700MHz and 3.8GHz.
New from BitWave Semiconductor is the BW1102 Softransceiver RFIC, which is billed as the world's first programmable CMOS RF transceiver The BW1102 product is fully software configurable across all channels in the frequency bands between 700MHz and 3.8GHz
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 24 Dec 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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The BW1102 is a single low-cost low-power chip targeted at cellular handset and femtocell markets.
The new BW1102 Softransceiver RFIC enables wireless consumer applications to seamlessly switch between multiple frequency bands and wireless communication protocols thus ensuring global connectivity for wireless devices.
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Using the BW1102 in wireless designs allows manufacturers to reduce component count, lower BoM costs and improve time to market.
Samples of the BW1102 will begin shipping to customers during the next month and volume production shipments will begin during Q3 2008.
Additionally, the BW1102 can be reconfigured to support new bands, such as the 700MHz band, becoming available in the USA in 2009, or new protocols, such as LTE, the next generation protocol in the UMTS family.
The flexibility of multiple wireless bands and multiple protocols of operation is achieved using software mode files, a first in the RFIC industry.
This provides the BW1102 Softransceiver with the ability to be at the core of multiple product designs.
For the first time, designers can create a truly global product, which will not only reduce OEM's time to market, but also lowers overall development costs as one product can address multiple markets.
BitWave's programmable RF transceivers also lower the BOM cost for handset and femtocell manufacturers since a single chip can replace multiple transceivers which would otherwise be necessary in multiband/multiprotocol designs.
"With the BW1102 Softransceiver we've made wireless connectivity simple", says BitWave CEO Michael Farese.
"Handset designers can now easily provide one model that works on any network, at any frequency, using any protocol, anywhere".
"Femtocell manufacturers can future-proof their designs by utilising the field programmability feature of the BW1102 Softransceiver to upgrade their designs to support additional protocols or bands".
"The BW1102 is the industry's first software programmable transceiver platform".
BitWave is the first company to offer a single transceiver capable of dynamic reconfiguration between cellular network protocols, wireless data network protocols and personal area network protocols.
In addition to supporting a very wide range of wireless voice or data technologies, the BW1102 Softransceiver RFIC also supports multiple baseband processors.
BitWave designed the Softransceiver to have a very small footprint and require minimal external components.
The BW1102 is built on a standard digital CMOS process and is supplied in a 7 x 7mm PBGA package for low cost and small size.
The transceiver integrates all requisite RF, analogue, mixed-signal and digital circuitry and also includes built-in test and calibration.
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