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RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA says it has begun volume shipments to a tier-one handset original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of its RF3159 high-linearity quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE power amplifier module (which is designed to support EDGE transceivers using linear transmit architectures, including transceivers from Infineon Technologies, MediaTek and NXP Semiconductors).

Since the shipments are in support of a platform resulting in multiple feature-rich handsets, this represents the start of what RFMD expects to be a high-volume ramp to this OEM in 2008. “We expect the ramp of the RF3159 will enable this OEM to quickly and cost-effectively develop additional phones while strengthening its growing portfolio, and we look forward to additional shipments of EDGE front-ends to this customer in calendar 2008,” says Eric Creviston, president of the firm’s Cellular Handset Products Group (CPG).

The RF3159 module is fully matched for easy implementation and is housed in a small 6mm x 6mm package. Its gain and linearity line-ups enable handset makers to optimize the transmit chain to meet various requirements of linearity, efficiency and output power. The module is designed to be the final amplification stage in a dual-mode GSM/GPRS/EDGE mobile transmit line-up operating in the 824-915MHz and 1710-1910MHz bands.

RFMD’s focus on integration across all air interface standards enables the design of feature-rich handsets with small form factors and multimedia functionality, adds Eric Creviston.

The firm (which shipped more than 210 million EDGE front-ends in 2007) says that it is now supplying production volumes to all five of the cellular handset industry’s largest OEMs.

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