News

9 September 2009

 

Black Sand raises $10m in Series B funding

After completing functioning engineering prototypes, fabless semiconductor Black Sand Technologies Inc of Austin, TX, USA, which was founded in 2005, has produced what it claims is the world’s first RF power amplifier (PA) for 3G cellular communications made with conventional CMOS silicon manufacturing technology. The firm expects to ship its first product samples by the end of this year.

The firm has also raised $10m in second-round funding, led by Northbridge Venture Partners and joined by Austin Ventures (which participated in the $8.2m first round two years ago). Black Sand will use the new funding to get its prototype power amplifier into mass production and accelerate development of additional products. The firm aims to have its first chip incorporated into 3G cell phones available for sale in second-half 2010.

Black Sand’s RF PAs are targeted at mobile phones and other 3G wireless devices such as datacards and netbooks. The firm says that replacing incumbent gallium arsenide with CMOS silicon in power amplifiers should improve manufacturing yield, performance, cost, battery life, and call quality.

Picture: Black Sand’s power amplifier chip for 3G cell phones.

Over time CMOS has replaced GaAs technology in applications including audio chips and DVD decoders. However, CMOS does not lend itself easily to use in power amplifiers, so a new proprietary PA architecture was developed using patented mixed-signal technology that combines sensitive analog, digital and power circuits in silicon. “Black Sand, as the first company to deliver 3G PAs in CMOS, is ready to capitalize on the historic shift from GaAs to CMOS, and benefit from the explosion in demand for new 3G devices appearing on the market,” says the firm’s CEO John Diehl.

“The RF front end of mobile phones is continuing to grow in complexity and with the development of linear 3G CMOS PA technology, enabling advances such as integrated digital control circuits, Black Sand is in a unique position to profit from this technological shift as the market moves from 2G to 3G,” adds Brian Modoff, senior wireless equipment analyst at Deutsche Bank.

“We were impressed to see that Black Sand delivered working samples of their new PA architecture much sooner than expected,” says Basil Horangic of Northbridge Venture Partners. “Their unique offering will provide the basis for a broad portfolio of products from 2G to 4G.” Krishna Srinivasan, Partner at Austin Ventures adds, “Since inception, this team has executed in hitting milestones and developing new, world-class IP, and we are delighted to continue our support for the company as they enter a new phase of growth.”

“Our company is now well positioned to take these products to market by providing a new level of integrated cost and performance,” reckons Diehl.

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