- News
27 January 2012
RFaxis granted four patents for single-chip RF front-end IC technology
Fabless semiconductor firm RFaxis Inc of Irvine, CA, USA, which was founded in 2008 to design RF semiconductors and embedded antenna solutions for the wireless connectivity and cellular mobility markets, has been awarded four patents for its revolutionary single-chip, single-die RF Front-end integrated circuit (RFeIC) architecture. The firm says that these are the fundamental patents among its intellectual property (IP) portfolio, which consists of more than 30 patents that have been filed to-date.
The patents are ‘Radio Frequency Transceiver Front End Circuit with Matching Circuit Voltage Divider’, ‘Multi Mode Radio Frequency Transceiver Front End Circuit’, ‘Multi Mode Radio Frequency Transceiver Front End Circuit with Inter-Stage Matching Circuit’, and ‘Multi Mode Radio Frequency Transceiver Front End Circuit with Inter-Stage Power Divider’.
“Our single-chip, single-die RFeIC architecture is process and materials agnostic, and can be implemented in all semiconductor technologies such as gallium arsenide-based HBT, indium phosphide-based HEMT, silicon germanium-based BiCMOS or pure bulk CMOS,” says chief technology officer Dr Oleksandr Gorbachov. “We developed and productized our first-generation RFeICs, including the RFX2401 for ZigBee and RFX2402 for WLAN, using BiCMOS process in 2009. We have since successfully migrated these products to standard bulk CMOS process and are now shipping our second-generation, backwards-compatible products including RFX2401C and RFX2402C,” he adds. “We are in the process of launching several new pure CMOS-based RFeICs that serve major wireless protocols including WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth, ZigBee/ISM, and markets such as smart meters, wireless audio/video and home automation, among others,” Gorbachov continues.
“These four fundamental patents provide full protection for our main architecture,” says chairman & CEO Mike Neshat. “Our disruptive RFeIC technology is now fully patented,” he adds. “We expect to have more patents granted in the coming weeks and months.”