BKW9000 Family of Transceivers Improves Quality of WirelessConnections, Helps Extend Battery Life, Reduce Size of Cellular Handsets.
Berkana Wireless announced the introduction of a new family of single-chip CMOS transceivers offering the industry’s best combination of performance, power and integration of any quad-band GSM/GPRS RFIC (Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit). The BKW9000 Transceivers feature a superior receiver performance across all four bands with a sensitivity as low as -110 dBm while consuming approximately 90 mA current. This combination of high performance and low power consumption ensures fewer dropped calls, better call quality and helps extend the battery life of cellular handsets and mobile terminals.
The Berkana BKW9000 Transceivers support GSM-850, EGSM-900, DCS-1800 and PCS-1900 bands through the integration of four low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), complete receiver and transmitter chains, synthesizers and filters. The BKW9000 Transceivers help reduce Bill of Materials (BOM) cost, requiring only five additional components to implement a quad-band GSM/GPRS Class 12 transceiver circuit. No external LC filters, transmit filters, transmit baluns, IF SAW filters or VCO modules are required. In addition, the BKW9000 Transceivers enable smaller form-factor handsets by occupying less than 1.1 cm2 of printed circuit board (PCB) area for the transceiver function, which is more than 50 percent smaller than the 2.4 cm2 of PCB space typically required by alternative solutions.
“The Berkana BKW9000 Transceivers offer the highest level of integration and feature a receiver performance and power consumption that is about 20 percent better than any other single-chip quad-band GSM/GPRS transceiver,” said Dr. Beomsup Kim, co-founder and CTO of Berkana Wireless, a recognized communications expert and an IEEE Fellow.
Allen Nogee, principal analyst for the wireless-networking group of In-Stat/MDR, said, “Improved performance, lower power, reduced BOM and small size are all features that are important to handset ODMs and OEMs, as they provide a competitive advantage to worldwide GSM/GPRS carriers. Berkana Wireless is on the right track with their new single-chip CMOS transceivers.”
Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts (Tempe, Ariz.), said, “Berkana has demonstrated successful network calls using its BKW9000 Transceivers. While the RFIC transceiver market has tremendous growth potential, it is also a highly competitive arena. Success will come to the companies that can deliver cost-effective and reliable multi-mode transceivers with the best performance and power budget.”
The BKW9000 Transceiver Family consists of the BKW9088 and BKW9089 Transceivers. The BKW9088 targets time-to-market designs using an external voltage-controlled temperature-compensated crystal oscillator (VC-TCXO) module. The BKW9089 offers the company’s unique integrated temperature-compensated digitally controlled crystal oscillator (TC-DCXO) function, requiring only an external low-cost crystal. Both chips come in a low profile (7 mm x 7 mm x 0.85 mm) 48-pin QFN/MLF package, enabling integration into compact handset and handheld designs.
Berkana BKW9000 Transceivers are designed with the company’s patented RF CMOS circuits — eliminating multiple external components — and advanced digital-RF-in-CMOS technology. This advanced technology employs digital signal processing techniques to address the complex RF/mixed-signal issues associated with high-speed multi-mode cellular IC design in CMOS. This approach results in transceivers offering higher integration, competitive performance, better programmability and more stable products. The BKW9000 Transceivers employ low-IF architecture and are manufactured in the standard 0.18 CMOS process from TSMC, resulting in highly reliable and manufacturable devices.
“We have the funding and experienced team in place to ramp up our BKW9000 Transceivers to high-volume production,” said David Tahmassebi, president and CEO of Berkana Wireless. “We are also pursuing an aggressive plan to bring to market our next generation multi-mode products based on our proven GSM/GPRS transceivers.”
Status, Pricing and Availability
Berkana has completed key GSM 11.10-1/3GPP TS51.010-1 system tests of the BKW9000 Transceivers with multiple leading baseband platforms and has demonstrated successful calls on AT&T Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile, as well as selected Asian GSM carrier networks. The BKW9000 Transceivers are in the design-in stage at multiple customers, with comprehensive radio evaluation and reference design kits available now. The Berkana BKW9000 Transceivers are scheduled to be in production in the fourth quarter of this year and will be available for $4.50 per unit in quantities of 10,000 units.
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