Atmel, Motorola SPS Agreement Aims to Meet High Wireless Chip Demand; Companies Announce Licensing of Advanced BiCMOS Technology for Portable Wireless Applications.Business Editors/High Tech Writers SAN JOSE San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. & PHOENIX, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2000 Atmel Corporation (Nasdaq:ATML ATML Automatic Test Markup Language ATML Automated Test Markup Language ) and the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :MOT) today announced a licensing agreement that will enable the companies to ensure a reliable supply of one of the hottest technologies for wireless applications; Radio Frequency (RF) BICMOS (BIpolarCMOS) A type of integrated circuit that uses both bipolar and CMOS technologies. The logic gates are primarily made of CMOS, but their output stages use bipolar junction transistors (BJTs). . The agreement provides for Motorola to share its Bipolar Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor See CMOS. (integrated circuit) Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor - (CMOS) A semiconductor fabrication technology using a combination of n- and p-doped semiconductor material to achieve low power dissipation. (BiCMOS) technology with Atmel. This will enable Atmel to immediately provide wireless OEMs with products designed in a process that is fully mask-compatible with Motorola's advanced 0.35um RF BiCMOS technology. The result will help to meet demand for high integration RF Integrated Circuits (RFICs), for low-voltage portable wireless applications. "As a major supplier of RF/IF (Radio Frequency/Intermediate Frequency) BiCMOS integrated circuits to the wireless market, Motorola is committed to a strategy that provides its customers with a viable alternate source. This licensing agreement allows our customers to source Motorola's 0.35um Advanced RF BiCMOS technology directly from Atmel," said Behrooz Abdi, general manager of Motorola's RF/IF Division. "We'll continue to pursue both foundry and second-source arrangements to ensure supplies to our customers in this accelerating market." This is the third generation of Motorola's BiCMOS technology to be manufactured by Atmel. Motorola indicated that the decision to license the latest generation of BiCMOS technology is based on Atmel's long history of high-quality BiCMOS manufacturing, and their record of prior service to Motorola's customers. "We are extremely pleased that Motorola has once again chosen Atmel as a worthy supplier of advanced RF BiCMOS process technology. These processes and products are some of the most difficult to bring to high volume production, and Atmel has historically proven its low-cost manufacturing capabilities in this area," commented Tony Giraudo, vice president and general manager of RF wireless products at Atmel Corporation. "The world is going portable, and the world is going wireless. From 3G cellular phones to wireless networks, to portable computer keyboards and mice, to residential lighting control -- everything will be enhanced by affordable wireless technology. By employing this advanced BiCMOS process, as well as Atmel's own RF CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) Pronounced "c-moss." The most widely used integrated circuit design. It is found in almost every electronic product from handheld devices to mainframes. , BiCMOS, and Silicon Germanium BiCMOS technologies, and our advanced packaging and test techniques, we will be ready to meet the demands of today's fast growing portable wireless market," Mr. Giraudo continued. The licensed technology has a 0.35um feature size and an NPN (1) See new public network. (2) (Negative Positive Negative) See PN junction. transition frequency (ft) of 28GHz. BiCMOS technology enables high levels of integration, such that a single device can contain RF mixers, low-noise amplifiers, voltage controlled oscillators, gain-controlled amplifiers, and frequency synthesizers, as well as baseband analog functions (signal strength detectors and filters), and significant digital circuitry. It is suitable for portable wireless applications such as cellular phones, cordless phones, GPS receivers, wireless local area networks (LANs), and transceivers for the unlicensed Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM See ISM band. ) bands up to 2400MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. . ABOUT ATMEL Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose, California San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Santa Clara County. with principal manufacturing facilities in Colorado Springs, Colorado The City of Colorado Springs is the second most populous city (after Denver) in the state of Colorado and the 48th most populous city in the United States.[4] The city is the county seat of El Paso County. ; Irving, Texas; Grenoble, Nantes and Rousset, France; and Heilbronn, Germany. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets on a worldwide basis advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system-level integration semiconductor solutions using advanced CMOS, BiCMOS, bipolar and SiGe process technologies. ABOUT MOTOROLA As the world's number 1 producer of embedded processors, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector offers multiple DigitalDNA(TM) technologies which enable its customers to create "smart" products and new business opportunities in the networking and computing, wireless communications, transportation, and imaging and entertainment markets. Motorola's worldwide semiconductor sales were $7.4 billion (USD USD In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the U.S. Dollar. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) in 1999. http://www.motorola.com/semiconductors/ Atmel product and financial information are available from its Fax-on-Demand service. In North America call 800/292-8635 or Internationally, call 408/441-0732. Requests may be made via e-mail to literature@atmel.com or by visiting Atmel's web site at www.atmel.com. Atmel, the Atmel logo and combinations thereof and others contained herein, are trademarks of Atmel Corporation. Terms and product names in this document may be the trademarks of others. DigitalDNA is a trademark of Motorola, Inc. |
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