Chipidea Opens New Radio Frequency Design Center in France.

Burgeoning Global Demand for Wireless Consumer Devices Drives Company's European Expansion

LISBON, Portugal & CAEN, France -- Responding to the burgeoning global demand for wireless enabled consumer devices, Chipidea([R]), the world leader in analog/mixed-signal subsystems and intellectual property, today announced that the company is opening a new Radio Frequency (RF) Design Center in Caen, France.

Led by general manager Fabrice Jovenin and initially staffed by 12 RF and analog engineers, the company's new design center will be focused on the research and development of advanced RF technology at 90nm and 65nm. Moreover, this new design center marks the expansion of what is already one of Europe's largest R&D teams focused on analog and mixed-signal solutions.

"As new generations of cell phones and wireless networks promise more sophisticated functionality for consumers, demand for advanced applications in RF is growing rapidly," said Carlos Azeredo Leme, CTO and co-founder of Chipidea. "Integration of RF IP is a very challenging area and Chipidea is known for helping customers solve these challenges. Our new RF design center, along with the continued expansion of our RF Business Unit, will keep Chipidea on the leading-edge of both technology and market demand."

Chipidea's RF Design Team

Chipidea's RF design team develops a wide variety of solutions that offer high integration, broad functionality, small footprints and low power consumption for a wide range of wireless applications. With the opening of the new design center in France, Chipidea will have more than 35 engineers specializing in RF design.

"Chipidea IP leverages the high density offered by CMOS technology to incorporate a very rich functionality and multi-mode features that highly increase the value and performance of the RF solutions that we offer to our customers," said Jovenin. "At Chipidea we work in close partnership with our customers and adapt the solutions to best fit their specific requirements."

Most recent IP developed by the Chipidea's RF Design Team includes Mobile TV Tuners and GPS receivers. The Mobile-TV Tuners have full-band coverage on VHF Band III (176-245 MHz), UHF band IV and V (470-870 MHz) and L-band (1.450-1.685 GHz). Its multi-mode capabilities enable support for DVB-T/H, T-DMB and ISDB-T standards. The GPS receivers include support for Galileo in L1 band and are highly integrated including the LNA and digital outputs to the digital baseband.

"Chipidea's RF Design Team focuses on having the best first silicon success rate in the industry," said Ricardo Reis, engineering manager Wireless Solutions. "To achieve this we leverage our proven IP validation methodologies. These methodologies are very intensive and based on our in-house development tools that automate simulation throughout the design and then data-mines the results. This enables a very high level of coverage in our verification flow before we deliver the IP to our customers."

Chipidea's new RF design center is located in Caen, France, at the following address:

         Chipidea RF Design Center, Caen, France
         1 avenue de Tsukuba Immeuble EUROPOLIS
         ZAC Le Citis
         au 1er etage 14200 HEROUVILLE SAINT CLAIR
         CAEN, France

About Chipidea

Chipidea is the world's number one analog/mixed-signal merchant technology supplier targeting fast-growing market segments including wireless communications, digital media and consumer electronics. Chipidea supports blue-chip customers across the globe, has an impeccable reputation for delivering high-quality products and is known for its reliable execution. Chipidea licenses its technology to leading companies in all major markets, delivering everything from high-precision, single-function blocks, to full analog sub-systems. For more information: www.chipidea.com