[February 13, 2012]

Peregrine Semiconductor's New STeP5 UltraCMOS™ Process Technology Drives Record Demand

Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation, a fabless provider of high-performance radio-frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs), today announced that it has shipped its billionth CMOS-on-sapphire RFIC and has been designed into the world's most sought-after smartphones. The milestone was achieved with a new SP8T RF Switch, one of several new high-throw-count switches designed on the latest UltraCMOS™ process technology version, STeP5, which is utilized for many of the Company's latest RFICs, including the newest SP8T and SP10T RF Switches and the most recent DuNE™ digitally tunable capacitors (DTCs) for RF impedance tuning. The technology innovation associated with the STeP5 release has driven demand from cellular handset manufacturers and global customers for UltraCMOS RFIC products to a record number of devices per week.

"UltraCMOS STeP5 process brings an unprecedented capability to our product design team," stated Rodd Novak, chief marketing officer for Peregrine Semiconductor. "It has enabled us to develop unique RF switches that achieve industry leading results for combined linearity, insertion loss, isolation and power consumption, all monolithically integrated into the industry's smallest footprint. STeP5 has also opened the door for future product categories for the RF Front-End," he added. "And with the support of our robust supply chain and manufacturing foundries, we have achieved the fastest production ramp in Peregrine history."

The 4G/LTE (News - Alert) network has introduced significant challenges to the RF Front-End (RFFE) of the cellular handset, including a fragmented RF spectrum, which causes co-existence issues between bands and other standards such as connectivity (GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth). Lack of global frequency alignment has resulted in 28 LTE bands being identified in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) mobile standards specification (3GPP TS 36.101 V10).

"One of the most difficult problems 4G and LTE handset designers face is the coexistence of multiple bands and the linearity needed to support operation without self-jamming," commented Allen Nogee, research director with In-Stat covering the Wireless market segment. "The RF Front-End is bearing most of the design burden for performance of the RF signal. In fact, LTE's spectral efficiency comes at the cost of increased linearity and power consumption. Peregrine's new STeP5 UltraCMOS products appear to have hit the need right on the mark," he added.

Peregrine's latest family of high-throw-count RF Switches includes the PE426151, PE426152 and PE426153 SP10T devices, and the PE426821 and PE426851 SP8T devices with integrated MIPI, SPI or GPIO interface options. These new devices support 4G LTE RFFE linearity and insertion loss demands over all conditions:

• PE426821 and PE426851 SP8T RF switches. Insertion loss (0.35 dB at 900 MHz and 0.45 dB at 1900 MHz); linearity (2fo,3fo is -42 dBm (News - Alert) at 824 MHz to 2.6 GHz); IMD2/3 of -111 dBm; isolation 37 dB on all paths (900/1900 MHz); and 4kV HBM ESD (ANT) and 2kV (all pins). Operating to 3 GHz and offered in flip-chip known good die (KGD).
• PE426151, PE426152 and PE426153 SP10T RF switches. Insertion loss (0.4 dB at 900 MHz and 0.5 dB at 1900 MHz); linearity (2fo,3fo is -42 dBm at 824 MHz to 2.6 GHz); IMD2/3 of -111 dBm; isolation 38 dB on all paths (900/1900 MHz); and 4kV HBM ESD (ANT) and 2kV (all pins). Operating to 3 GHz and offered in flip-chip known good die (KGD).

The new STeP5 RF Switches are now in high-volume production and samples are available to qualified customers. Volume pricing is available by contacting Peregrine directly at sales@psemi.com or through its regional sales offices.

About Peregrine Semiconductor

Peregrine Semiconductor is a fabless provider of high performance radio frequency integrated circuits, or RFICs. Our solutions leverage our proprietary UltraCMOS™ technology, which enables the design, manufacture, and integration of multiple RF, mixed-signal, and digital functions on a single chip. Our products deliver what we believe is an industry leading combination of performance and monolithic integration, and target a broad range of applications in the aerospace and defense, broadband, industrial, mobile wireless device, test and measurement equipment, and wireless infrastructure markets. UltraCMOS technology combines the ability to achieve the high levels of performance of traditional specialty processes, with the fundamental benefits of standard CMOS, the most widely used semiconductor process technology. UltraCMOS technology utilizes a synthetic sapphire substrate, a near-perfect electrical insulator, providing low parasitic capacitance and enabling high signal isolation and excellent broadband linearity. These attributes result in RF devices with excellent high-frequency performance and power handling performance, reduced crosstalk between frequencies, and enhanced network efficiency. We have engineered design advancements, including our patented HaRP™ technology which significantly improves harmonic and linearity performance, and our patent-pending DuNE™ technology, a circuit design technique that we have used to develop our advanced digitally tunable capacitor (DTC) products. We offer a broad portfolio of high performance RFICs including switches, digital attenuators, frequency synthesizers, mixers and prescalers, and are developing power amplifiers (PAs), DTCs, and DC-DC converters. Our products are sold worldwide through our direct sales and field applications engineering staff and our network of independent sales representatives and distribution partners. Additional information is available on the Company website at www.psemi.com.

The Peregrine Semiconductor name and logo are registered trademarks and UltraCMOS, HaRP and DuNE are trademarks of Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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