Multispectral Solutions Inc. announced the grant of equipment authorization from the FCC for the company's PAL650 UWB precision asset location system. The PAL650 utilizes ultra-wide bandwidth pulses to provide sub-foot precision for the 2- and 3-D location of tagged objects. The UWB tag itself is about half the size of a golf ball and can transmit continuously for nearly four years on a single cell battery. The PAL650 is designed for tracking equipment and personnel in hospitals, factories and other highly cluttered environments.
Multispectral Solutions Inc.
www.multispectral.com

TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. announced its collaboration with Amkor Technology, Inc. to commercialize a low-cost flip-chip assembly process for GaAs semiconductors based on TriQuint's CuFlip bumping technology. Using CuFlip copper bumps, electrical connections once made by wire bonds are now possible by directly linking contact points on a semiconductor die to the module ceramic or laminate substrate, the company says.

TriQuint has already introduced the CuFlip process in the ultra-small 6 mm × 6 mm TQM 7M4009 GSM power amplifier module (PAM).

The CuFlip process is compatible with standard laminate substrate materials. Semiconductors manufactured for CuFlip assembly require substantially less processing compared to products intended for wire-bond assembly, resulting in lower cost due to higher-yield, faster cycle time, reduced work-in-progress, and lowered capital equipment expenses, the company says.

The repeatability of a CuFlip-based module is increased compared to an equivalent wire-bond module due to better control of the interconnect process resulting in improved RF performance, the company says.
TriQuint Semiconductor Inc.
www.triquint.com
Amkor Technology Inc.
www.amkor.com

Analog Devices Inc. announced the availability of ADIsimPLL version 2.0, the next-generation of its software development tool for PLL circuit design.

Using ADIsimPLL, a designer can observe detailed performance data for a PLL design, make changes to the design, and re-simulate the design based on the new data, all within minutes, the company says.

This simulation tool is offered as a free download from ADI's Web site and cuts design cycles by up to 80 percent by removing iterations from the design process, thereby resulting in faster time-to-market for communications product, the company says.

ADIsimPLL version 2.0 includes the ability to model all newly released PLLs from Analog Devices. In addition, ADIsimPLL features a new PLL wizard that includes short-form selector guides for choosing the PLL chip and VCO device. Version 2.0 is backward compatible and can read its predecessor's files; displays phase jitter results in degrees, seconds or error vector magnitude; and includes enhancements to the loop filter synthesis routines and transient simulation, the company says.
Analog Devices Inc.
www.analog.com

Centurion Wireless Technologies Inc. announced the tri-band D-Puck internal antenna that simultaneously supports 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g applications.

The D-Puck is a tri-band micro antenna for portable devices such as laptops and PDAs, as well as fixed devices such as WLAN access points and cable modem gateways.

The D-Puck supports the 802.11 standards at 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz and 5.15 GHz to 5.875 GHz. Roughly the size of a computer chip, the D-Puck can also be used as the internal companion to an external antenna to enable antenna diversity.

The D-Puck features mixed polarization, and is an internal planar inverted F antenna (PIFA) that requires a small ground plane to radiate efficiently at a gain of +3 dBi in all operation bands. The antenna weighs 2 grams and has dimensions of 16 mm × 16 mm × 6 mm. It comes in tape and reel packaging for high volume manufacturing.
Centurion Wireless Technologies Inc.
www.centurion.com

Synopsys Inc. announced that it is collaborating with STMicroelectronics N.V. on an embedded Bluetooth solution. The companies say the collaboration will provide joint customers with a low-cost, low-power solution, by extending Synopsys' DesignWare BlueIQ Bluetooth core to support STMicroelectronics' STLC2150 radio IC.

The joint solution includes the Synopsys Bluetooth Development Kit, featuring the DesignWare BlueIQ core, and the STMicroelectronics' STLC2150 radio.

Synopsys' DesignWare BlueIQ Core is a synthesizable IP core that includes a complete Bluetooth link manager and baseband controller. It can be targeted to ASIC processes or FPGAs. The core is optimized for low power and easy integration into new and existing designs and includes a 6811-compatible 8-bit microcontroller that completely offloads the host CPU of all real-time Bluetooth activity, the companies say.

The DesignWare BlueIQ core support for the STMicroelectronics STLC2150 radio will be available at no additional cost to DesignWare BlueIQ licensees and is scheduled for general availability in the third quarter of calendar 2003.
Synopsys Inc.
www.synopsys.com
STMicroelectronics N.V.
www.st.com