To address the growing requirements for low power consumption and increasing global positioning system (GPS) functionality in cellular phones and other portable communications applications, fabless RF semiconductor start-up RFDomus Inc. has developed a highly integrated GPS receiver chip with ultra-low power consumption. Thanks to Newport Beach, Calif.-based Jazz Semiconductor's advanced 0.18-micron (µm) SiGe BiCMOS process, the new RFD1400 GPS receiver IC offers ultra-low power consumption of 12 mW.

"As GPS deployment continues to shift from the automotive industry where power consumption is less important, to portable communications devices, an increasing reliance on 'constant tracking mode' for a faster, more accurate 'fix' in dense urban areas, indoors or in emergency situations, as well as the growing use of Location Based Services, have made power consumption a critical factor in the adoption of GPS technology," said Kevin Strong, executive vice president, Business Development, RFDomus. "The RFD1400 GPS receiver transcends technology barriers to meet these requirements for low power consumption and extended battery life in portable communications and consumer electronic devices by leveraging our ultra-low power RF transceiver technology and previously announced Q-MAX local oscillator technology."

The handset market currently represents the largest growth opportunity for GPS with GPS attach rates expected to grow to about 150 million units in 2007, which includes CDMA handsets, according to data compiled by ABI Research, a N.Y.-based technology market research company. "Low power, in addition to low cost, small form factor and good indoor performance, is one of the key ingredients for broadening the adoption of GPS in cellular handsets and enabling a diverse range of new tracking and location applications in consumer devices, a market that could become a larger opportunity for GPS than even the handset market," said Alan A. Varghese, director of semiconductor research at ABI.

Besides ultra-low power consumption of 12 mW, RFD1400 also offers a high level of integration via its enhanced single-conversion low-IF architecture. Key features include a high resolution fractional-N phase lock loop (PLL) for the most flexible support of standard GPS and cellular phone reference frequencies; two IF frequency plans with two independent IF filters combined with flexible quantization, sampling and data output formats for compatibility with multiple GPS baseband processors; an automatic proprietary method for adapting to in-band blockers; 1.8 V power supply; small form factor 4 x 4 mm 24-pin QFN package; and a 48 x 8 bit register set for extensive configuration and programmable options via a standard microcontroller-type serial port. The RFD1400 also features an LNA with matching network, an integrated Q-MAX local oscillator, and an on-chip crystal oscillator circuit. Only a few external parts are required to complete a full RF front-end subsystem for GPS. The RFD1400 is also the only GPS RFIC that can output data directly to general-purpose processors and DSPs via a standard serial port, enabling emerging software GPS applications.

According to RFDomus, samples of the RFD1400 GPS receiver will be available in Q1 2005.

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