At this week’s International Microwave Symposium, Infineon Technologies unveiled what it claims to be the first CMOS single-chip RF transceiver specifically developed for universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) applications. Called SMARTi 3G, it supports all six bands for UMTS operation in Europe, Asia, North America and Japan. According to Infineon, it is the first transceiver to comply with category 8 of the high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) specifications, featuring upto 7.2 Mbps data rate.

Designed to fulfill the WCDMA UTRA FDD system requirements for frequency bands I to IV, it is compatible with majority of existing baseband solution. Implemented in the company’s 130-nm CMOS process, it is packaged in a thin fine-pitch semiball-grid-array, lead-free, halogen package with 81 leads and a 0.5-mm pitch. It measures 5 mm x 5 mm. Supply voltage ranges from 2.7 to 3.0 V. Sampling now, volume shipments are expected to begin early next year. A reference design is also available.