Last year, Silicon Laboratories Inc. released a highly integrated single-chip CMOS solution for cost-sensitive GSM/GPRS handsets. Now, combining improvements in CMOS process with trimmed features and shrunk package, the company has added a low-cost single-chip phone to its AeroFONE family. Consequently, the maker has released a single-chip phone for the GSM ultra low-cost handset (ULCH) market. The Si4901 expands the company’s family of single-chip phones to address demand for low cost, highly integrated GSM handsets in emerging economies. According to Silicon Labs, the Si4901 requires only 51 components for the complete modem electronic bill of materials (eBOM) for a mobile phone, 75% fewer than current low cost handsets.

It is the second product in the AeroFONE single-chip phone family, delivering the highest level of integration in a voice-only, dual-band platform. In essence, it is optimized for emerging markets where handset affordability drives subscriber growth, minimal handset features are required, performance is important, and quality and handset yield are critical. The Si4901 provides significantly lower total system cost through superior integration allowing for a 65% reduction in printed circuit board (PCB) area, as well as a 50% decrease in costs associated with manufacturing.

By simplifying PCB routing due to unparalleled integration including the PMU, the Si4901 is currently the only ULCH solution that enables the use of a 4-layer PCB for a complete handset design resulting in savings of as much as $1 over 6-layer designs, stated Silicon Labs. The combination of the AeroFONE software solution and 2 Mbit of integrated SRAM eliminates the need for an expensive external SRAM. In addition, the Si4901 device takes full advantage of Silicon Laboratories’ patented digitally controlled crystal oscillator (DCXO) technology to replace expensive external voltage-controlled temperature compensated crystal oscillator (VC-TCXO) modules with only a low-cost crystal resonator. A complete Si4901 AeroFONE-based design enables developers to build and manufacture handsets with a phone BOM under $16, said Dan Rabinovitsj, vice president of Silicon Laboratories.

The 110 nm CMOS-based Si4901 offers a flexible, scalable and easy-to-use development platform and is adaptable to multiple software protocol stacks, operating systems and applications frameworks. This unique approach lowers software-switching costs by enabling handset developers to either reuse existing software infrastructure or to select one of the multiple protocol stacks and application software frameworks validated by Silicon Laboratories and its partners. The Si4901 is available in a standard 10 mm x 10 mm, Pb-free, RoHS-compliant plastic ball grid array (PBGA) package. It is sampling now, with mass production scheduled for the fourth quarter. An evaluation platform is available for $5000.

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