SAN FRANCISCO, California - September 7, 2004, Intel Developer Forum - Alereon, a fabless semiconductor company developing innovative Ultra Wideband (UWB) wireless chipsets, today announced the selection of Jazz Semiconductor as its foundry partner for its highly integrated Ultra Wideband transceiver for wireless universal serial bus (USB) applications.
Alereon used Jazz Semiconductor's proven, high volume silicon germanium BiCMOS (SiGe BiCMOS) process to enable a cost effective solution in a 7mm x 7mm package. Alereon believes that the UWB market will experience significant growth over the next few years as the emergence of the Multiband OFDM Alliance (MBOA) UWB standard fuels demand for wireless USB connectivity in both consumer and PC peripheral applications.
"Today's announcement is an important step on the path to delivering our complete Ultrawideband WirelessUSB solution. We are proud to have a foundry partner such as Jazz Semiconductor manufacturing our transceiver in their high density SiGe process," said Eric Broockman, chief executive officer of Alereon.
"SiGe BiCMOS technology is well suited to build cost effective solutions for demanding UWB applications, and Jazz Semiconductor's focus on wireless applications makes them an ideal partner," said Jim Lansford, Alereon's CTO. "We're very pleased with Jazz's execution on this project. They've met or exceeded all of the project milestones and we're very happy with their performance."
"Jazz Semiconductor is proud to enable customers, like Alereon, with technology and design platforms that contribute to successful products in exciting new areas," said Paul Kempf, Jazz Semiconductor CTO and CMO.
Alan Varghese, ABI Research's senior director of Semiconductor Research added, "Ultrawideband's low power, wide bandwidth properties address a multitude of new applications and this announcement is evidence that the industry is making steady progress towards development of the building blocks needed to deliver on the promise of UWB and wireless USB."
Alereon took advantage of Jazz Semiconductor's focused approach to enable rapid time to market for RF/Analog designs by using Jazz Semiconductor's design platform, consisting of RF/Analog design kits, silicon proven RF and device models, and supporting documentation.
About Alereon
Alereon, Inc., a UWB fabless semiconductor company, is developing and deploying complete UWB solutions for personal area networking applications that comply with the emerging MBOA and wireless USB standards. Alereon's products promise to replace the complex tangle of wiring used to interconnect today's consumer electronics, computer peripheral, and mobile devices with high-bandwidth, low-power, low-cost wireless links. Further information is available on the company's website: www.alereon.com.
About Jazz Semiconductor
Jazz Semiconductor is an independent wafer foundry focused primarily on specialty CMOS process technologies, including SiGe BiCMOS and RFCMOS for the manufacture of highly integrated analog and mixed-signal semiconductor devices. Jazz's executive offices and its U.S wafer fabrication facilities are located in Newport Beach, California. Jazz has expanded its wafer capacity in China through manufacturing partnerships with Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation and Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co., Ltd. Contact Jazz Semiconductor at www.jazzsemi.com.
