SiGe Front-End IC

( 1 Apr 2006 )

Atmel announces the ATR0981, a Silicon Germanium (SiGe) based front-end IC. The use of SiGe technology and the device’s operating frequency range (300 to 500 MHz) make possible a broad range of applications, from handheld family radios (private mobile radios, PMR) to meter readers. It is easy to design applications with low external component counts using this front-end device because of its high level of integration, including a power amplifier (PA) and a low-noise amplifier (LNA) for the receive path. SiGe technology ensures high reliability and robustness due to low temperature dependency. In addition, SiGe offers increased efficiency — the Power Added Efficiency (PAE) value is as high as 55%, typically, helping to ensure the low current consumption of the power amplifier (PA). Atmel