Altair Semiconductor and ANADIGICS Team Up to Drive LTE Technology Development

HOD HASHARON, Israel, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Altair Semiconductor and ANADIGICS, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANAD), today announced a cooperation focused on driving LTE technology adoption. Altair is a leader in 4G technology developing the world's most advanced mobile semiconductors for handheld devices, while ANADIGICS provides industry-leading radio frequency integrated circuit (RFICs) for the growing broadband and wireless communications markets.  Both companies have significant experience in the wireless communications industry and, together, have already delivered innovative solutions to the marketplace.  

In this latest cooperation, Altair is integrating ANADIGICS power amplifiers (PAs) into the recently announced FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE (User Equipment). The card has undergone extensive and successful interoperability testing (IOT) and is currently being used in various field activities throughout the world. LTE is the natural evolution to existing, widespread 3G networks around the world.  It is gaining strong momentum worldwide, with 42 LTE network operators in 21 countries already announcing a commitment to the 4G technology.  

"Altair's LTE work with ANADIGICS is a powerful extension of our existing and fruitful cooperation in the mobile WiMAX space," said Eran Eshed, Co-Founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development of Altair Semiconductor.  "Our strategic relationship with ANADIGICS will continue to be valuable for both organizations as Altair develops new reference design products in support of additional RF bands."

"ANADIGICS is proud to play a role in the development of 4G solutions such as LTE.  By working with leaders like Altair, not just to enable but to drive 4G and LTE adoption, we make it possible for operators to migrate their networks to new technologies that support the next generation of wireless applications," commented Greg White, senior vice president of RF Products at ANADIGICS, Inc. "Our collaboration with Altair emphasizes the importance of having innovative RF products that provide our partners and customers with industry leading solutions for advanced 3G and 4G applications.  We are pleased to be providing LTE PAs that enable Altair's FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE to provide exceptional performance on data upload with low power consumption."

Altair's FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE is one of the industry's first Category-3 datacard solutions. Based on Altair's FourGee-3100/6200 baseband/RFIC LTE chipset, the ExpressCard is an ideal test and IOT UE platform for system vendors and carriers involved in the development, trialing and deployment of LTE systems. The FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE is also a reference design for terminal manufacturers working to develop commercial products based on the FourGee™ family of LTE chips.  ANADIGICS power amplifiers are recognized for their high linearity and high efficiency in the industry's smallest packages.

Altair's FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE Feature Highlights Include:

• Category 3 speeds of 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload
• Power consumption within the USB specification power budget (<2.5W)
• ExpressCard34 form factor with a USB2.0 HS host interface
• Available in select FDD/TDD bands in the range of 700M-2700MHz
• Full-featured, IOT tested LTE L1 and protocol stack

The FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE is part of Altair's comprehensive portfolio for LTE, which also includes:

• FourGee™-3100 – an LTE CAT-3 baseband processor
• FourGee™-6150 – a MIMO LTE RF transceiver that supports LTE-TDD
• FourGee™-6200 – a multi-band LTE MIMO transceiver that covers all global FDD/TDD bands

Visit www.altair-semi.com or http://www.anadigics.com for more information.  

About Altair Semiconductor

Altair Semiconductor is the world's leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance 4G semiconductors. The company's products provide device manufacturers integrating any 4G technology into their products with a highly power-optimized, robust and cost-effective solution. Altair's comprehensive product portfolio includes baseband processors, multi-band RF transceivers for both FDD and TDD bands, and a range of reference hardware and product level protocol stack software. Based on a novel, proprietary Software Defined Radio (SDR) processor, codenamed "O2P™", Altair's products are the smallest and most highly power optimized in the industry, offering an unmatched combination of flexibility and performance. Altair is privately held and has raised a total of $48M in three rounds of financing from investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, BRM Capital, ETV Capital, Giza Venture Capital, Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Pacific Technology Fund.

About ANADIGICS, Inc.

ANADIGICS, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANAD) is a leading provider of semiconductor solutions in the rapidly growing broadband wireless and wireline communications markets. Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Warren, NJ, the company's award-winning products include power amplifiers, tuner integrated circuits, active splitters, line amplifiers, and other components, which can be sold individually or packaged as integrated radio frequency and front end modules. For more information, visit www.anadigics.com.

SOURCE Altair Semiconductor