News and New Products

Qualcomm moves 3G chips to 45-nm process

By Suzanne Deffree, News Editor -- EDN, 11/14/2007

Qualcomm Inc. Tuesday announced that it has made the first phone call on a 3G chip manufactured with 45-nm process technology.

Qualcomm's call was made on the 45-nm chips received from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry.

“Thanks to our close strategic foundry partner relationship with TSMC, Qualcomm is able to leverage leading-edge semiconductor process technology to advance wireless communications,” said Steve Mollenkopf, senior VP of product management for Qualcomm CDMA technologies, in a statement. “This milestone call demonstrates our progress toward bringing to market a new generation of chips that will provide users with unprecedented performance and capabilities.”

Qualcomm did not state the technical details of the 45-nm chips in its release. However, industry sources report three new 45-nm single-chip solutions targeted for mass-market smartphones that include integrated solutions on dual core technology, multi-band RF transceiver, ARM11 apps processor, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR, FM radio, GPS and a 5 Mpixel camera. Sources report the chipsets support UMTS or EV-DO Rev B, with full backward compatibility and GPS functionality, and that sampling isn't expected until Q4 2008, with ramp likely to follow in 2009.

Qualcomm in August taped out on its low-power-optimized 45-nm process using advanced immersion lithography and extreme low-k inter-metal dielectric material. At the same time, the San Diego-based announced it had begun work on 40-nm process technology.  The fabless company had laid out its 45-nm strategy with TSMC, its traditional foundry partner, in November 2006.

“The first-time silicon success of Qualcomm's 3G product using TSMC's 45-nm process is a testament to the integrated foundry model that calls for end-to-end collaboration,” said Mark Liu, senior VP of operations II at TSMC, in the statement. “The confluence of Qualcomm's excellent designs and TSMC's robust technologies and manufacturing will continue to assure future silicon success.”

In related news, Qualcomm announced legal wins in its cases with Nokia in The Netherlands and Germany today.