Cavendish Kinetics raises $36m for RF R&D

Cavendish Kinetics, the RF MEMS specialist, has completed its final funding round with a strategic raise of $36 million, to accelerate the development of its next generation RF components.

The company’s new generation of RF components adds a range of virtually loss-less RF MEMS switches to its portfolio of RF MEMS tuners.

Together the new components will enable  radio front-end applications, including the high-performance tuning of antennas, filters and power amplifiers as well as ultra-low loss switching of the RF signal path, it says.

“There is a critical need for low loss RF switching as OEMs design radios for 4G and 5G capability, and commercialising our ultra-low loss RF MEMS switch to meet this need is a major focus for Cavendish, now that our first generation RF MEMS tuners have fully ramped and are shipping commercially,” says Paul Dal Santo, CEO of Cavendish Kinetics.

“SOI switch technology is fundamentally limited by its high insertion loss, and is not well suited for RF front-ends requiring high voltage handling or high linearity. Our RF MEMS switches will deliver a 10x improved ‘figure of merit’ compared to what today’s SOI switches can achieve, transforming the way LTE radios are designed.”

Cavendish’s new generation of RF MEMS components is based on a simple enhancement of its ‘switchlet array’ design, which has a MEMS cycle life of over 100B cycles.

The company’s next generation of RF MEMS tuners will now provide increased tuning range and RF voltage handling, enabling additional radio performance gains.

Samples of Cavendish’s new generation RF MEMS components will be available in the first quarter of 2016, and ramp into volume production in the second half of 2016.

See also: Cavendish Kinetics’ RF MEMS tuner passes 100bn cycle test

 

david manners

from News http://ift.tt/1EQAyz7
via Yuichun