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To: Pamela Murray who wrote (14249)	8/19/2000 6:59:28 PM
From: Pamela Murray	Respond to of 18366

Dialog scores ASIC design win for Ericsson's 3G Peter Clarke LONDON - Dialog Semiconductor plc, which has begun supplying Ericsson Mobile Communications AB with mixed-signal ASICs for Ericsson's third-generation (3G) mobile communication terminals, has discovered that the power-related requirements of those devices may create roadblocks to their rapid deployment. Following the delivery of its first evaluation devices to Ericsson, Dialog's (Stuttgart, Germany) chief executive Roland Pudelko said that early 3G cellular terminals could have problems meeting their targets of low power consumption and long battery life. Pudelko's observation echoes those of other industry watchers concerned about 3G power requirements (see related story, Feb. 14, page 1). Pudelko said these problems are being faced despite the efficiencies enabled by power-management circuits that can control how ICs are switched into power-saving modes. Low-power 3G handsets are "a challenge for engineering," said Pudelko. "In 3G power consumption is tremendously increased, but customers will expect to have equipment with the same size, weight and battery life. We are having extreme minimum requirements placed upon us," he added. Dialog (www.dialog-semiconductor.com) designs power-management and audio circuits for cell phones. Its design win with Ericsson builds on the company's history of supplying analog and mixed-signal chips and circuit designs to Ericsson almost since its founding in 1981. Pudelko also said that he believes that early 3G terminals from across the industry could include still-imaging functions but not video capability. The absence of video would partly be due to untenable additional power consumption, and partly due to a lack of need. "There aren't any services that need video or users who desire it yet," Pudelko said. Pudelko's position, as well as Dialog's expertise in analog, explains why the company is expanding from audio codecs into areas such as MP3 and FM radio. "We've also started work on Bluetooth wireless connectivity. We're looking at video codecs, such as MPEG-4, but as yet there are no decisions." Pudelko said he could not discuss the circuits being built for Ericsson in detail because the chips are being designed exclusively for Ericsson. He did say, however, that the intellectual property blocks from which they are being constructed remain Dialog's property and can be reassembled in different arrangements for different customers. Pudelko said the two companies have been working together on 3G circuits for about a year and that functions similar to those supplied by Dialog for 2G have been integrated into a single CMOS chip instead of two. In 2G mobile phones those functions have included audio codecs and power-management ICs with dc/dc converter power-supply circuits. "It's a different audio codec, one that works with W-CDMA [wideband code-division multiple access] and with TDMA [time-division multiple access], but it's one that is also going to be used for 2G phones." With regard to power consumption, Pudelko said, "Take the example of voltage regulators. We can switch these off but we used to have a requirement not to exceed 16-microamps leakage current. Now it's 1 microamp. "As a phone moves into standby mode the digital chips can go into a power-down mode, but our chip has to be active. Every 20 microamps of power we can save adds an hour to the standby time." Although integration is frequently mentioned as a route to power saving in mobile communications applications, it is not a suitable option for the circuits Dialog provides. That solution is unsuitable even though the company designs in CMOS, which is superficially the same process technology as is used for digital baseband processor chips. "What we supply is not really suitable for integration with digital CMOS circuitry. The digital baseband is at 0.18 micron and 1.8 volts, while we are dealing with greater than ten volts and in excess of one amp," Pudelko said. Pudelko said Dialog expects to supply Ericsson with packaged circuits using Chartered Semiconductor (Singapore), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (Hsinchu, Taiwan), Mitel Semiconductor (Kanata, Ontario) and ESM Ltd. (Newport, Wales) as foundries. A sizable stake Dialog owns a 19.6 percent stake in ESM, which underwent a reorganization in 1999 along with a name change from Newport Wafer Fab. Dialog reported earnings of about $18 million on revenue of $83 million for the first half of this year. Both figures were higher than their equivalents for the whole of 1999. Pudelko ascribed the leap in sales to Dialog's strength and broadening customer base in the strong mobile phone market. Increasingly, Dialog has expanded its customer list, which now includes Motorola, Sagem and Siemens. Speaking in late July when Dialog's results were published, Pudelko said, "The volume demand from our wireless communications customers has exceeded expectations, and we see additional high interest in new functions such as FM radio and MP3. One example is our successful production ramp up of an FM-radio audio ASIC for Motorola. In terms of revenue, that made Motorola our fifth largest customer in the second quarter."