Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) startup Cavendish Kinetics has completed its final funding round raising $36 million to accelerate the development of next-generation RF MEMS components.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company’s new RF components adds a range of virtually loss-less RF MEMS switches to its portfolio of RF MEMS tuners. With the new components, Cavendish says it can enable radio front-end applications such as high-performance tuning of antennas, filters and power amplifiers as well as ultra-low loss switching of the RF signal path.
The company cites a need for low-loss RF switching as OEMs design radios for 4G and future 5G smartphones. Silicon on insulator (SOI) switch technology is limited by its high insertion loss and is not well suited for RF front-end requirements. RF MEMS switches offer a 10-times improved “figure of merit” compared to what SOI switches can achieve, transforming the way LTE smartphones can enable radio designs, the company says.
With the infusion of funding, the company expects to begin sampling the new RF MEMS components in the first quarter of 2016 with volume production expected to ramp in the second half of 2016.
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