A leading supplier of advanced products to the wireless industry, STMicroelectronics offers a full spectrum of digital and RF devices for wireless infrastructure applications, covering most functions in cellular base stations and wireless broadband systems. From dedicated solutions (ASIC) to optimized standard products (ASSP), ST’s wireless infrastructure portfolio, defined in co-operation with leading telco manufacturers, ensures the highest level of integration and flexibility.

ST’s super-integrated SoCs surpass competing discrete solutions in performance and reliability, while reducing the bill-of-materials costs by up to 75%. Unparalleled levels of programmability and multi-standard support built into ST’s wireless infrastructure platforms protect customer investments by shrinking the NRE (Non-Recurring-Engineering) charges, speeding up design cycles, and extending the lifetimes of ever-evolving products. Instead of developing a dedicated device for each application, equipment suppliers can deploy the same platforms in different functions of the cellular network infrastructure.

The market’s first System-on-Chip solution for signal-processing in wireless infrastructure applications, ST’s STW51000 (GreenSIDE) offers the lowest cost-per-channel and the highest channel density in the industry. It is a super-integrated and highly modular platform, combining DSP and ARM cores, embedded memories, dedicated co-processors, and multi-standard software libraries optimized for EDGE, W-CDMA, and WiMAX networks.. The STW51000’s advanced architecture enables equipment manufacturers to implement the latest standard specifications while offering a dramatic cost reduction of the complete system. The STW51000 can be easily customized to best match particular customer needs. Complemented with optimized software-modem libraries, ST’s device offers a cost-effective alternative to both large-scale, macro-cell and small-scale, pico/femto-cell base-station designs.

All ST wireless infrastructure SoCs are supported by advanced development and debugging tools, including a state-of-the-art software solution for defining and verifying the behavior of DSP cores.

Leveraging its leading RF capabilities, ST has also added to its wireless infrastructure portfolio a family of highly integrated multi-band RF synthesizers with embedded voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO). Each VCO includes automatic center-frequency calibration, enabling the coverage of the 820-1100 MHz, 1640-2200 MHz, and 3280-4400 MHz bands. The single-chip STW8110x synthesizers, manufactured in ST’s world-class BiCMOS SiGe technology, offer improved reliability while reducing BOM costs and footprint by up to 80 % compared with competing discrete solutions. Benchmark tests have shown best-in-class results for ST’s synthesizers in phase-noise reduction, which ensures the superior quality of data transmission in wireless networks and other communication systems.

Optimized standard platforms are complemented with ST’s leading-edge custom capabilities for both digital and RF wireless infrastructure solutions. Powerful IP and process portfolios, combined with the advanced design flow and state-of-the-art manufacturing infrastructure, enable customers to define and differentiate their products, achieving maximum added value and competitive time-to-volume.

With 3G networks finally taking off, wireless infrastructure is now the second largest market in the Telecom segment. According to iSuppli, the semiconductor TAM for wireless broadband equipment will exceed $5 billion by 2009, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.3 % over the next five years. The total number of base transceiver stations (BTS) installed in 2G, 2.5G, and 3G networks worldwide is projected to grow from 1.8 million in 2005 to more than 2.5 million in 2009. The worldwide sales of WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) equipment are expected to grow at a CAGR of 140% to reach $3.5 billion at the end of the decade.

Delivering unparalleled levels of integration and flexibility, ST’s wireless infrastructure portfolio represents a major initiative to reduce costs and increase performance in the fast-growing wireless infrastructure market.

August 2006