“Atmel(R), a global leader in the development and fabrication of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced today the availability of a new Silicon Germanium (SiGe) based front-end IC, ATR0981. The use of SiGe technology, the simple yet flexible application circuit, and the device’s wide operating frequency range (300 MHz to 500 MHz) make possible a broad range of applications, from hand-held family radios (private mobile radios, PMR) to meter readers. It is easy to design applications with low external component counts using this front-end device because of its high level of integration, including a very efficient power amplifier (PA) and a low-noise amplifier (LNA) for the receive path. In contrast to most competitors’ family-radio front-end solutions, which are designed as discrete solutions, this device is an integrated circuit manufactured using Atmel’s innovative Silicon Germanium (SiGe) technology, providing many advantages over discrete or non-SiGe solutions. SiGe ensures high reliability and robustness due to low temperature dependency; plus, the cost savings of using the ATR0981 IC go beyond simply the component cost — lower component count also equals decreased design effort, failure risk and assembly cost. Samples of the ATR0981 are available now in PSSO20 packages, which are both Pb-free and green. Atmel is the one of very few suppliers offering this type of product as an RoHS-compliant device. Pricing for the ATR0981 starts at 1.20 US$ in quantities of 10 k.” Source: prnewswire.com