Industry’s Smallest Transceiver Designed To Cut Handset Costs

Silicon Laboratories expanded its Aero GSM/GPRS transceiver family to include the Si4209. The company claims it is the industry's smallest, most integrated, easiest-to-use transceiver with the lowest bill-of-materials (BOM) for the GSM/GPRS ultra-low-cost handset (ULCH) market. According to Silicon Labs, the Si4209 leads the ULCH industry with its low noise figure (NF), which enables handset sensitivities that improve call quality and network efficiency. Leveraging the RF core and high performance of the Aero II transceiver, the Si4209 provides dual-band emerging markets with best-in-class receiver performance and the cleanest transmit output spectrum.

The transceiver offers dual-band GSM/GPRS operation with complete quad-band support. The solution requires only 10 external components and when coupled with an antenna switch and Silicon Laboratories' Si4300 power amplifier, the Si4209 transceiver creates a complete radio solution in 2.3 cm².

See associated figure