SkyCross, Altair collaborate on LTE sol'n - EE Times India

SkyCross, Altair collaborate on LTE sol'n
EE Times India
 
February 5, 2010

Altair Semiconductor and SkyCross have joined forces for high-performance LTE product solutions. The SkyCross Imat MIMO(multiple-input, multiple-output) antenna integrated Altair's FourGee LTE USB ExpressCard UE (User Equipment) is an ideal test and IOT UE platform for system vendors and carriers involved in the development, field trials, and deployment of LTE systems.

The two companies initially began their cooperation with a focus on mobile WiMAX technology utilising Altair's FourGee -2150/6150 chipset and have been closely working on field testing and optimisations for more than a year.
Altair's FourGee LTE USB ExpressCard UE is claimed to be the industry's first category-3 datacard solutions. Based on it's FourGee-3100/6200 base band/RFIC LTE chipset, the device is also a reference design for terminal manufacturers working to develop commercial products based on the FourGee family of LTE chips. It has undergone extensive interoperability testing (IOT) and is currently being used in various field activities throughout the world.

"The combination of Altair's comprehensive and power-efficient LTE USB ExpressCard and high-performance iMAT antennas from SkyCross provides the marketplace with one of the first small form factor LTE UEs," said Oded Melamed, co-founder and CEO of Altair Semiconductor. "We look forward to further expanding our relationship with SkyCross as new 4G reference designs that support newly available RF bands are introduced to the marketplace."

"SkyCross is pleased to work with Altair to set the bar for high performance in small LTE devices using our iMAT MIMO antennas," said Dennis McKenna, CEO of SkyCross. "Together, we have developed a winning reference design that device manufacturers and network operators can confidently leverage to offer end users a sleek device design with an impressive LTE experience."

Patented SkyCross iMAT antennas are proven to boost capacity, data rates, and reliability of 4G networks. LTE networks require MIMO to deliver compelling broadband throughputs. Mobile devices that support MIMO typically require multiple resonators, but space constraints and interference issues make this a difficult implementation challenge. SkyCross iMAT antennas utilise a patented antenna design technique that enables a single optimised antenna element to take the place of multiple antennas, which lowers cost, improves MIMO performance, and streamlines the integration process when compared to traditional antennas.

Some of the features of the device are category 3 speeds of 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload. It's
power consumption is within the USB specification power budget (<2.5W). It has ExpressCard34 form factor with a USB2.0 HS host interface and is available in select FDD/TDD bands in the range of 700M-2700MHz. It has a full-featured, IOT tested LTE L1 and protocol stack