ACCO Semiconductor has announced the closing of a $35 million funding round - one of the largest funding commitments to a private semiconductor company in the last 12 months. They have developed and patented RF front-end technology for mobile communications devices (power amplifiers and antenna switches) that use CMOS. ACCO is a French-American company whose main R&D center is based close to Paris (France). Their technology has been integrated in to a number of LTE smart phones found in several countries throughout Asia and Europe.
Their breakthrough CMOS cellular power amplifier offers highly linear performance yet can operate at high powers without breakdown or degradation, which was previously considered impossible. The use of CMOS in the RF front-end improves functionality at a reduced size and cost for both smart phones and the Internet of Things, as well as leverages the mature, reliable, high volume CMOS supply chain.
The latest round is led by Bpifrance, through its growth fund, with participation from investors in both the US and France including Foundation Capital, Pond Ventures, Partech Ventures, Omnes Capital, Siparex Group and A Plus Finance. This investment is timed to support the launch of ACCO’s newest generation of industry standard RF front-end CMOS solutions and will provide working capital as well as R&D funds for next generation products while enabling the company to add incremental local support for its increasing customer base.
According to Christopher Taylor, Director of RF & Wireless Components at Strategy Analytics, “Designing the RF front-end of an LTE phone to support regional and global cellular bands has gotten extraordinarily difficult. Starting with monolithic integration of the PAs and switches, bulk CMOS has great potential for simplifying the RF front-end and making it more space efficient and less costly—satisfying a critical need in the cellphone industry.”
Learn more about this solution from ACCO Semiconductor.
