everything RF recently interviewed Henrik Andersen who is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at iCana. Henrik is responsible for all marketing and sales activities. He is a founding member of iCana and prior to tackling the role of CMO, he oversaw the product management and technical development. Henrik is focused on delivering quality products that meet customers’ expectations and provide a high level of support to ensure the best customer experience.
Q. Can you tell us about iCana? When was the company founded and what was the objective?
Henrik Andersen: iCana is a fabless semiconductor component supplier specializing in design and manufacturing of RF components for wireless communication. Our primary markets are 5G NR FR1 and FR2 infrastructure together with automotive connectivity. By managing the end-to-end process from IC design through qualification and mass production, we are committed to providing unrivaled performance, quality, and reliability.
Headquartered in Taiwan, we have additional R&D centers located in Belgium and the United States. iCana was founded in 2022 after Foxconn acquired arQana Technologies’ 5G Wireless business. iCana is fully owned by Foxconn and operates as an independent subsidiary of Foxconn. Foxconn's acquisition of arQana was part of its 3+3 strategy, in which Semiconductors and Next Generation Communications are key pillars.
Q. Can you give us some information about the iCana team? Where is it based?
Henrik Andersen: Our headquarters is located in Xindian, New Taipei City in Taiwan, where we design and validate our IC’s. Our entire manufacturing supply chain is also located in Taiwan, which allows us to have a very tight control of the delivery times, high quality control, and fast response to any issue that might occur. Our branches in Belgium and USA are mainly dedicated to R&D development activities, and we also support business development activities with our international customers from there. This allows us to provide great support for both local and global customers.
Q. What type of products do you develop? Can you tell us about your product portfolio?
Henrik Andersen: Our team develops high-performing RF semiconductor components for the wireless telecommunication infrastructure market, mainly 5G small cells, radio units, distributed antenna systems, and more. We have developed a complete line-up covering all the active components for the RF Front-End in 5G NR FR1, which includes High-Efficiency Power Amplifiers, Gain Amplifiers, Receiver Front-End Modules and Switches. The picture in the figure below shows our product portfolio for 5G NR FR1 and how our products cover all the major bands. These products are also available in reference designs working with major baseband and transceiver partners. For FR2 we are releasing the Beamforming IC targeting 28 GHz at European Microwave Week and our Up/Down-Converter will be released next year. We work with partners to deliver full antenna in modules for our customers in FR2 as well.
Figure 1: iCana Solutions for 5G NR FR1 Bands
Q. What semiconductor technologies do you use to develop your products?
Henrik Andersen: iCana leverages both III-V and silicon integrated component design technologies to develop its products, enabling cost-efficient and highly integrated solutions for the 5G market. Our key partner for III-V technology is WIN Semiconductors in Taiwan and we work with TSMC and Global Foundries for silicon design. We have great relations with the wafer fabs in Taiwan.
Q. What market segments do you cater to?
Henrik Andersen: Our primary focus is on 5G wireless infrastructure, and we intend to cover all active components in the RF front-end for FR1 and FR2. We see a large potential in the small cell infrastructure with the network densification required to support the massive connectivity, ultra-low latency, and higher data rate that 5G promises to deliver. We also plan to extend our product portfolio to move into new markets that align with Foxconn's long-term strategy of EV developments, consumer products, and smart manufacturing.
Q. For which 5G mm-wave bands do you develop products? Which of these segments is the largest for you? Are you planning to expand your portfolio to cater to other frequency bands and applications?
Henrik Andersen: Our first Beamforming IC is targeting the n257 and n261 bands at 26.5 to 29.5 GHz. We are launching this product at European Microwave week, while later versions will focus on n258, n259, n260 to cover both 26 GHz and the 39 GHz bands. Our Up/Down-converter product family will cover all the bands as well. We see a lot of interest in all the bands and are developing the parts at a high pace. Our target is to deliver solutions for all bands with the line-up of BFIC and UDC as in the picture below. We then work with partners in Taiwan and abroad for development of phased array antenna modules for customer implementation.
Figure 2: iCana mmWave Product Line-up
Q. Can you tell us about the Indoor Small Cell RF Front-End Ref Design? What makes these solutions unique?
Henrik Andersen: Since 2020, iCana has developed a complete line-up of RF components for 5G NR FR1 small cells and O-RU’s. The main target for the development of iCana’s products is to reduce the power consumption, complexity, size, and cost of the RF Front End while maintaining high performance and reliability. Our design reduces the power consumption by up to 30% compared with our competition. And due to our highly integrated IC designs, we deliver the solution in a BOM reduced by 50% compared to other solutions.
With our reference designs customers are now able to set up a complete 5G NR FR1 system evaluation test, including transmitting, receiving, and real-time DPD linearization within a real framework. Furthermore, our product lines are pin-to-pin compatible across the major 5G NR FR1 frequency bands allowing our customers to quickly redesign for different markets and applications.
The AMD design shown in the figure below is available now for customers to accelerate their time to market. We will launch our reference design with Analog Devices at European Microwave week, where customers can see a live demonstration at our booth #546. And we are currently working on reference designs with Picocom that will be available later this year.
Figure 3: iCana's Small Cell RF Front-End Reference Design for AMD's ZCU670 Platform
Q. Does iCana develop standard catalog products or customized product solutions?
Henrik Andersen: Yes, iCana does provide standard catalog products for 5G RF1 and RF2. We are continuously expanding our product portfolio and we work closely together with our key customers and partners to discuss the next-generation products. While we do not focus on customized product solutions, we are always open for a discussion with interested parties.
Q. Are you a fabless company? Where do you fabricate your chips? Were you impacted by the global chip shortage in 2021/22?
Henrik Andersen: Yes, iCana is a fabless company. The company's chips are fabricated by our globally recognized wafer foundry partners. Currently we use Win Semiconductors, TSMC, and Global Foundries. We have very good relationships with our foundries and suppliers, which has enabled us to minimize the impact of the chip shortage.
Q. Who are your customers and how do you support them via your sales channels? How can customers buy your products?
Henrik Andersen: We have customers from all over the world. With headquarters in Taiwan, we focus a lot on supporting the local CM’s, ODM’s and OEM’s. Many of our international customers produce the product in Taiwan and with our engineering presence here, we can provide excellent service for a smooth production. We deliver to and support our customers directly through our locations worldwide and via our distributors and sales partners. We are currently working on improving our distributor and sales representative network to serve our international customers better.
Q. Will you be showcasing any new products at European Microwave Week?
Henrik Andersen: Yes, we are looking very much forward to European Microwave Week in Berlin. iCana will be showcasing our latest solutions for 5G Wireless Infrastructure together with demonstrations of our reference designs at booth #546C.
We will be launching our 26.5-29.5 GHz Beamforming IC for 5G mmWave applications as well as RF Front-End reference design with Analog Devices. We will be running two live demos of our reference designs during the exhibition. iCana’s 4T4R FR1 reference board for Analog Devices ADRV9029 RF Transceiver Platform and AMD ZCU670 RFSoC will be showcasing live performance. The reference designs cover all major 5G FR1 bands and can be easily integrated into customers’ current and next-generation designs with minimal effort and cost. It is available now for customer evaluation.
We will also be displaying our latest 5G Sub-6 GHz products including Power Amplifiers, Receiver Front-End Modules, Gain Amplifiers, and Switches.
