Qualcomm has completed the acquisition of the remaining interest in RF360 Holdings Singapore Pte. Ltd., a joint venture with TDK Corporation. The joint venture has produced RF front-end (RFFE) filters which enable Qualcomm to deliver complete 4G/5G RFFE solutions. With this acquisition, Qualcomm is able to provide customers a complete end-to-end solution from modem to antenna, the Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 5G Modem-RF System, including the first commercial 5G NR sub-6 and mmWave solutions, integrating power amplifiers, filters, multiplexers, antenna tuning, LNAs, switching and envelope tracking products.
Qualcomm's second-generation RFFE solutions for its 5G portfolio will further enable OEM customers to design thin, high-performance, battery-efficient 5G multimode devices at scale and on time. Qualcomm Technologies’ system-level innovations such as wideband envelope tracking and adaptive antenna tuning intelligently combine the modem and RFFE to help achieve best-in-class 4G/5G power efficiency, data speeds, and coverage. Due to the complexity of 5G, new spectrum and wider bandwidths, Qualcomm's advanced RFFE solutions are very well-positioned to win future smartphone designs.
This acquisition is the final step to formally bring in-house more than 20 years of expertise in RFFE filtering. Qualcomm now has one of the broadest portfolios of RFFE products, including integrated and discrete micro-acoustic components utilizing RFFE filter technologies such as BAW, SAW, TC-SAW, as well as Thin Film SAW, all of which are core to developing and producing filters, duplexers, multiplexers for discrete, power amplifiers and diversity modules, as well as n-plexers and extractors for the very complex front end necessary for today’s leading mobile phones and connected devices.
TDK Electronics’ (formerly EPCOS) remaining interest in the joint venture was valued at $1.15 billion in August 2019. The total purchase price, including the initial investment, payments to TDK based on sales by the joint venture, and development obligations, will be approximately $3.1 billion.
