Altair Semiconductor and SkyCross Announce LTE Cooperation

SkyCross iMAT® MIMO Antennas Power Altair FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE

HOD HASHARON, Israel & VIERA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Altair Semiconductor, a 4G chip company developing the world’s most advanced mobile semiconductors for handheld devices, and SkyCross, a global antenna designer and manufacturer, today announced cooperation on high-performance, LTE product solutions. As part of the cooperation, Altair has integrated the SkyCross iMAT® MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) antenna in Altair’s recently announced FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE (User Equipment). The card has undergone extensive interoperability testing (IOT) and is currently being used in various field activities throughout the world.

“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.”

The two companies initially began their cooperation with a focus on mobile WiMAX technology utilizing Altair’s FourGee™-2150/6150 chipset and have been closely working on field testing and optimizations for more than a year.

“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.”

Altair’s FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE is one of the industry’s first Category-3 datacard solutions. Based on Altair’s FourGee-3100/6200 baseband/RFIC LTE chipset, the ExpressCard 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 FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE is also a reference design for terminal manufacturers working to develop commercial products based on the FourGee™ family of LTE chips.

“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 utilize a patented antenna design technique that enables a single optimized 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.

Feature Highlights of Altair’s FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE with SkyCross iMAT MIMO Antennas Include:

• Category 3 speeds of 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload
• Power consumption within the USB specification power budget (<2.5W)
• ExpressCard34 form factor with a USB2.0 HS host interface
• Available in select FDD/TDD bands in the range of 700M-2700MHz
• Full-featured, IOT tested LTE L1 and protocol stack

The FourGee™ LTE USB ExpressCard UE is part of Altair’s comprehensive portfolio for LTE, which also includes:

• FourGee™-3100 – an LTE CAT-3 baseband processor
• FourGee™-6150 – a MIMO LTE RF transceiver that supports LTE-TDD
• FourGee™-6200 – a multi-band LTE MIMO transceiver that covers all global FDD/TDD bands

Attendees of Mobile World Congress are encouraged to visit Altair and SkyCross hospitality suites for more information. For Altair appointments (Suite 4.6HS21), contact [e-mail]. For appointments with SkyCross (Suite 4.6HS05), contact [e-mail].

About Altair Semiconductor

Altair Semiconductor is the world's leading developer of ultra-low power, small footprint and high performance 4G semiconductors. The company's products provide device manufacturers integrating any 4G technology into their products with a highly power-optimized, robust and cost-effective solution. Altair’s comprehensive product portfolio includes baseband processors, multi-band RF transceivers for both FDD and TDD bands, and a range of reference hardware and product level protocol stack software. Based on a novel, proprietary Software Defined Radio (SDR) processor, codenamed “O²P™”, Altair’s products are the smallest and most highly power optimized in the industry, offering an unmatched combination of flexibility and performance. Altair is privately held and has raised a total of $48M in three rounds of financing from investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, BRM Capital, ETV Capital, Giza Venture Capital, Jerusalem Venture Partners, and Pacific Technology Fund. For more information, visit www.altair-semi.com.

About SkyCross

SkyCross (www.skycross.com) is a global designer and manufacturer of antenna solutions for the mobile phone, home entertainment, and computing industries. SkyCross provides high-performance antenna technology bundled with RF system-level expertise and responsive regional support from its full-service facilities in the USA, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan. This convenient approach empowers device manufacturers to develop winning consumer electronics products and deliver them to market faster and easier.

Reader Contact Information – Altair Semiconductor:
Ha'harash Street, P.O. Box 7158, Hod Hasharon 45240 Israel
Tel:  [phone], Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
www.altair-semi.com

Reader Contact Information – SkyCross:
7341 Office Park Place, Suite 102, Viera, Florida 32940 USA
Tel:  [phone], Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
www.skycross.com