Quantance attracts $12M, plans volume production of LTE battery-saving chip

Quantance raised Series D funding of $12 million in preparation for volume production and further research and development of its power-boosting, battery-saving chip solution for LTE devices.

The company has now garnered $42 million total funding in four rounds. Its investors include TD Fund, Granite Ventures, InterWest Partners and DoCoMo Capital.

"The funding will be used to support production of the company's flagship product, the Q845 qBoost ET Power Supply, and planned product innovations and enhancements," said Silicon Valley-based Quantance.

Quantance's Q845 is a single-chip solution in a wafer-level chip scale package (WLCSP). It offers envelope tracking (ET), a technology that allows devices to deliver more transmit power while simultaneously helping the RF power amplifier (PA) operate more efficiently. Quantance claims its patented qBoost ET technology enables PA efficiency to reach theoretical limits while increasing PA transmit power.

ET, which can help extend device battery life, is becoming "a definitive requirement" in LTE smartphones, tablets, mobile hotspots and other mobile devices, according to Quantance. "So many big players have firm plans for deploying ET solutions that we expect ET to be 'table stakes' by the end of next year," said Vikas Vinayak , Quantance's CEO and co-founder. 

The company is not the only one thinking along those lines. In February, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) announced its RF360 silicon, which includes an envelope power tracker for 3G and LTE mobile devices.

Quantance said its Q845 has been selected for several baseband/transceiver reference designs, prompting the company to gear up for volume production. "The high traction our Q845 has gained with chipset and handset providers since mid-2012 is driving our plans to scale for mass market production," said Vinayak.

Later this year Quantance plans to introduce next-generation ET products and tighter RF power amplifier integration including both GaAs and CMOS power amplifiers. 

For more:
- see this Quantance release
- see this GigaOM article

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