Skyworks gets votes of confidence from HTC, Samsung

HTC and Samsung are each using the SkyOne front-end platform from Skyworks Solutions in new smartphones, giving a nod to the platform's integration of all RF and analog content between the transceiver and antenna.

The HTC Desire 601 and Samsung Galaxy Express 2 both include the SkyOne platform, which is designed to address harmonics coexistence issues and provide device makers with design flexibility to address the increasing number of frequency modes and bands that must be supported in their products.  

The SkyOne semiconductor device condenses multiband power amplifiers and high throw switches along with all associated filtering, duplexing and control functionality into a single, compact package, Skyworks said.

In related news, Strategy Analytics predicted that Woburn, Mass.-based Skyworks and rival vendor Peregrine Semiconductor should do well in the expanding market for antenna tuning components, which are increasingly needed to help smartphone manufacturers support the multiple spectrum bands that have been allocated for LTE service.

However, RF Micro Devices (RFMD) rules the antenna tuner arena thanks to its strengths in RF switches and a "long history of working closely with leading handset OEMs with a variety of RF front-end designs and antenna performance needs," said Christopher Taylor, director of Strategy Analytics' RF and wireless components market research service.

According to Eric Higham, director, GaAS and compound semiconductors, at Strategy Analytics, gallium arsenide-based switches currently dominate handset tuning applications.

"But this is changing rapidly with wider adoption of CMOS silicon-on-insulator-based solutions from RFMD, Skyworks, Peregrine and others, especially for antenna impedance matching, which we expect to play a crucial role in enabling higher data-rate, multi-band LTE mobile devices in the future," he said.

For more:
- see this Skyworks release
- see this Strategy Analytics release

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