Peregrine Semiconductor CATV Switches Replace Pin Diodes

PE4272 and PE4273 offer industry’s highest isolation solid state alternative 

San Diego, California, June 20, 2005 Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation, a supplier of the industry’s most advanced RF CMOS and mixed-signal communications ICs, today announced the availability of the PE4272 and PE4273 SPDT CATV switches that offer unprecedented price/performance ratio for the broadband market. Designed to replace complicated pin diode- based designs, these new switches offer a simple, economical high-power switching solution by delivering high isolation and linearity, and maintaining that performance sub-1MHz through 3 GHz.

“Our customers count on UltraCMOS™ technology to engineer leading-edge RF products which will shorten their design cycle and reduce their BOM; these two devices deliver,” stated Rodd Novak, vice president of marketing for Peregrine. “No other solid state devices can match this level of broadband performance, nor are as simple to design in,” he continued.

The PE4272 and PE4273 switches feature ultra-low power, drawing 8µA at 3V; P1dB compression point of +32 dBm; low insertion loss of 0.50 dB at 1GHz; and incorporate a simple CMOS single pin interface. The devices are offered in the small-footprint 6-lead SC-70 with 35 dB of isolation at 1GHz (PE4273) and the 8-lead MSOP with 44 dB of isolation at 1GHz (PE4272), making them ideal for PCTV, TV tuner, set-top box, satellite, DVR and cable applications.

The PE4272 is priced at $0.45 ea. and the PE4273 is priced at $0.30 ea. (10K units). Both devices are in high-volume production and are available by contacting Peregrine’s worldwide distribution partner, Richardson Electronics (www.rell.com).

About UltraCMOS™ Technology

UltraCMOS™ mixed-signal process technology is a patented variation of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology on a sapphire substrate providing with high yields and competitive costs. This technology delivers significant performance advantages over competing processes such as GaAs, SiGe BiCMOS and bulk silicon CMOS in applications where RF performance, low power and integration are paramount.

About Peregrine Semiconductor

Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets high-performance communications ICs for the wireless infrastructure and mobile wireless; broadband communications; space, defense and avionics markets. Manufactured on the Company’s proprietary UltraCMOS™ mixed-signal process technology, Peregrine products are uniquely poised to meet the needs of a global RF design community in high-growth applications such as WCDMA and GSM digital cellular, broadband, DTV, DVR and rad-hard space and defense programs. Peregrine 0.25µm and 0.5µm UltraCMOS devices are manufactured in its 6” CMOS facility located in Sydney, Australia and in Hachioji, Japan through an alliance with OKI Electric Industry Co., Ltd. The Company, headquartered in San Diego, California, maintains global sales support operations and a worldwide technical distribution network. Additional information is available on the web at psemi.com. Contact Peregrine’s worldwide distribution partner, Richardson Electronics (NASDAQ: RELL), for sales information at 1-800-737-6937.

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