Peregrine Semiconductor

Peregrine Semiconductor
Industry Semiconductor
Founded 1990
Headquarters San Diego, USA
Key people
 CEO: Jim Cable
Founders: Ron Reedy
Mark Burgener
Rory Moore
Number of employees
 370
Slogan The Inventor of RF SOI
Website www.psemi.com

Peregrine Semiconductor is a San Diego-based manufacturer of high-performance RF (radio frequency) CMOS integrated circuits. A Murata Manufacturing company since December 2014, the company's products are used in aerospace and defense, broadband, industrial, mobile wireless device, test and measurement equipment and wireless infrastructure markets.[1] Peregrine's UltraCMOS technology is a proprietary implementation of silicon on sapphire (SOS)[2] and silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates that enables high levels of monolithic integration.

History

The company was founded in 1990 by former NOSC (Naval Ocean Systems Center) researchers Dr. Ron Reedy and Dr. Mark Burgener, along with partner Rory Moore. Reedy served as the CEO from 1990 to 1998, followed by Stav Prodromou from 1999 to 2002. Since then, Dr. James "Jim" Cable has served as the company's CEO.[3]

In May 2010 Peregrine entered a joint development agreement[4] with IBM Microelectronics for the development and manufacture of future generations of Peregrine's UltraCMOS process, with migration to 200mm wafers that facilitates the evolution of the process to advanced 180 nm, 130 nm and 90 nm nodes. Peregrine also believes that the agreement provides access to advanced manufacturing toolsets and enables expanded digital integration capability with RF CMOS. According to an article by[5] EDN executive editor Ron Wilson, with mobile operators like China Mobile and Vodafone needing handsets with 11 or 12 bands and air interfaces, "designers need high levels of front end integration".

On November 19, 2010 Peregrine filed a preliminary prospectus S-1 registration statement in preparation for a IPO.[6] On August 8, 2012 Peregrine Semiconductor stock began trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol PSMI. The IPO raised $77 million for the company.[7]

On August 22, 2014 Murata Electronics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Murata Manufacturing, and Peregrine announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Murata will acquire all outstanding shares of Peregrine not owned by Murata. [8] On December 12, 2014, Murata and Peregrine announced completion of the acquisition. The total deal was worth $471 million including shares already held by Murata.[9] Peregrine continues to market its RF solutions under the Peregrine brand, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Murata Electronics North America, Inc.[10]

Products

Peregrine has about 150 products used in applications such as cellular base stations, medical devices, public safety radios, test and measurement equipment and mobile handsets.[11] In their handset business, Peregrine components are found in devices such as the Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3, iPhone 5S and iPad Air.[12]

In Feb. 2014 Peregrine announced UltraCMOS Global 1, a specialized wireless chip that combines different radio frequency functions on a single microchip[7] and claims to let a single phone connect to more than 40 frequency bands.[13] Peregrine also claims that the power amplifier embedded on the Global 1 chip provides the same level of performance as the competing technology, gallium arsenide (GaAS). Global 1 will not be in volume production until late 2015 and will compete with Qualcomm's RF360 chip.[7]

Accomplishments

For their development of the silicon on sapphire technologies, founders Reedy & Burgener earned the IEEE Daniel E. Noble Award for Emerging Technology in 2011.[14]

In Oct. 2013 Peregrine announced that they had shipped their two billionth chip in an order to Murata Manufacturing company.[15]

External links

References

  1. ↑ Hargrave, Marshall (Nov 14, 2013). "Peregrine Semiconductor: Misunderstood And Mispriced Apple Supplier". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  2. ↑ IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 9 Issue 1, Jan. 1988 High-quality CMOS in thin (100 nm) silicon on sapphire
  3. ↑ Press Release James Cable, CEO & Stav Prodromou, Chairman
  4. ↑ EE Times
  5. ↑ EDN
  6. ↑ S-1 Statement (Amendment 2)
  7. 1 2 3 Bigelow, Bruce (August 7, 2012). "After Persevering for 22 Years, Peregrine Semiconductor Marks IPO". Xconomy. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  8. ↑ "Murata Electronics to Acquire Peregrine Semi (PSMI) in Net $465M Deal". Street Insider.
  9. ↑ Maan, Lehar (22 August 2014). "UPDATE 2-Japan's Murata to buy Peregrine Semiconductor for $465 mln". Reuters. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "Murata Completes Acquisition of Peregrine Semiconductor". PR Newswire. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  11. ↑ Freeman, Mike (13 December 2013). "Peregrine Semiconductor keeping the pace". U-T San Diego. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  12. ↑ Bedigian, Louis (Nov 9, 2013). "Apple Supplier Peregrine Semiconductor Is In More iPhones, iPads Than Investors Realize". Benzinga. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  13. ↑ Fitchard, Kevin (7 February 2014). "The first smartphone powered end-to-end by Qualcomm will debut this year". GigaOM. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  14. ↑ IEEE Noble Awards
  15. ↑ SDBJ Staff (Oct 31, 2013). "Peregrine Ships Its 2 Billionth Chip". NBC San Diego. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
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