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TriQuint's organization is built around serving the needs of five major markets supported by engineering, manufacturing, sales, product marketing and administration organizations:


Wireless Handsets

The Wireless Handset market includes products and technology to help drive the growth of all major standards of wireless communications including GSM/EDGE, CDMA, GPRS and WCDMA (UMTS). TriQuint products include the industry's finest power amplifiers (PA), power amplifier modules (PAM), pHEMT switches, SAW and BAW filters, filter modules, antenna switch modules (ASMs) and front-end modules (FEMs). The higher levels of RF integration possible with TriQuint's GaAs, SAW and BAW filter technology reduce overall system costs by shortening the design cycle and speeding product development. With advanced technology, TriQuint's Wireless Handset products leverage the advantages of its internal process and filter technology and provides integrated solutions including all RF front-end functions, giving customers a choice of modules or components.

Major wireless handset designers and manufacturers around the world are implementing TriQuint's integrated technology in a wide variety of communications applications. As regulatory agencies across the globe have created new communications markets by opening additional frequencies and standards for mobile telephony and wireless data usage, service providers require higher performance mobile devices and the network infrastructure that supports them.

TriQuint products offer superior linearity and noise performance while providing both higher frequency of operation and signal fidelity. Other benefits include higher performance operation at low voltages and better power efficiency for longer battery life. This last advantage, increased power added efficiency (PAE), is becoming more and more vital as 2.5G, 3G and 4G devices incorporate the functionality of multiple consumer products (MP3 players, high-resolution still and video cameras, micro computers and more) all in a single handheld device. The advantages delivered by TriQuint's highly efficient RF front-end components and modules gives manufacturers the edge they need for quicker design turns and allows them to more easily build 'platform' designs that also speeds the manufacturing process. TriQuint RFICs, filters and modules provide better performance, lower cost, smaller size, greater ease of manufacturing and faster time to market.

Base Station

The mobile communications industry remains one of the world's largest and most diverse. Hundreds of millions of handsets are sold each year and penetration numbers are continuing to increase as next-generation models replace older handsets and service reaches areas now served by unreliable wireline systems or where networked communicaltions of any type was not available before. Base stations are critical to the success of any mobile network, forming the very backbone of these complex communications systems. Mobile phone operators need to continuously invest in base stations in order to provide a high level of service in terms of both capacity and coverage.

Base station product applications form a major cornerstone of TriQuint's five major markets. Designing critical network radio components requires key technologies including two that are central to TriQuint's technology portfolio: GaAs and SAW. Base stations have unique needs including power handling, reliability and typically high-rejection filtering. The world's leading base station radio designers depend upon TriQuint for amplifier signal fidelity, ruggedness, high performance and filter design that leads the industry.

The size and scope of this market are better appreciated when one considers that each network base station houses literally dozens of radios multiplied by the large number of base stations that make up a regional or national mobile network. According to 'Wireless Week', a major US-based publication covering the mobile phone industry, there were 13,000 base stations in the United States in 1993; in ten years that number grew to more than 163,000 – and the US will see only a fraction of total projected worldwide base station growth.

Broadband Communications

The broadband communications market includes many wireless and wired products that embrace applications for WLAN, WiFi, WiMAX and emerging WiBro standards. In its simplest sense, 'broadband' is an umbrella term describing a means for conveying large amounts of digital data across networks or between individuals and individual devices either wirelessly or through wired networks. TriQuint devices designed to facilitate broadband communication predominantly serve the wireless market, although our line of optical physical media dependent (PMD) devices are used in network transmission equipment and include such diverse products as optical modulator drivers, transimpedance amplifiers (TIA), attenuators, Bessel filters and low noise amplifiers (LNA). TriQuint also manufactures a wide range of SAW filters for Bluetooth and GPS applications, as well as digital CATV set-top boxes, HDTV and GaAs LNAs along with high power amplifiers and switches for WLAN, WiFi and WiMAX markets. We're on the forefront of developments in this area as an active member of the WiMAX Forumâ„¢ and are participating in the development of the newest wireless broadband standard: WiBro.

Military

TriQuint Semiconductor is proud of its military and aerospace heritage, serving the needs of major contractors by providing basic research, modules and components for a number of programs. A long list of individual TriQuint parts (both die and packaged) are built into many military defensive and offensive platforms, including new generations of phased array radar used by various armed services to identify, track and target aircraft or ballistic threats. The capability of tracking multiple targets simultaneously is one of the key enhancements found on new generations of fighter aircraft such as the F-22 Raptor and the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). TriQuint was named to the team that will provide a key high-power amplifier product for the JSF program. This design win draws on TriQuint's power amplifier (PA) heritage and points to continued growth in this important national defense area. TriQuint and Lockheed Martin recently announced advancement in gallium nitride power amplifier research, which points to continued leadership in this area. That leadership later blossomed in 2005 into a multi-year, multi-million-dollar research and development award by DARPA for the continuing development of GaN power amplifiers.

TriQuint has been a leading supplier of space-based satellite and aerospace components for years. Our products include MMICs, packaged parts for a wide variety of applications, millimeter wave components, frequency converters, control devices, switches, discretes and more. That commitment extends to other space-based applications, including many NASA-sponsored programs. TriQuint components rode with NASA's latest Mars rovers, 'Spirit' and 'Opportunity', while the record-setting robots made headlines and new discoveries on the surface of the Red Planet.

Precise measurement is often critical in devices destined for military service, and TriQuint produces a line of oscillators created especially for this and other 'high-rel' customers, TriQuint oscillators feature high-performance surface acoustic wave (SAW) and surface transverse wave (STW) components designed to meet and beat the rigors of harsh environments. Rugged fixed frequency and voltage controlled oscillator products are qualified for a variety of aerospace and ship-based systems. TriQuint also provides a 'hybrid' family of fixed frequency oscillators (FFO) designed to meet cost-effective high performance standards at frequencies ranging from below 300 MHz to over 1GHz.

TriQuint's service to military contractors extends to its bulk acoustic wave (BAW) line-up from TFR Technologies in Bend, Oregon, which is a new subsidiary of TriQuint's SAW product unit. BAW filters are at work in devices with frequencies up to 12 GHz and have long been relied upon by major communications manufacturers for their durability and cost effectiveness.

Specialized GaAs Foundry services also play a role in TriQuint military and aerospace products. For high frequency, high power and low noise capability, TriQuint offers a wide range of sub-0.5 m pHEMT space-qualified processes on 100mm wafers (VPIN and HFET). Our newest, the 0.15 m LN-mHEMT, offers the lowest noise figure of any TriQuint process.

Foundry Services

TriQuint Semiconductor's merchant Foundry services are dedicated to semiconductor / OEM customers looking for high performance, competitively priced custom ICs. These services use the same advanced gallium arsenide (GaAs) process technology that drives our standard product lines, providing a variety of advantages in today's cost-conscious, performance-driven marketplace. GaAs is used in many applications where optimizing wireless, broadband and fiber optic systems is critical – addressing the needs for power efficiency and handling, linearity and low noise factors. TriQuint's built-in efficiencies and long track record of dependable innovation help make custom products affordable. TriQuint also offers supply security, high reliability and increased yields through a long-term commitment to Foundry that began in 1984.

Foundry services provide strategic benefits; wafers from a secure, cost-effective source are only the beginning. Customers rely on TriQuint for a close and flexible relationship that provides our high volume experience and the reach of our wafer processing ability, plus a commitment to domestic and international volume demands across yearly business cycles. Top semiconductor and OEM companies across the globe use TriQuint because they recognize us as one of the world's largest, most reliable foundry partners.

Innovation drives TriQuint Foundry operations, with major new processes and enhancements released regularly. TriQuint offers the widest range of services available: more than 20 variations on 15 industry-leading GaAs processes. Our 150mm wafer processes offer the most interconnect layers constructed of the thickest gold. Our newest – TQPED – is the first commercially available E/D pHEMT process. It helps reduce overall costs with integrated LNAs, switches and PAs. TriQuint also offers integrated passives, high linearity and rugged HBTs, along with our low-cost, high-value MesFETs. For high frequency, high power and low noise capability, TriQuint offers a wide range of sub-0.5 m pHEMT space-qualified processes on 100mm wafers (VPIN and HFET). Our newest, the 0.15 m LN-mHEMT, offers the lowest noise figure of any TriQuint process. All processes employ thick, high density gold interconnects and high-value, dense capacitors, plus TriQuint's capacitor-over-via technology for the smallest die size possible.

TriQuint's continued foundry services commitment has made us an industry leader with competitive prices and reliable, on-time delivery. Look to TriQuint Semiconductor GaAs Foundry Services for design security, trustworthiness, value, innovation and dependability.


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