Motorola and Phiar Corporation Complete Phase Three Development of Metal-Insulator Diodes for Future Wireless Applications
Schaumburg, IL and Boulder, CO - October 29, 2007 - Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Phiar Corporation, a leading provider of metal-insulator electronics, today announced that the companies have completed the third and final phase of a Joint Development Agreement (JDA). Completion of the JDA validates Phiar's metal-insulator electronics as a part of potential next generation 60 GHz mobile wireless, point-to-point networks, wireless HDMI and imaging solutions from Motorola where high performance and low price must simultaneously be optimized.
"This milestone marks another significant step for Phiar and Motorola towards high volume commercialization of our innovative technology," said Bob Goodman, Phiar's president and CEO. "We continue to deliver on our commitments to our ally Motorola, and are pleased to help them maintain their position as forerunner in next-generation wireless technology."
Since entering the JDA with Motorola in 2005, Phiar has exceeded industry benchmarks in a series of performance-based evaluations. The JDA's Phase I gate required a Phiar diode with comparable or better performance than the best known Sb- and GaAs-based diodes currently on the market; Phase II focused on the performance of the diode integrated with matching circuitry; and Phase III involved taking the diode and incorporating it into a Motorola demo system where the Phiar technology was asked to meet ambitious bit error rate and minimum detectable power levels.
"By working together with Phiar, we were able to validate the performance of metal-insulator diodes in our receivers," said Dr. Vida Ilderem, Vice President of Physical and Digital Realization Research for Motorola Labs. "The response of the Phiar diodes surpasses that of our known benchmarks of commercially available diodes for millimeter wave detector applications."
Historically, millimeter-wave wireless applications required gallium arsenide or other high performance semiconductors. Motorola has successfully incorporated Phiar's metal-insulator diodes into their 60 GHz prototype system and demonstrated multi-Gbps data rates. Motorola and Phiar plan to continue optimizing and evaluating this technology for integration into commercial products.
About Phiar Corporation
Phiar is developing low cost, nano-scale devices that take performance beyond the physical limits of semiconductors. Phiar's metal-insulator technology can be integrated into supporting CMOS chip dies, or manufactured on a wide range of other substrates. Natively operating from DC to 3 THz, Phiar's technology is a compact, practical replacement for costly compound semiconductors in GHz applications and cryogenic devices in the emerging THz field. Phiar is funded by Menlo Ventures. For more information, visit www.phiar.com.
About Motorola
Motorola is known around the world for innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband communications. Inspired by our vision of Seamless Mobility, the people of Motorola are committed to helping you get and stay connected simply and seamlessly to the people, information, and entertainment that you want and need. We do this by designing and delivering "must have" products, "must do" experiences and powerful networks - along with a full complement of support services. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $42.8 billion in 2006. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit www.motorola.com.
Media Contacts:
Chuck Kaiser
Motorola
847-538-4084
ckaiser@motorola.com
Erica Salamida or Dane Vahey
Schwartz Communications
415-512-0770
phiar@schwartz-pr.com
