NEC and NEC Electronics Develop Advanced Intellectual Property
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Tokyo, June 14, 2007 - NEC Corporation and NEC Electronics Corporation have succeeded in developing fundamental technology for intellectual property (IP) cores used in wireless transceivers. The new technologies enable embedding of IP cores into system LSIs for wireless systems, and facilitate CMOS technology scaling of such LSIs. As a result, customers will benefit from reduced system costs and power consumption for next generation wireless technology solutions used in ubiquitous networks, which can only be realized by wireless IP digitization.
Features of the newly-developed technologies:
(1) Development of new technology that combines multiple digital signals with various phases and amplitudes realizes lower distortion of radio frequency (RF) signals. Applying this technology to transmitter modulators and power amplifiers in a wireless IP core eliminates the need for expensive external components to reduce output signal distortion, which helps lower total system costs for wireless transceiver systems. Furthermore, the new technology will contribute to the shortening of wireless IP design periods as it enables the fine tuning of wireless IP, even after chip fabrication, through optimization of the RF signal distortion which is achieved by controlling the digital signal phase.
(2) Development of technology to enable direct demodulation of digital data by comparing the sampled RF signals received in a wireless IP core and technology to vary sampling frequency according to the wireless communication environment. Conventionally, a wireless receiver circuit is operated continuously while it is receiving data. However, by applying this technology, the operation period of receiver circuits can be shortened, and power consumption reduced, as it allows adaptation to the communication environment Test chip evaluation has shown that the power is reduced by up to a tenth of that of similar communication chips.
Enhancement of CMOS technology scaling achieves accelerated device operation and a reduction in the thermal noise generated in transistors, thereby promoting implementation of wireless circuits by digital CMOS devices. However, power reduction and suppression of RF signal degradation by process variation which is actualized along with CMOS scaling are required, to enhance popularization of wireless devices.
NEC and NEC Electronics' new digital RF technology enables further advancement of wireless circuit digitization through direct RF signal synthesis from digital data and fine digital control of signal processing frequency, and introduction of discrete-time signal processing.
The new digital RF technology will enable LSI technology scaling, fine tuning after chip fabrication, a reduction in the number of external components and power consumption through precise power management, and facilitate implementation of IP cores into system LSIs for wireless systems.
The companies believe the new technology will be invaluable to the development of ubiquitous networks, and plan to continue their joint research toward the early realization of lower-power consumption and lower-cost IP cores for portable and wireless systems.
NEC will present the results of the application of this new technology to 2.4GHz ISM-band* (ZigBee and Bluetooth) wireless IP cores on June 14 at the 2007 Symposium on VLSI Circuits, being held from June 14-16 in Kyoto, Japan.
About NEC Electronics
NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system solutions for the mobile handset, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets, and platform solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has 25 subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.am.necel.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.eu.necel.com). For additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit www.necel.com.
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) is one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its diverse and global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 150,000 people worldwide.
