The device includes an RF daughter module consisting of a single-chip BiCMOS transceiver with tuning elements (capacitors and inductors) embedded in a multilayer ceramic substrate. To be priced at less than $10 when it ships in volume later this year, the RF transceiver pushes chip-industry expectations that the first silicon transceiver chips will enter the market with a $20 price tag, and follow the learning curve down to $5 or less.

The $10 applies just to Ericsson's PBA 313 01/2 radio module, said Johnny Johansson, Bluetooth program manager for Ericsson. Other devices are required to perform baseband functions, which include establishing links (a circuit switch for voice, packet-switched for data), encryption and error checking. Apart from digital control and data circuitry, few additional components — an antenna, a 13-MHz reference frequency crystal — are needed to build a complete radio, Johansson said. But to be sure, Ericsson Components will market a complete Bluetooth unit — using a VSLI Technology implementation of an ARM core as the baseband processor — for about $25 or $30 in the beginning of 2000.

Ericsson Components also used the Bluetooth rollout here to emphasize its strengths in asymmetric digital subscriber line, RF ICs and power devices. A new analog front end uses active line termination and drive-impedance control instead of a passive termination network. It also promises increases of 50 to 100 percent in power density in central-office switching facilities because of lower power dissipation.

The company discussed its strategy in RF ICs and announced additions to the LDMOS power-transistor line. The PTF10120, for example, offers a 120-W minimum output power at 28 V to CDMA and TDMA cellular basestation manufacturers operating in the 1.8 to 2-GHz frequency range.

Cellular basestation technology represents a proving ground for processes and devices that may be used in handsets, said Kjell Bohlin, general manager of the company's RF IC group. Basestations, in fact, represent more than half of Ericsson's 1998 revenue of $22.7 billion. Cellular handsets represent about a quarter ($5.6 billion) of Ericsson's business, and "other operations" — which include components, power transistors and RF ICs — make up $2.2 billion.

The microelectronics group is building RF ICs in 0.5- and 0.6-micron BiCMOS. While Ericsson basestation and mobile-phone groups are currently the best customers for its RF ICs, Bohlin said he intends to cultivate outside business. Although BiCMOS will be used to integrate more and more RF transceiver functions, Bohlin said he does not believe digital baseband processors will be integrated with RF functions before 2004.

Thus, while the demand for RF ICs will steadily increase with the proliferation of cellular phones, wireless networks and Bluetooth, CMOS geometry shrinks and larger wafer sizes will actually decrease global demand for wafers — and Ericsson hopes to retain the lion's share.

To keep up with increasing RF integration, Ericsson is seeking partners to help it develop a 0.35-micron BiCMOS capability. While Bohlin claimed that Ericsson has a very good knowledge of bipolar transistors, he also acknowledged that "we are not the best in MOS — that's the technology that's driving this business. We need to have a partner [to help with the CMOS transistor designs].

"Silicon germanium is very interesting and has many advantages," Bohlin said. "But if you don't need SiGe to meet a spec, you'll find it is too costly." Thus, the RF IC group is concentrating on BiCMOS.

Optimized performance

The PBA 313 01/2 module introduced here Thursday (April 15) is actually built of a BiCMOS radio. The device is laser-trimmed to optimize RF performance and flip-chip-mounted on a ceramic substrate. RF filter components are integrated with shielding into an LTCC ceramic substrate. By itself, the RF module will output 1 milliwatt, allowing the transceiver to communicate at distances of up to 10 meters — as suggested in Version 1.0 of the overdue Bluetooth specification, which is being developed with Nokia, IBM, Intel and Toshiba.

Addition of a separate power amplifier will equip the module for a 100-mW output and longer distances, thus making Bluetooth suitable for HomeRF or "ad hoc networks." One new application of Bluetooth would be for communication between portable computers among members of a work group meeting by chance at an airport, suggested Stafan Lf, Ericsson's product manager for Bluetooth products. Such uses would demand upward of 100 million transceivers a year, he said.

The transceiver introduced and demonstrated here will frequency-hop in the 2.4-GHz ISM band, and will complete 1,600 hops per second, Johansson said. That makes 79 1-MHz channels, centered at 2.45 GHz. With a 1-MHz transmitter frequency, the effective Bluetooth data rate is 721 kbits/second. The actual data rate may be even smaller, since the transmission is "time multiplexed;" that is, it is not full-duplex but alternates between send and receive.

But the primary intent of Bluetooth is to be low in cost and low in power, Johansson said. Active current for the PBA 313 01/02 is on the order of 25 mA in the receive mode and 33 mA in the transmit mode. Standby current is 300 microamps.