Toshiba SP12T RF antenna switch ICs for smartphones

Responding to requirements for antenna switch ICs, Toshiba has developed TaRF6, a TarfSOI (Toshiba advanced RF SOI) process using silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. TarfSOI achieves integration of analog, digital and RF circuits on a single chip, supporting highly complex switching functions and RF performance.

With the TaRF6 process, MOSFETs customised for RF switch applications have been developed and used in the company’s SP12T RF antenna switch ICs for smartphones. The IC supports LTE-Advanced and achieves low insertion loss and RF distortion, with a performance of 0.42 dB in insertion loss and -90 dBm in second harmonic distortion.

Compared to products using the previous TaRF5 process, there is a 0.26 dB improvement in insertion loss and 18 dB improvement in second harmonic distortion. The lower insertion loss can contribute to low power consumption of smartphones, while the lower distortion can contribute to the development of carrier aggregation smartphones that require low distortion.