Infineon and Global Locate Develop World’s Smallest GPS Receiver

 

Munich, Germany, and San Jose, Calif. – January 10, 2006 – Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX) and Global Locate, Inc. today announced the successful development of the industry’s smallest Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver chip for mobile telephones, smart phones and personal navigation devices.

 

Based on the successful Hammerhead™ chip, the new Hammerhead II chip is optimized for cellular handsets and mobile devices requiring high performance, low power and an extremely small footprint. The diminutive single-die chip measures only 3.74 mm x 3.59 mm x 0.6 mm, for a total footprint of less than 14 mm², resulting in the world’s smallest GPS receiver.

 

The Hammerhead II GPS receiver includes LNA, RF down-converter and signal processing baseband technology on a single RFCMOS die. The device utilizes state-of-the-art chip scale packaging technology, resulting in the most compact dimensions. The package features a 49-contact Ball Grid Array, further simplifying layout and assembly.

 

“The GPS feature can now be added to any mobile device with a total electronics bill-of-materials footprint of less than 50 mm². The Hammerhead II chip has set a new standard for compact design,” said Thomas Pollakowski, Vice President and General Manager of the Connectivity Business Unit at Infineon Technologies.

 

“The Hammerhead II chip is the logical extension of our technical cooperation and outstanding partnership,” added Donald Fuchs, Executive Vice President of Business Development for Global Locate.

 

Like its predecessor, the Hammerhead II chip embodies industry-leading performance, delivering sensitivity to -160 dBm and position fix times as fast as 1 second, exceeding 3GPP specifications. In addition, the software has been optimized for personal navigation performance, and includes sophisticated algorithms to mitigate multipath errors. 

 

Hammerhead II retains the same core advantages as all previous Global Locate solutions by utilizing the commercially proven host-based architecture. The software is completely backward-compatible with Hammerhead, allowing an easy transition to the new, smaller part as changing form-factors require.

 

Availability

 

The Hammerhead II chip is sampling now, with production quantities available in February 2007. Infineon and Global Locate are jointly marketing the chip.

 

About the Hammerhead Chip

 

The Hammerhead chip is the world’s first single-die CMOS GPS receiver. A product of the continuing partnership between Global Locate and Infineon Technologies, it supports mobile station-assisted (MS-A), mobile station-based (MS-B), autonomous and enhanced tracking modes. The Hammerhead chip provides the industry’s highest sensitivity for deep indoor signal tracking, full support for assisted and autonomous modes, and highly accurate navigation in the toughest signal environments. Hammerhead’s unique host-based software architecture minimizes device size and cost, and allows protocol messaging to be incorporated directly into the GPS navigation software. Additional information is available at http://www.infineon.com/gps.

 

About Global Locate, Inc.

 

Global Locate, Inc. is a privately held company that provides Assisted-GPS (AGPS) products and services for wireless devices and networks. Headquartered in San Jose, CA, the company has sales offices in the New York metropolitan area, Tokyo, Taipei and Madrid. Global Locate’s AGPS product suite includes the World Wide Reference Network (WWRN™), AGPS Server and integrated Global Locate® IndoorGPS® chipset. For more information see http://www.globallocate.com  

Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society including energy efficiency, mobility and security.  In fiscal year 2006 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 7.9 billion (including Qimonda sales of Euro 3.8 billion) with approximately 42,000 employees worldwide (including approximately 12,000 Qimonda employees).  With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore, and in Japan from Tokyo.  Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.