ChipCrunch.com

We’ve written about Black Sand Technologies, a semiconductor startup focused on CMOS RF Power Amplifiers out of Austin, TX, on several occasions: We first profiled the company back in 2007, shortly after the company raised $8.2 Million in Series A funding. Last year, we briefly discussed Black Sand’s chief technologist Susanne Paul and her thoughts regarding silicon based power amplifiers. As yet another year rolls around; it is good to see that Black Sand Technologies has continued working hard on their products and has seemingly made some very good progress.

Earlier this week, the company announced that it has produced the world’s first 3G CMOS based RF Power Amplifier (PA). In addition, the company was also able to raise $10 Million in Series B funding from the same venture capital firms as last time, namely Austin Ventures and North Bridge Partners. This brings the total funding for the company to a respectable $18.2 Million. Most of the claims regarding the newly announced product seem to make sense at least on the surface: lower cost vs. Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) based amplifiers, more battery life do to programmability and compact integration, as well as better overall performance. We’ll see about better yields and call quality once products begin shipping with this new technology. Overall, the company seems to be very well positioned at this point. As mobile devices such as smart phones and netbooks gain in popularity, and adopt ever higher data transfer standards such as 3G, 4G, and beyond, it is fair to expect that the number of required PAs per device will increase. Since these devices are part of a highly price sensitive market, in which battery-life is of uttermost importance, it is only a question of when, not if, the IP developed by Black Sand Technologies will get integrated into ICs for the next must have mobile devices.