Heverlee, Belgium, December 12, 2003 - AnSem has delivered volume shipments of its custom-made ultra low-power miniature FM receiver chip to Phonak, one of the world's leading companies in the development and manufacture of innovative hearing systems for children and adults with a hearing loss. AnSem's receiver chip forms the basis of Phonak's breakthrough multi-frequency technology, which closes the gap between children with and children without hearing loss in the school situation. The new FM technology enables children with hearing instruments to move freely between classrooms, without the need for frequency re-setting.
"Going beyond the state-of-the-art in low-power, low-voltage RF circuit design requires a very skilled and open-minded development team. Intense collaboration, skill and engagement between our team and AnSem's team were instrumental in achieving the results. The obtained results enable us to offer solutions that improve significantly the quality of life of many of our hearing impaired customers" said Dr. Rainer Platz, head of Phonak Communications, R&D department.
"Phonak proves that success is built on state-of-the-art technology and a vision that is oriented towards the future. We are pleased that Phonak gave us the opportunity to play an important role in their success and to contribute to the quality of life of those with a hearing impairment", said Stefan Gogaert, CEO of AnSem. "This development has been a challenge to our design team, because of its specific constraint to fit in a 1 cm³ cube, including all external components. A miniature, highly integrated solution was needed, running from a single Zinc-Air cell battery. With this development AnSem has proven that CMOS wireless at 0.9 V can be done without sacrificing robustness or reliability of the wireless link".
Low-power miniature FM receiver
The chip runs directly from a zinc-air battery in the hearing aid. It consumes 2.2 mA in full active mode and remains fully functional down to 0.9 V. At this power consumption level the chip shows an excellent sensitivity of -103 dBm, covering a range of 30 m. The chip is realized in a 0.25 µm CMOS technology. The entire module, including the external components and antenna fits into a single cubic centimeter.
About Phonak
Phonak, with headquarters in Stäfa, Switzerland, is one of the world's leading companies in the development and manufacture of innovative hearing systems for children and adults with a hearing loss. For more information, please visit www.phonak.com
About AnSem
AnSem is a fabless IC design company, founded on February 13, 1998. Its core business is the design of high-performance analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits in the most advanced technologies. AnSem offers design services and products for wireless communication, high-speed data communication and data acquisition. With its services, AnSem offers turnkey solutions in an affordable design time. AnSem can rely on a large team of highly experienced designers and has proven to be a solid partner for highly advanced IC developments worldwide. For more information, please visit www.ansem.com
For more information, please contact:
AnSem NV
Jan Vandenbussche
Business Development
Esperantolaan 9
3001 Heverlee
Tel.: +32 16 38 65 30
Fax.: +32 16 38 65 65
business@ansem.com
www.ansem.com
Phonak
Evert Dijkstra
Director of Business Development
Länggasse 17
3280 CH Murten
Tel: ++ 41 26 672 96 72
Fax: ++ 41 26 672 96 71
e-mail: evert.dijkstra@phonak.ch
www.phonak.com or www.phonakcom.com
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