NetLogic Microsystems will acquire Optichron, a privately-held, fabless semiconductor provider of 3G/4G LTE base station digital front-end (DFE) processors, for approximately $77 million in cash, $22 million for restricted stock units for employees of Optichron, and a possible maximum earn-out or approximately $108.5 million payable in 2013 if certain milestones are met.
Optichron, which is based in Fremont, California, offers DFE technology for next-generation LTE systems requiring the highest data rates and lowest power consumption.
The company said its DFE processors have been designed into next-generation base stations by multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Conventional DFE processing solutions typically support narrow bandwidths, a limited number of channels and a single protocol per signal band, and are therefore costly and inefficient for high-throughput base stations.
Optichron’s DFE processors deliver performance of up to 5X increase in signal bandwidth and up to 9X increase in instantaneous bandwidth over available competing solutions In addition, Optichron enables simultaneous processing of multiple signal channels per frequency band, as well as the multi-mode co-existence of 4G LTE, 3G and 2G protocols. The design also eliminates the need for costly and very power-hungry FPGA devices and conventional DFE solutions that are traditionally used to implement DFE functionality. Optichron’s investors include U.S. Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, TL Ventures and VentureTech Alliance.
NetLogic said the acquisition of Optichron will expand its footprint in 3G/4G LTE base stations by complementing its portfolio of multi-core processors, knowledge-based processors and 10 Gigabit Ethernet PHY solutions.
NetLogic expects that the acquisition will accelerate Optichron’s technical leadership and product roadmaps in the advanced 40nm process node and beyond.http://www.netlogicmicro.com http://www.optichron.com/
