Infineon's woes blamed on 3G Iphone

AN INFINEON spokesperson has blamed a lower-than-projected order to supply HSDPA chips for high-speed internet handsets as one reason for its poor Q3 outlook.

The information was immediately seized upon as evidence that Apple has put in a much lower than expected order for the 3G chips which Infineon is known to be supplying for the much anticipated 3G Iphone.

Sources in Taiwan have named UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation) as the likely foundry to be producing the 3G chips for Infineon.

Another factor Infineon is blaming for its troubles is a delay in orders for its single chip solution to enable Nokia to offer ULC (ultra-low cost) handsets for emerging markets. Nokia basically said that Infineon isn't the sole supplier for this project.

The bad news comes at a time when Infineon is announcing its latest 3G handset chipsets. The new X-Gold 3G series cuts the number of devices inside the phone down from three to two and the component count of a typical handset by 50 per cent, the company claims.

It also says these new 3G products offer the industry’s smallest PCB footprint with a space reduction of up to 40 per cent. Standby power will be reduced by up to 30 per cent compared to rival HSDPA platforms.

The X-Gold 616 baseband chip supports HSDPA/HSUPA capabilities of 7.2 Mbit/s and 5.8 Mbit/s (respectively), while the 618 chip offers 7.2 Mbit/s and 2.9 Mbit/s; and the 617 chip just supports HSDPA at 3.2 Mbit/s.

Evaluation boards and samples will be made available next month (June), while production is expected to start Q3-Q4 2009. µ