Broadcom Launches Industry's First Certified NFC Quad-combo Wireless Connectivity Solution

Broadcom Press Release:

Broadcom Launches Industry's First Certified NFC Quad-combo Wireless Connectivity Solution

Ignites Mass Adoption in Smartphones and Consumer Electronic Devices

IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

News Highlights:

• Industry's first quad-combo solution integrates proven NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM radio technologies
• Enables range of new applications for simplified device pairing and growing mobile retail payments
• Accelerates Broadcom traction with NFC-enabled smartphone markets, which are expected to reach 3.5 billion devices in circulation over the next five years¹

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced two new Near Field Communication (NFC) solutions to be showcased at the upcoming 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The company announced the industry's first quad-combo to integrate certified NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and FM onto a single chip. Broadcom also announced a single card solution combining its 5G WiFi combo chip with its industry-leading standalone NFC. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom.

The expansion of NFC will inspire adoption in broader consumer electronics devices like game controllers, TVs and remotes, computer keyboards and mice, headsets, printers and more. NFC will allow consumers to instantly show video taken from a smartphone on a smart TV by tapping the devices together. It will also enable consumers to seamlessly and securely tap-to-print and tap-to-share data like a music playlist or a business card. Additionally, the mobile payment market presents massive opportunity for mainstream adoption with $4.2 billion transactions completed in 2012, a number expected to reach $100 billion in 2016².

John Devlin, Practice Director Security & ID, ABI Research

"We predict that over three and a half billion NFC-enabled devices will ship over the next five years, opening up huge market opportunities for companies like Broadcom. As a leader in wireless combination technology and with strong existing OEM relationships, Broadcom is well positioned to capitalize on this growth in smartphones and other consumer electronic devices." 

Quad-combo Key Features:

As Broadcom's sixth generation combo chip, the BCM43341 offers OEMs unmatched size, power and cost advantages. The quad-combo also provides a flexible interface with multiple secure elements to ensure all payment business models are supported for today's market. Additionally, Broadcom's standards-based software stack implements NFC Forumspecifications, including NFC Controller interface (NCI), to support multiple operating systems. As a testament to its certified solutions, Broadcom recently contributed its NFC software stack into the Android 4.2 operating system.

• Integration of NFC, WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0, FM radio and wireless coexistence on a single chip for reduced radio interference and simplified connectivity
• 40nm CMOS process delivers improvements in size and power consumption
• Supports dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) WLAN including support for HT40 (high throughput 40MHz rates)
• Integrated WLAN/BT PA, LNA and TR switch to reduce total area and bill of materials (BOM) costs
• Integrated support for Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Certified Miracast and Wi-Fi Certified Passpoint technologies
• Designed for low-cost printed circuit board (PCB) chip-on-board applications
• Field power harvesting capability enables support of NFC transactions even if battery has expired

Michael Hurlston, Broadcom SVP and GM, Wireless Connectivity Combo. 

"Broadcom is dedicated to expanding its ecosystem of wireless products to stay ahead of ever-shifting demands. The introduction of our first NFC combo solution successfully sets up device manufacturers to capitalize on rapid consumer adoption. As the first chip vendor to launch 5G WiFi products that address all market segments, today we are the first and only chip vendor to couple the simplified usability of NFC with the power of 5G WiFi to deliver unprecedented consumer benefits."

Single Card Solution Key Features:

While the quad-combo will drive adoption in mass market devices, the single solution on a card integrates the industry's first 5G WiFi combo chip with the BCM20793 NFC chip, raising the performance bar for high-end smartphones and tablets. The single solution on a card joins tap-to-pair functionality and ease-of-use of NFC with speed, coverage and performance benefits of 5G WiFi to create the ideal platform for highly-mobile devices. For example, high throughput, high-definition video transfers using 5G WiFi will be significantly enhanced with NFC's simplified functionality.

• Integration of industry's first 5G WiFi combo chip and mass market, payment-certified NFC standalone chip on a single card
• WLAN PHY rates of 433 Mb/s to increase wireless throughput as compared to previous generations
• Broadcom TurboQAM® technology including highest data-rate 256-QAM mode in 2.4 GHz to deliver 10 percent faster throughputs than 802.11n speeds
• Integrated support for Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Certified Miracast and Wi-Fi Certified Passpoint technologies
• Optimized bill-of-material (BOM) and printed circuit board (PCB) or module layout design

Availability

Broadcom's quad-combo and single card solution are now sampling with early access customers, with full production expected in Q1 2013.

For ongoing news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom, read the B-Connected Blog, or visit Facebook or Twitter. And to stay connected, subscribe to Broadcom's RSS Feed.

Resources

¹ABI Research, NFC Market Data, November 2012

²ABI Research, Mobile Payments, NFC, and Contactless Convergence Report, October 2012

About Broadcom

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments.  With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by connecting everything®.  For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.