RF Micro Devices Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA says that it has completed a recently announced expansion of its test, tape & reel and assembly facility in Beijing, China. In addition to newly qualified internal assembly capacity for power amplifiers (PAs), switch-based products and antenna control solutions, RFMD is also qualifying advanced flip-chip capabilities for its 2G, 3G and 4G LTE and TD-LTE products.
RFMD expects that the expansion will enable it to quickly accelerate internal assembly to accommodate broad customer demand for its expanding portfolio of RF solutions. The capacity expansion efforts and resulting increase in internal assembly are expected to contribute to the firm’s stated goal of expanding non-GAAP gross margin by 300-400 basis points by the March 2014 quarter, compared to non-GAAP gross margin of 34.4% achieved in the March 2013 quarter.
On 26 August, RFMD announced it was on track to achieve another major gross margin expansion initiative - the ramp of its new low-cost CMOS power amplifier (PA) for entry-market 2G handsets.
RFMD says that its RF solutions are broadly adopted across multiple growth markets and applications, including smartphones, handsets, tablets, notebooks, Wi-Fi, CATV, and high-reliability applications. According to Cisco, the ‘Internet of Things’ is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% during 2012-2020, reaching about 50 billion connected devices by 2020.
