October 20, 2014, Seoul – STMicroelectronics (ST), a global semiconductor company serving customers across a wide range of electronic applications, has launched the new integrated balun product BALF-NRG-01D3. This new product enables Bluetooth Smart® device or module designs to enjoy benefits such as reduced project lead times, maximized system performance, and minimized solution size.

The BALF-NRG-01D3 is a companion chip for ST’s BlueNRG Bluetooth Smart wireless network processor. It incorporates all the circuitry required for external balancing and matching, ensuring optimal performance and reducing the burden of RF circuit design technology. This chip maximizes sensitivity and output power by matching input impedance to the BlueNRG chip and meets standard specifications through harmonic filtering. This new product can replace up to 15 surface-mount components and has a footprint up to 75% smaller compared to individual balun products.

The BALF-NRG-01D3 is a new addition to ST’s Integrated Passive Device (IPD) family, which implements RF front-end circuits in applications such as mobile, wearable, and IoT (Internet of Things). ST’s IPD process integrates high-quality passive components onto glass substrates to achieve excellent cost competitiveness, a small form factor, and low power loss. The full IPD family includes baluns, RF couplers, T-plexers, blockers, and filters for RF applications operating at frequencies above 400 MHz, such as WLAN, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and LTE.

BALF-NRG-01D3 is currently in mass production and is available as a 4-bump Wafer-Level Chip-Scale Package (WLCSP) with dimensions of 1.4 mm x 0.85 mm and a thickness of 0.67 mm. The price is $0.15 per unit for a quantity of 5,000 units.

More details about this product can be found at www.st.com//balf-nrg-nb .