Falcomm gets seed funding for ‘dual-drive’ power amplifier
Fabless chip startup Falcomm Inc. (Atlanta, Georgia) has raised US$4 million in seed funding to develop its dual-drive silicon-based power amplifier for which it claims record energy efficiency and enhanced linearity at high frequencies.
The PA is potentially relevant to satellite 5G and 6G communications and wearables and the ideas behind it were first developed by Falcomm founder and CEO Edgar Garay while studying at Georgia Institute of Technology before the founded the company in 2021.
The round was led by Squandra Ventures with participation from Cambium Capital, Draper Cygnus, and the Georgia Tech Foundation.
The patented technology increases the theoretical maximum efficiency limits of amplifiers beyond 78.5 percent. Now proven in silicon, the technology boasts a drain efficiency approaching 65 percent at 28GHz.
Higher power
As might be expected the dual-drive PA features simultaneous transmission at each terminal of a circuit. Falcomm claims it delivers performance that is 1.8 times more efficient at 2 times higher power, with half of the silicon area requirements of traditional power amplifiers. For manufacturers, these gains will reduce thermal management and energy costs, while easing overall system requirements.
“Power amplifiers are the workhorse of the modern electronic era, but improvement to this technology hasn’t kept pace with the rise of the innovation economy,” said Garay in a statement.
Falcomm has appointed Thomas Cameron, a 35-year veteran of radio frequency R&D, as chief strategy officer. Cameron served as CTO for the communications business unit at Analog Devices. He has also held engineering roles at Bell Northern Research, Nortel and Sirenza Microdevices.
Ned Cahoon has been appointed director of foundry and customer relationships. Cahoon worked in IBM’s RF business unit before joining GlobalFoundries in 2016 where he served as fellow in the office of the CTO.
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