Power amplifier developer Nujira has closed a funding round worth $7.75m, with lead investment from 3i and Amadeus Capital Partners.
Amadeus was Nujira's seed funding partner, giving the start-up £850,000 in November 2003.
“Their [Nujira's] modulators are the cornerstone of OEM’s attempts to achieve 30 per cent to 50 per cent power amplifier efficiency. These levels of performance offer significant cost savings for network operators and system integrators as they seek ways of reducing operating costs while expanding network capacity," said Barak Maoz of Amadeus, who joins the firm's board.
Nujira's technology is high accuracy tracking, or envelope tracking, modulators for wideband CDMA, CDMA2000 or WiMAX basestations. Last year the Cambridge-based firm claimed it had achieved 35 per cent efficiency for its power amps.
Envelope tracking allows the voltage and current to the RF transistor to be controlled, while the drain is modulated with the RF envelope, leading to higher efficiency.
"Nujira has anticipated the need for efficiency in emerging wireless standards and, having demonstrated its technology to leading OEMs, is now entering into contracts," said 3i's Ian Lobley, also joining the Nujira board.
"As data rates continue to increase and power consumption in infrastructure and devices becomes more of an issue, Nujira's technology offers a path to improved efficiency for manufacturers."
Money from the funding round will be used to move from the prototype stage to pilot production.
Other investors in the latest round included Cambridge Gateway Fund, Cambridge Capital Group and the Cambridge Angels.
www.nujira.com