Livingston-based start-up Elonics has announced its first mixed-signal RF chip on IBM’s 90nm CMOS process. Previously it was using 130nm silicon.

"For lower frequency applications 130nm is absolutely ideal. 90nm was used to crack the 10GHz barrier," Julian Hayes, v-p marketing at Elonics, told EW. "CMOS offers the potential for lower cost, and the integration of other functions including large scale digital that would be uneconomic using other process technologies."

Hayes is not yet revealing the chip’s function.

Elonics’ first product family was the E4000 series of silicon tuners aimed at the reception of multi-standard TV and radio - including DVB-T, ISDB-T, T-DMB, DVB-H, ISDB-H, DMB-T, DAB and FM.

The firm’s intellectual property is a direct conversion zero-IF architecture dubbed DigitalTune "that enables the design of multi-band RF front ends using a single monolithic CMOS IC", said the firm.

The E4000 family covers the spectrum from VHF 2 to L Band (76MHz to 1.70GHz).

"It is designed to save power and lower system cost," said Elonics. "It eliminates the requirement for external components such as SAW filters and RF baluns, yet offers high performance."

The firm was founded in 2003 and is based at the Alba Centre.

It secured £2m series A funding in February this year from Braveheart Investment Group and Scottish Venture Fund, as well as private investors including Brian Souter and Sir Tom Farmer.