London Calling: SiTime, WiSpry say MEMS the word

Let's hear it for two of the guys pioneering some of the new applications for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) components, namely SiTime and WiSpry.

WiSpry Inc. (Irvine, Calif.), a ten year old private company that is pioneering tunable RF circuits that use MEMS technology, has announced it has demonstrated its WS1033 antenna tuner can be used to extend LTE bandwidth. The demo, based on an LTE smartphone, allowed operation from 25-MHz window up to a 180-MHz window (700-MHz to 880-MHz), without changing the antenna, the company said.

"This demonstration proves that 700-MHz LTE antennas that are tuned with our technology have excellent and constant radiation properties over an extremely wide bandwidth," said Jeffrey Hilbert, president and founder of WiSpry, in a statement. "The addition of the WS1033 extended the 700-MHz bandwidth more than seven times and enabled us to cover band XII through Band V with no change to the antenna element. With the many different LTE bands in use, this enables the creation of a true global LTE phone that consumers will come to demand."

The WiSpry WS1033 features both a MIPI Alliance interface and an SPI interface, which makes it plug-and-play compatible with major smartphone chipsets, the company said.

Next: SiTime gets backing from Vectron, Knowles