Peregrine Semiconductor is a San Diego-based manufacturer of high-performance RF CMOS integrated circuits. The company's UltraCMOS process technology is a proprietary implementation of SOS[1] substrates that enables high levels of monolithic integration. In May, 2010 Peregrine entered a joint development agreement[2] with IBM Microelectronics for the development and manufacture of future generations of Peregrine's UltraCMOS process, with migration to 200mm wafers that facilitates the evolution of the process to advanced 180 nm, 130 nm and 90 nm nodes. Peregrine also believes that the agreement provides access to advanced manufacturing toolsets and enables expanded digital integration capability with RF-CMOS. According to an article by [3] EDN executive editor Ron Wilson, with mobile operators like China Mobile and Vodafone needing handsets with 11 or 12 bands and air interfaces, "designers need high levels of front end integration".
The company was founded in 1990 by former NOSC researchers Dr. Ron Reedy and Dr. Mark Burgener, along with partner Rory Moore. For their development of the Silicon on sapphire technologies, Reedy & Burgener earned the Daniel E. Noble Medal for Emerging Technology by the IEEE for 2011.[4] Reedy served as the CEO from 1990 to 1998, followed by Stav Prodromou from 1999 to 2002. Since then, Dr. James Cable has served as the company's CEO.[5]
On November 19, 2010, Peregrine filed a preliminary prospectus S-1 registration statement in preparation for a possible IPO.[6]