Peregrine Receives $17.6 Million for RF CMOS Chips

Peregrine Semiconductor closed an oversubscribed $17.6 million round of Series C financing for its RF CMOS and mixed-signal communications ICs. The company's chips are used in cellular handsets and base stations, HDTV, TV tuners and set-top boxes, satellites and military electronics. Peregrine's proprietary UltraCMOS process technology, which competes with GaAs and SiGe, is a variation of Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) process that uses a rugged sapphire substrate. The company said its technology delivers better linearity and better isolation in a smaller package, enabling higher performance. The new financing led by Ridgewood Capital and Palisades Ventures. The company's existing investors, Morgenthaler Ventures, Technology Venture Partners, Australasian Media and Communications Fund, NewLight Ventures and Wasserstein Ventures, also participated in this investment round. http://www.peregrine-semi.com