Corporate Profile
SEQUANS COMMUNICATIONS is a 4G chipmaker, supplying LTE and WiMAX chips to original equipment manufacturers and original design manufacturers worldwide. Founded in 2003 to address the WiMAX opportunity where it is now a global leader, Sequans expanded in 2009 to address the LTE market. Sequans’ chips are inside leading 4G networks around the world. Sequans is based in Paris, with additional offices in USA, United Kingdom, Israel, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Taiwan.
BACKGROUND
Georges Karam, CEO, and a team of broadband experts from Alcatel and Pacific Broadband founded Sequans in 2003. The team comprises expertise in wireless, systems, silicon, software, complex ASIC design, advanced signal processing, MAC protocol, scheduling algorithms, RFIC, and MIMO.
Sequans’ fixed WiMAX chips for base stations and subscriber stations based on the 802.16d standard became available in September 2004. Full SOCs became available in September 2005 with reference designs becoming WiMAX Forum Certified™ in January 2006.
Mobile WiMAX Wave 1 chips, based on the 802.16e standard, were introduced in 2006 and became WiMAX Forum Certified™ in April of 2008, and Mobile WiMAX Wave 2 chips were introduced in 2007 and WiMAX Forum Certified in June of 2008. All chips are now deployed in volume with tier 1 and 2 TEMs worldwide. Sequans’ RF chips, one for 2.5 GHz and one for 3.5 GHz, were introduced in December of 2007. The SQN1170, the first single package baseband plus RF solution was introduced in June of 2008.
Sequans’ new generation of Mobile WiMAX chips, the SQN1200 series, the industry’s first 65nm solution integrating baseband and triple band RF in a single die, was introduced in 2009. The SQN1210 chip for mobile devices was introduced in February, and the SQN1220 featuring extra processing power for VOIP and CPE applications followed in July. Sequans’ SQN1200 series technology is one of the industry’s most advanced and most highly-integrated Mobile WiMAX semiconductor solutions. In 2010, Sequans introduced the SQN1280, a system-in-package solution that combines the SQN1210, with radio front end and all other components necessary to deliver a complete WiMAX system, and in 2011, Sequans introduced the SQN1310, a chip featuring a higher level of integration, combining baseband and dual-band RF in a 9X9 mm die.
In 2009, after establishing a leadership position in the WiMAX market, Sequans expanded and announced the establishment of an LTE program and key strategic investors, Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola. Subsequently, China Mobile selected Sequans to provide LTE chips and USB dongles for its TD-LTE demonstration network being built for the opening of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. In March of 2010, Sequans unveiled its first LTE chip, the SQN3010, a 2.3 GHz TDD baseband solution. Over the next year, Sequans established interoperability collaborations with nearly all the leading LTE base station vendors, including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, Motorola, Nokia Networks, and ZTE. In October of 2011, Sequans introduced its second generation LTE technology, comprised in two platforms: the first, Andromeda, is customized for the design of smartphones and tablets, and the second, Mont Blanc, is customized for the design of CPE and USB dongles. These comprehensive solutions include baseband chips, RF chips, complete LTE protocol stack and host software, and reference designs. The new Sequans LTE semiconductor solutions incorporate the latest advances in semiconductor science. They are built in 40 nm CMOS process, are 3GPP R9 compliant, and can support both FDD and TDD LTE networks worldwide.
KEY DIFFERENTIATORS
Sequans’ innnovations have resulted in many achievements in the 4G semiconductor industry, including low power consumption and high throughput as well as industry-leading high levels of integration, enabling excellent performance at a low cost.
KEY MANAGEMENT
Dr. Georges Karam, President & CEO
Deborah Choate, VP Finance & CFO
Dr. Bertrand Debray, VP Engineering
Craig Miller, VP Worldwide Marketing
Rudy Leser, VP Business Development
Hugues Waldburger, VP Product Line Management
Eddy Tan, VP Operations
CUSTOMERS
NETWORKS WHERE SEQUANS PRODUCTS ARE DEPLOYED
China Mobile (China, to be deployed soon), Sprint/Clearwire (USA), UQ Communications (Japan), Packet One (Malaysia), Scartel (Russia), Mobilink (Pakistan), Vodacom (South Africa), Korea Telecom (Korea), BSNL (India), Tata (India), Reliance Infocom (India), Nuevatel (Bolivia), Argentina Telecom (Argentina), Tatung InfoComm (Taiwan), Sky Brasil (Brazil), Axtel (Mexico), Far EasTone (Taiwan), UK Broadband (United Kingdom), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Smile Communications (Israel), Unwired (Australia), National Broadband Network (Australia), Augere Wireless Broadband (Bangladesh), Orascom Telecom (Egypt), Wi-Tribe (Pakistan).
