SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
For the month of February 2009 No. 4
TOWER SEMICONDUCTOR
LTD.
(Translation of
registrants name into English)
Ramat Gavriel
Industrial Park
P.O. Box 619, Migdal
Haemek, Israel 23105
(Address of principal
executive offices)
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form 20-F x Form 40-F o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Yes o No x
On February 17, 2009, the registrant announced Lime Microsystems selects Jazz Semiconductors 0.18-micron SiGe process for its Configurable Multi-band, Multi-standard Transceiver Targeting WCDMA, CDMA, LTE and WiMAX Femtocells. Attached please find the press release.
This Form 6-K is being incorporated by reference into all effective registration statements filed by us under the Securities Act of 1933.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
Date: February 17, 2009 |
TOWER SEMICONDUCTOR LTD. By: /s/ Nati Somekh Gilboa Nati Somekh Gilboa Corporate Secretary |
Lime Microsystems selects Jazz Semiconductors 0.18-micron SiGe process for
its Configurable Multi-band, Multi-standard Transceiver Targeting WCDMA,
CDMA, LTE and WiMAX Femtocells
Femtocell Market is Expected to Grow from $434 Million in 2009 to $9 Billion by 2014
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., and GUILDFORD, United Kingdom, February 17, 2009 Jazz Semiconductor, Inc., a Tower Group Company (NASDAQ: TSEM, TASE: TSEM), and a leader in Analog-Intensive Mixed-Signal (AIMS) foundry solutions and Lime Microsystems, a leading supplier of high performance, multi-standard, multi-band RF transceiver ICs, announced today that Lime Microsystems has selected Jazz Semiconductors 0.18-micron BiCMOS SiGe process for its first commercially available transceiver IC. The immediate availability of Limes transceiver was announced yesterday at Mobile World Congress 2009.
Lime Microsystems IC is a femtocell transceiver for multiple air interfaces and frequencies that can operate with worldwide cellular network standards including WiMAX, 3G and LTE, reducing costs and inventory for global OEMs. Femtocells are emerging as a technology that enables wireless phone use in homes and offices to become a viable alternative to conventional landline telephones, and solves the indoor coverage issues with 3G indoor licensed spectrum, providing more capacity, coverage and services at home. It also reduces operating and infrastructure expenses with seamless handover residential IP network backhaul. The market for femtocells is expected to grow from $434 million in 2009 to $9 billion by 2014.
Lime Microsystems proprietary technology combined with Jazz Semiconductors 0.18-micron SiGe BiCMOS process has enabled the development of a single-chip multi-band, multi-standard broadband transceiver IC with outstanding RF performance. The configurable nature of the transceiver allows considerable design flexibility. This is particularly important to makers of femtocells and small cell basestations, who have to contend with standards and frequency bands which are constantly emerging and developing. Lime Microsystems highly frequency agile transceiver operates at user-selectable frequencies between 375MHz and 4GHz, with 16 user-selectable bandwidths up to 28MHz.
Our aim was to design an extremely innovative transceiver that meets the critical requirements for widespread adoption of femtocell technology. Jazzs SiGe BiCMOS technology and expertise in modeling enabled us to integrate high levels of functionality into our leading-edge product, said Ebrahim Bushehri, CEO of Lime Microsystems. We are excited to introduce this advanced wireless multi-band, multi-standard RF transceiver IC to customers at Mobile World Congress 2009.
Jazz is delighted to participate with a technology leader such as Lime Microsystems in this new market opportunity that leverages our high performance, 150GHz, 0.18-micron SiGe technology (SBC18). While SBC18 is a mature platform in use for cell phone transceivers, optical data networks and TV tuners amongst other applications, it continues to be the technology of choice for innovative products that require advanced analog and RF performance while remaining in a cost-effective technology node, said Dr. Marco Racanelli, Senior Vice President and General Manager of RF and High-Performance Analog at Jazz Semiconductor.
About Lime Microsystems
Founded in March 2005, Lime
Microsystems is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in digitally configurable
transceivers for the next generation of wireless broadband systems. Lime has developed
broadband transceiver ICs that significantly reduce the bill of materials for small cell
(femtocell and picocell) wireless networks. Working in partnership with leading baseband
technology companies, the company has also produced a reference design in
industry-standard MicroTCA format. Lime has development teams in the UK and Lithuania and
is backed by ACT Venture Capital and DFJ Esprit. Further information is available at
www.limemicro.com.
About Jazz
Semiconductor, Inc.
Jazz Semiconductor, Inc., a Tower
Group Company (NASDAQ: TSEM, TASE: TSEM), is a leading wafer foundry focused on
Analog-Intensive Mixed-Signal (AIMS) process technologies. Jazz offers world-class design
enablement tools to allow complex designs to be achieved quickly and more accurately. The
companys comprehensive process portfolio of modular AIMS technologies includes
RFCMOS, Analog CMOS, Silicon and SiGe BiCMOS, SiGe C-BiCMOS, Power CMOS and High Voltage
CMOS. Through access to Towers process technologies, Jazz offers Digital CMOS,
Embedded NVM, CMOS Image Sensors, and Flash MTP and OTP solutions. Jazz
Semiconductors executive offices and its U.S. wafer fabrication facility are located
in Newport Beach, CA. Additional capacity is available through access to Towers two
manufacturing facilities in Israel. Jazz also has manufacturing capacity in China through
partnerships with ASMC and HHNEC. For more information, please visit and
www.jazzsemi.com and www.towersemi.com.
Safe Harbor Regarding
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes
forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual
results may vary from those projected or implied by such forward-looking statements.
A complete discussion of risks and uncertainties that may affect the accuracy of
forward-looking statements included in this press release or which may otherwise affect
Towers and Jazzs business is included under the heading Risk
Factors in Towers most recent filings on Forms 20-F, F-3, F-4 and 6-K, as were
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) and the Israel
Securities Authority and Jazzs most recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, as were
filed with the SEC. Tower and Jazz do not intend to update, and expressly disclaim any
obligation to update, the information contained in this release.
Jazz Company Contact: | Lime Microsystems Company Contact: |
Melinda Jarrell | Philippe Roux |
949/435-8181 | +44 (0) 1428 653335 |
melinda.jarrell@jazzsemi.com | p.roux@limemicro.com |
Jazz Media Contact: | Lime Microsystems Media Contact: |
Lauri Julian | Sally Ward-Foxton |
949/715-3049 | +44 (0) 1225 470 000 |
lauri.julian@jazzsemi.com | sally.ward-foxton@publitek.com |