Product category: Communications ICs (Wireless)
News Release from: Cambridge Silicon Radio
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 7 June 2005

Royal Academy of
Engineering honours CSR

CSR has won this year's Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award for its single chip BlueCore family

CSR has won this year's Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award for its single chip BlueCore family, the revolutionary devices which have fuelled the inexorable rise of Bluetooth wireless products, from mobile phones to medical devices. The five-strong team of engineers, CEO John Hodgson, Commercial Director and cofounder Dr Phil O'Donovan, Technical Director and cofounder James Collier, Sales Director and cofounder Glenn Collinson and VP of Operations Chris Ladas, receive a tax-free prise of GBP 50,000 between them plus a gold medal for the company from HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Buckingham Palace on Monday 6th June 2005.

Prince Philip is the Academy's Senior Fellow and has presented the MacRobert Award every year since its inception in 1969.

'From a standing start in 1999, CSR has established a leading position among the world's largest semiconductor companies', says Dr Robin Paul FREng, Chairman of the MacRobert Award judging panel.

'They have achieved a remarkable breakthrough to meet the Bluetooth wireless standard proposed in 1998 on a single chip and have moved astutely to become the global market leader, with over 900 Bluetooth consumer products using their chips'.

'I'm delighted to see CSR winning this year's MacRobert Award', says Academy President Lord Broers.

'They had a brilliant idea, gathered the best engineers to develop it - including nearly 300 people at their research headquarters in Cambridge - and have become a global success story by exploiting a totally new market opportunity'.

'This is what the MacRobert Award is all about - seeking, seizing and securing commercial opportunities through outstanding engineering innovation'.

CSR's key technology breakthrough in the late 1990s was to pioneer a silicon chip with an integral radio transmitter.

'It sounds easy but in fact the 'noise' of the electrical signals on a tiny electronic chip would normally swamp a radio receiver working with microvolt signals, and at the time it was thought to be impossible', says Dr Phil O'Donovan, CSR's Commercial Director and cofounder.

But James Collier, CSR's Technical Director and cofounder discovered that judicious frequency planning could enable the radio component to communicate through the din of the silicon chip's digital traffic.

This is like the 'cocktail party' effect, where you can hear certain voices over the crowd.

Critically, CSR's outstanding innovation performance has been matched by commercial success.

The company floated on the London Stock Exchange in March 2004 and entered the FTSE 250 just four months later.

Since 1999 the company has designed over 30 different BlueCore chips, which are manufactured in Taiwan, and is now ranked number one in every Bluetooth market segment.

CSR has shipped more than 100 million chips since its foundation, covering 60% of all qualified Bluetooth enabled products, to customers which include industry leaders such as Nokia, Dell, Panasonic, Sharp, Motorola, IBM, Apple, NEC, Toshiba, RIM and Sony using BlueCore chips in their range of Bluetooth products.

'Bluetooth is also being used to create whole classes of products that were not previously possible', says Glenn Collinson, CSR's Sales Director and cofounder, 'such as wireless medical devices that benefit patients and remove the load from healthcare professionals'.

'The LifeSync wireless sensor and ECG monitor from GMP Wireless Medicine gives patients freedom from wires and gives 12-lead ECG continuous monitoring and reporting'.

'The Digital Pulse Oximeter from Nonin Medical wirelessly measures and reports the saturation of oxygen in arterial blood'.

'Both of these products use our chips'.

Phil O'Donovan said: 'CSR is honoured to win the MacRobert Gold Medal'.

'This award is recognition of CSR's highly innovative and commercially successful semiconductor products'.

'Also, it strengthens our ability to further encourage and motivate young people coming through the UK educational system to choose engineering as a career'.

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