Epson and Infineon announced the development of the next generation of advanced global positioning system (A-GPS) technology. The new GPS single-chip design, the XPOSYS, is optimized for mobile devices for the consumer market; especially cellular phones with navigation features.

Compared to existing solutions in the market, the XPOSYS, which is manufactured in a 65 nanometer process technology, provides increased performance and new levels of user experience. Sensitivity has been increased from -160dBm to -165dBm, allowing for pinpoint positional accuracy even when indoors or in urban canyons. Furthermore, power consumption has been reduced by 50 percent, increasing the battery life of products in which it is included. The footprint has been reduced to fit into a printed circuit board (PCB) area of only 26 mm2. This is 25 percent less than the smallest GPS chip solution available today and provides, together with only nine additional external passive components, design flexibility and substantially lower system cost for device manufacturers.

“We’re very excited about this cooperation, which matches our GPS baseband IP with Infineon’s number one radio frequency design,” said Yutaka Kitazawa, Head of Epson’s GPS Business Development Division. “We’re convinced that this partnership between two great companies with excellent technologies enables us to offer best-in-class solutions for the worldwide GPS market.”s

Market forecasts by analysts predict strong growth of GPS features in mobile handsets, in addition to portable navigation devices (PND) and automotive embedded devices. According to market researcher iSuppli, the GPS penetration in handsets will rise from 2008 level of 19 percent to 35 percent by 2012. In unit terms, this translates to 238 million GPS-enabled mobile handsets in 2008 going up to 543 million units in 2012. In addition, PNDs, automotive systems and vehicle-device solutions are gaining popularity. The market research company Strategy Analytics is forecasting PND sales to exceed 100 million units by 2013 globally.

Volume production is expected to start by mid-2009.