About us
SemiBlocks B.V. was founded in 2017 by the initial shareholders: Semiconductor Ideas to the Market (ItoM) B.V., AnHarmonic and Innflect and has its headquarters in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. Based upon the long experience of Rob van der Valk (now CTO) an innovative new concept was developed that brings significant cost and performance benefits to Crystal Oscillators, particularly for the emerging 5G and IoT technology markets.
In 2018 SemiBlocks received funding via the Brabantse Onwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM) and received loans from both the RVO and a Tier 1 US based Semiconductor company.
Currently SemiBlocks is working on its 1st generation and targets a market introduction by fall of 2024.
Revolutionary
technology
SmartXtal by SemiBlocks
SmartXtal is a revolution in the Crystal Oscillator Market. After years of R&D SemiBlocks achieved the same high performance as conventional Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillators (OCXOs) with a fully semiconductor based solution. All benefits of semiconductor solutions are therefore applicable:
- Small
- Inexpensive
- Future proof
- High volume producible
The 1st generation SmartXtal solution will target OCXO performance but at reduced size and price. In the coming years SemiBlocks will launch solutions that bring OCXO performance against TCXO pricing.
SmartXtal
and 5G
5G applications with SemiBlock’s technology
If 5G wants to live up to its promise, to achieve 1-10Gbps data rates, conventional infrastructure used in LTE networks will not be sufficient. The promised data rates rely on the availability of high bandwidths only available on higher frequency commonly referred to as millimeter Wave (mmWave) frequencies.
However these high frequencies have an fundamental limitation: they travel less far. In order to account for the reduced coverage, each mmWave cell has a coverage of approx. 0.1225 km2, a high density network needs to be deployed. According to the Small Cell Forum the density can go up to 350 cells/km2 in dense urban areas. The “small cells” have to be deployed on commonly available street items like: lamp posts, bus shelters. This means they have to be small, light and have to operate under rapidly changing environmental conditions (mainly temperature).
With SmartXtal infrastructure suppliers can now get Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator performance at far reduced cost levels and highly reduced footprint, making them the ultimate solution of choice for 5G infrastructure.
