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Dialog Semi Enters Growing Indian Smartphone Market with New PMIC

November 05, 2018 by Paul Shepard

Dialog Semiconductor plc has partnered with UNISOC, formerly Spreadtrum Communications, to develop the SC2703, an optimized high-performance PMIC that is powering the latest addition to the new Micromax Canvas LTE smartphone series.

The smartphone market in India has taken off in recent years, largely due to the entrance of mobile network operator Reliance Jio and has driven tremendous adoption of 4G-enabled devices.

Micromax, one of the leading handset players in India, began rolling out its Canvas series of smartphones with 4G capabilities for first time smartphone users, and the Canvas series quickly became the highest selling phone series in the under Rs 5,000 (USD 70) budget segment in India after its launch.

Following that success, Micromax sought to make the next models even more powerful to meet consumer demands for increased functionality. The SC2703 PMIC is one of the key chips of the UNISOC SC9863A LTE octa-core processor chipset platform within Micromax’s new smartphones, maximizing the battery life enabling users to take full advantage of its key features.

“Our aim is to provide a seamless experience for our customers,” said Mr. Vikas Jain, co-founder, Micromax. “The success of our Canvas 4G smartphone series has given us a thorough understanding of the key new features that consumers are desirous of. We selected this UNISOC platform solution featuring Dialog’s PMIC technology to power the new Canvas LTE smartphone series because it offers extremely efficient charging and longer battery life with the highest mixed-signal integrated functionality.”

UNISOC, an innovator within the Asian market partnered with Dialog in early 2017, and the two companies have worked together to deliver chipset solutions enabling more affordable smartphones to the Indian market. The new Canvas series of LTE smartphones represents the first commercialization of the partnership between the two companies that pairs UNISOC’s strengths in 4G LTE with Dialog’s leading power management capabilities.

“India is entering a period of explosive growth in its smartphone industry, which is why we consider it to be our most important global market,” said Ivan Yin, Senior Vice President, UNISOC. “We have worked closely with a variety of major carriers within the region and expanding our strategic relationship with Dialog Semiconductor into this growing market allows us to develop products that will continue to offer an enhanced user experience, with constantly improving feature sets, at an affordable price.”

Available in two versions, SC2703L and SC2703P, the PMIC offers 90-92 percent charging efficiency at 5V and 9V inputs, allowing a charging current up to 2.5A and 3A respectively without generating hot spots in the phone.

It also enables superior battery life and lower power dissipation with 90 percent efficiency for the core buck at 1A with tight transient voltage regulation to allow for maximum processor performance. The 88 percent efficiency rate for the display bias and WLED also contributes to longer battery life.

“There is a tremendous opportunity to give millions of consumers access to more powerful smartphones with a wider feature set that we helped to enable within the new Canvas series of LTE smartphones,” said Christophe Chene, Senior Vice President, Asia, Dialog Semiconductor. “Working with UNISOC allows Dialog to not only expand its footprint in the South Asian market, but to also deliver the experiences that consumers require for today’s connected era.”