RF Micro Devices® Press Release - March 23, 2010

RFMD Features Ember ZigBee(R) Technology in New Family of
High Performance Front End Modules for Smart Energy Applications


Visit RFMDGREENSBORO, N.C., and BOSTON, March 23, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ -- RF Micro Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: RFMD), a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance radio frequency components and compound semiconductor technologies, announced today it is teaming with Ember Corporation to introduce ZigBee(R) front end modules (FEMs) for smart grid applications that give utilities and consumers more control over how they monitor and save energy. ZigBee is a global wireless networking standard for monitoring and control in a variety of applications such as energy management, safety and security, lighting and appliances.

RFMD Features Ember ZigBee(R) Technology in New Family of High Performance Front End Modules for Smart Energy ApplicationsRFMD's new ZigBee FEM product family, unveiled today, enables customers to bring new ZigBee products to market faster, while dramatically reducing the number of components required and the size, cost, and power consumption of smart grid FEMs.

While RFMD's newest ZigBee FEMs can be used with any ZigBee application, the product family initially targets smart grid and smart energy applications such as smart meters, demand response, and home area network (HAN) devices. Beyond smart energy, RFMD's ZigBee FEM family is also designed for industrial applications and any other wireless sensing and control applications that demand low power consumption, high performance and proven reliability.

RFMD's ZigBee FEM family includes the RF6525, RF6515, and RF6535, which are optimized to operate with the Ember EM300 Series system-on-chip (SoCs) - EM351 and EM357 - as well as Ember's EM250 SoC and EM260 network co-processor.

Bob Van Buskirk, president of RFMD's Multi-Market Products Group (MPG), said, "RFMD and Ember are leveraging each other's expertise to deliver high-performance, highly integrated ZigBee solutions that reduce design cycle times, lower costs, and accelerate time-to-market. Large-scale smart energy projects are forecast to grow rapidly, with particular demand anticipated in low-power wireless IC technologies like ZigBee.

"RFMD anticipates our collaboration with Ember will directly benefit our smart energy customers while supporting continued growth in the burgeoning smart energy marketplace. These diversification efforts, and RFMD's other diversified growth initiatives currently underway, highlight the embedded value in our strategic mission to extend and leverage our leadership in RF components and compound semiconductors into multiple industries."

"By teaming with RFMD we are further simplifying ZigBee development for OEMs and bolstering our partner ecosystem to include a global leader in high performance RF components. Fine tuned to work with the Ember platform, RFMD's ZigBee FEMs deliver impressive size reduction and outstanding performance, thereby enabling faster, easier development of smart energy products worldwide," said Bob LeFort, Ember CEO.

Ember's ZigBee networking systems - chips, ZigBee protocol software and tools -simplify the complexity of integrating embedded software, networking and RF for developing low power, wireless products in smart energy, connected home and other remote monitoring and control applications. Since its inception, Ember has been an industry leader, future-proofing customers and partners like RFMD(R) with the most advanced features.

The EM300 Series is Ember's next-generation ZigBee chip family, and the world's first ARM Cortex-M3 based ZigBee SoC, packing the industry's highest wireless networking performance and application code space into the lowest power-consuming chip set. The EM250 and EM260 ZigBee are the most deployed family of ZigBee semiconductors delivering excellent RF performance, sensitivity and transmit power for long range, and 802.11 immunity.
 
For additional information please visit http://www.rfmd.com/ember/zigbeerf.aspx.

About Ember
Ember Corporation ( www.ember.com) develops wireless mesh networking technology - chips, software, tools - for Smart Energy, connected homes, as well as many other monitoring and control applications enabling greener living and work environments. The Boston based company is a promoter of the ZigBee Alliance with an IC design center in Cambridge, England, office in Hong Kong and sales channels worldwide.


About RFMD
RF Micro Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq:RFMD) is a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance radio frequency components and compound semiconductor technologies. RFMD's products enable worldwide mobility, provide enhanced connectivity and support advanced functionality in the cellular handset, wireless infrastructure, wireless local area network (WLAN), CATV/broadband and aerospace and defense markets. RFMD is recognized for its diverse portfolio of semiconductor technologies and RF systems expertise and is a preferred supplier to the world's leading mobile device, customer premises and communications equipment providers.

Headquartered in Greensboro, N.C., RFMD is an ISO 9001- and ISO 14001-certified manufacturer with worldwide engineering, design, sales and service facilities. RFMD is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol RFMD. For more information, please visit RFMD's web site at www.rfmd.com.

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our plans, objectives, representations and contentions and are not historical facts and typically are identified by use of terms such as "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue" and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. You should be aware that the forward-looking statements included herein represent management's current judgment and expectations, but our actual results, events and performance could differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. We do not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements or publicly announce the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements, other than as is required under the federal securities laws. RF Micro Devices' business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with the impact of global macroeconomic and credit conditions on our business and the business of our suppliers and customers, variability in operating results, the rate of growth and development of wireless markets, risks associated with the reduced investment in our wireless systems business, our ability to execute on our plans to consolidate or relocate manufacturing operations, our reliance on inclusion in third party reference designs for a portion of our revenue, our ability to manage channel partner and customer relationships, risks associated with the operation of our wafer fabrication facilities, molecular beam epitaxy facility, assembly facility and test and tape and reel facilities, our ability to complete acquisitions and integrate acquired companies, including the risk that we may not realize expected synergies from our business combinations, our ability to attract and retain skilled personnel and develop leaders, variability in production yields, raw material costs and availability, our ability to reduce costs and improve margins in response to declining average selling prices, our ability to bring new products to market, our ability to adjust production capacity in a timely fashion in response to changes in demand for our products, dependence on a limited number of customers, dependence on gallium arsenide (GaAs) for the majority of our products, and dependence on third parties. These and other risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in RF Micro Devices' most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports and statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, could cause actual results and developments to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any of these forward-looking statements.
 
RF MICRO DEVICES(R) and RFMD(R) are trademarks of RFMD, LLC. All other trade names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.



CONTACT:
RF Micro Devices, Inc.
Doug DeLieto, VP, Investor Relations
336-678-7088









Posted 2/24/2010