San Diego-based Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. celebrated the shipment of its 2 billionth radio frequency chip recently. The shipment went to its biggest customer Murata Manufacturing Co., a major supplier to the world’s largest makers of wireless devices, including Apple and Samsung.
Homegrown Peregrine, which went public last year, traces its roots to 1988 but didn’t officially launch until 1990, and didn’t really begin production until five years later.
Today, Peregrine’s patented silicon and insulator chips are found in a host of smartphones and other wireless devices. They’ve also been to seven planets, Pluto and the asteroid Itokawa, according to the company.
In other news, Peregrine reported third quarter revenue of $60 million, about $600,000 below the revenue for the like quarter of 2012.
Net income was $4.4 million, down from $4.7 million in last year’s third quarter.
CEO Jim Cable called the quarter “solid” and said the company is poised to take advantage of the global shift to much higher speed wireless networks.
For the fourth quarter, Peregrine forecast revenue in the range of $43 million to $47 million, and gross margins in the range of 40 to 42 percent.
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