San Jose company Cavendish Kinetics successfully raised $36 million to develop their radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical system (RF MEMS), which could significantly improve smartphone reception.

Its CEO Paul Dal Santo didn't elaborate who the investors were. As of now, all its customers are in Asia. Dal Santo said low-loss RF switching is very important, especially because smartphone makers develop 4G and 5G capability. There are no switches in the market that can be turned into large quantities and with high quality, but there are apps for cellphones. This has adverse affects on the performances.

The semiconductor industry is a $335 billion business with Intel, Qualcomm, and other giant chip companies dominating the field. Dal Santo may not have disclosed the investors, but according to report Triquent Semiconductor, which is a part of Qorvo, was involved in the round as a strategic investor.

Cavendish Kinetcis was able to raise $36 million thanks to the market success of its RF MEMS. Its new generation of RF components boosts its proven RF MEMS to a new level, adding a wide range of virtually loss-less RF MEMS switches to its popular RF MEMS tuners portfolio. These new components bring a wide variety of radio front-end applications, such as high-performance tuning of antennas, filters, and power amplifiers. This will also include ultra-low loss switching of the RF signal path.

The new generation RF MEMS are based on a revolutionary "switchet array" that has a proven MEMS cycle life that could reach over 100B cycles. It will also provide increased tuning range, more radio performance gains, and RF voltage handling. The new generation RF MEMS will be available by 2016, and by the second half of 2016, it will go into volume production.

Cavendish was created in 2006, and now has a total of 46 employees. It competes with other semiconductor companies such as Qoyvo, Skyworks, Infineon, Murata, and Qualcomm.