Melbourne, Fla.-based startup WiDeFi Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, has selected Amtel Corp. as its foundry partner for its Xtender family of 802.11 repeater chipsets.

WiDeFi’s decision to partner with Atmel was based on Atmel’s advanced silicon germanium (SiGe) bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) together with its collaborative approach to working with its customers throughout the design process, accelerating time-to-market.

“Atmel offers a unique combination of benefits to WiDeFi that we couldn’t find with any other foundry,” said Jim Proctor, WiDeFi founder and CEO. “The company’s rich experience and expertise in wireless LAN (WLAN) and cellular technologies, its leadership position in SiGe BiCMOS technologies, and its U.S.-based foundry services and design support ensure that we can provide our customers with the highest quality product while meeting their time-to-market demands.”

The first product to benefit from this partnership is WiDeFi’s WLAN Xtender. WiDeFi’s flagship product, the WLAN Xtender, is a new fundamental wireless network element that doubles the range of WLAN networks with twice the throughput and lower cost than the top competing solutions.

“The market opportunity for range extension solutions is significant. The combination of WiDeFi’s talented design team, coupled with our design support and foundry services, will ensure rapid adoption of this unique, patent-pending technology, and meet the demand for wireless range extension,” said Chris Baumann, director of BiCMOS products for Atmel.