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Forefront RF

Forefront RF

Designs tunable RF front-end technology

Assembly Engineer - New Product Introduction

Full-Time
No salary listed
Mid
Bachelor's
Cambridge, UK
In Person

About the job

Requirements
  • A degree in Electronic Engineering, Materials Science, Manufacturing Engineering, or a similar field.
  • Experience in semiconductor assembly, packaging, or manufacturing engineering.
  • Understanding of semiconductor packaging and assembly processes.
  • Familiarity with outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers and outsourced semiconductor manufacturing.
  • Experience with yield improvement, failure analysis, and process optimisation.
  • A proactive approach to problem-solving and resilience when working with ambiguity.
  • Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
  • Strong communication and collaboration abilities.
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
  • Attention to detail and commitment to producing high-quality output.
Responsibilities
  • Manage semiconductor assembly activities across prototype and production builds.
  • Work with outsourced semiconductor assembly and test providers and manufacturing partners on package assembly and process development.
  • Support new product introduction and manufacturing readiness activities.
  • Drive yield improvement and root-cause analysis for assembly-related issues.
  • Coordinate reliability testing, qualification, and failure analysis activities.
  • Collaborate with design, test, and product engineering teams to optimise manufacturability.
  • Create and maintain assembly documentation, process flows, and manufacturing specifications.
  • Identify continuous improvement opportunities across quality, cost, and production efficiency.
Desired Qualifications
  • Experience with radio-frequency or mixed-signal semiconductor products.
  • Knowledge of reliability and qualification processes.
  • Familiarity with manufacturing data analysis and process control.
  • Understanding of advanced semiconductor packaging technologies.
  • Experience supporting consumer, Internet of Things, or automotive semiconductor products.

About the company

Forefront RF designs RF front-end semiconductors for wireless telecom systems. Its patented Tunable Duplexer cancels self‑interference, replacing multiple SAW/BAW filters that require separate crystals for each band. This tunable approach saves space and reduces component count, setting it apart from fixed-frequency filters. The company aims to enable efficient, scalable wireless networks by selling its technology to telecom equipment makers, backed by recent investment.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Series A

Total Funding

$32.2M

Headquarters

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Founded

2020

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Forefront RF raised £16 million in 2024 from BGF, Foresight, Octopus, and CIC.
  • MWC 2026 drew watch OEMs and ODMs discussing SKU reduction and RF footprint savings.
  • Cambridge Tech Week 2026 and Telecom Council Forum positioned Foretune for operator conversations.

What critics are saying

  • FFM51010 is still pre-scale; missed 2026 OEM design wins postpone revenue.
  • Broadcom, Qorvo, Skyworks, Murata, and TDK can copy, bundle, and undercut faster.
  • If mid-band expansion stalls, Forefront RF remains a niche low-band component vendor.

What makes Forefront RF unique

  • Foretune replaces SAW/BAW filters with adaptive cancellation, shrinking low-band RF front ends.
  • FFM51010 launched at MWC 2026 as the first commercial tunable duplexer module.
  • Forefront RF targets single global SKU designs for wearables, smartphones, and RedCap devices.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Life Insurance

Income Protection

Flexible Work Hours

Remote Work Options

Paid Vacation

Paid Holidays

Stock Options

Meal Benefits

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

0%

1 year growth

3%

2 year growth

-3%
Forefront RF
Sep 7th, 2026
Forefront RF returns to Cambridge Tech Week to showcase tunable duplexer technology.

Forefront RF returns to Cambridge Tech Week to showcase tunable duplexer technology. Published on 07 September 2026 Cambridge, UK, 7th September 2026. Forefront RF, a Cambridge-based fabless semiconductor scale-up, will return to Cambridge Tech Week 2026 to showcase its proprietary Foretune(TM) technology, developed to help OEMs and manufacturers address the demanding connectivity requirements and space constraints of next-generation wireless devices. Smartphones, wearables and other connected devices must now support a growing number of frequency bands without compromising performance, driving greater complexity in RF front-end design. Forefront RF's software-defined approach provides a compelling alternative to conventional RF systems that rely on multiple fixed-frequency components. Foretune(TM), which underpins the company's product portfolio, is designed to dynamically self-configure according to available frequencies, reducing RF component count and power consumption. This enables a smaller physical footprint while supporting the requirements of high-volume manufacturing. By introducing greater configurability into the RF front end, Foretune enables a simpler, more flexible RF architecture. This provides a pathway towards more universal RF front-end designs capable of supporting a broader range of frequency bands and use cases, including satellite connectivity and future 6G services. Alexander Doust, Director of Business Development at Forefront RF, said: "Cambridge has a thriving semiconductor and deep-tech ecosystem, and Cambridge Tech Week is a great opportunity to showcase that innovation and be part of that community. We're delighted to be participating again this year, catching up with familiar faces and making new connections." Visitors can meet the Forefront RF team at Innovation Alley on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th September to learn more about the technology, its potential applications and career opportunities with the company.

Forefront RF
Jun 9th, 2026
Forefront RF outlines path to faster spectrum adoption and global device interoperability at Telecom Council Innovation Forum.

Forefront RF outlines path to faster spectrum adoption and global device interoperability at Telecom Council Innovation Forum. Published on 09 June 2026 by Sue Hunt Forefront RF recently joined senior telecommunications executives, technology vendors, investors and disruptive startups at a Telecom Council Innovation Forum to discuss innovations shaping the future of wireless communications. The event provided an opportunity to address one of the industry's most pressing challenges: the growing complexity of RF front-end architectures as spectrum becomes increasingly fragmented and devices are required to support more frequency bands, carrier aggregation combinations and global deployment scenarios. During a presentation to industry stakeholders, Alexander Doust, Director of Business Development at Forefront RF, outlined the company's vision for transforming how mobile and connected devices are designed and deployed worldwide. At the heart of this vision is the potential to enable a compact single global SKU, reducing the complexity that exists throughout today's wireless ecosystem. As mobile network operators (MNOs) continue to expand their spectrum portfolios and deploy new frequency bands, device support remains critical to maximising the value of network investments. Yet manufacturers are often forced to develop multiple hardware variants of the same product to address different regional requirements, creating complexity across design, testing, certification, manufacturing and supply chains. Forefront RF believes a more flexible approach is needed. Its patented tunable duplexer technology, Foretune(TM), has been designed to replace multiple band-specific RF components with a software-defined alternative capable of dynamically adapting to different frequency bands and services. By reducing reliance on dedicated hardware, the technology introduces a more agile RF front-end architecture that can adapt to changing connectivity requirements through software rather than additional components. For MNOs, this approach could deliver significant benefits, including support for a wider range of spectrum assets, faster adoption of new frequency bands, improved global roaming compatibility and reduced barriers for OEMs launching devices on their networks. It could also simplify device certification processes and help expand the ecosystem of devices capable of supporting operator requirements. For device manufacturers, the potential advantages extend beyond RF performance. A more adaptable RF architecture could reduce product complexity, simplify supply chains and improve the economics of launching connected devices across multiple regions and operators. Ultimately, the technology supports Forefront RF's broader vision of making global connectivity easier to integrate, scale and deploy. By reducing RF front-end complexity, the company believes the industry can move closer to a future where connectivity becomes increasingly commoditised and a single global SKU becomes commercially viable across a wide range of connected devices. Forefront RF would like to thank the Telecom Council and participating organisations for the opportunity to share its vision and engage in valuable discussions. The company looks forward to continuing conversations with operators, device manufacturers and ecosystem partners as it works towards making the single global SKU a practical reality.

Forefront RF
Mar 2nd, 2026
Forefront RF to unveil industry's first commercial low-band tunable duplexer at Mobile World Congress 2026

Forefront RF to unveil industry's first commercial low-band tunable duplexer at Mobile World Congress 2026. Published on 02 March 2026 Cambridge, UK, 2 March 2026 - At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026. Forefront RF, a Cambridge-based fabless semiconductor scale-up, has launched, what it believes to be the industry's first commercially available tunable duplexer module, the FFM51010, implemented without SAW or BAW acoustic filtering. Enabled by its proprietary adaptive passive cancellation technology, branded Foretune(TM), the module represents a paradigm shift in RF front-end design for cellular-enabled smartwatches, smartphones and other connected devices. The company will be giving live demonstrations of the FFM51010 at Booth A9.16 in the UK Pavilion, Hall 7, including detailed technical performance data and validation results. Today's mobile devices rely on banks of duplexers, filters and switches, each restricted to a specific frequency band. As operators make additional spectrum available to meet growing data usage, manufacturers must support an increasingly fragmented global RF landscape. The result has been rising RF front-end complexity, larger component counts, regional differences in RF frequency bands, and increasing pressure in compact, space-constrained devices. The FFM51010 addresses this challenge using Adaptive Passive Cancellation. Similar in principle to noise-cancelling headphones, which eliminate unwanted background sound by generating an opposing signal, the system creates an inverted replica of transmitter leakage and cancels it at the receiver input in real time. By actively suppressing this self-interference at radio frequency, the module replaces multiple fixed, band-specific filters with a single configurable solution while maintaining the linearity and stability required for increasingly complex multi-band devices. "Despite longstanding research into reconfigurable RF systems, delivering a practical, high-linearity tunable duplexer suitable for high-volume cellular deployment has remained a significant technical challenge," said Ronald Wilting, CEO of Forefront RF. "With Foretune(TM), we are introducing configurability into one of the last rigid hardware blocks of the mobile radio." Key technical characteristics include: * Receive frequency range: 612-960 MHz - Transmit frequency range: 663-915 MHz * Supported channel bandwidth: 1.4-20 MHz (higher bandwidth under development) * Tunable duplex spacing: -46 MHz to +55 MHz * Supported bands: 5, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 71, 85, 105 * Integrated multi-mode power amplifier -Integrated low-noise amplifier * Integrated antenna-port bi-directional RF coupler * No external duplexers required * Single MIPI RFFE v3.0 interface * LGA package: 6.0 x 4.5 x 0.75 mm The device supports both Average Power Tracking (APT) and Envelope Tracking (ET) architectures and is targeted at 4G LTE, 5G NR and 5G RedCap user equipment, particularly single-antenna systems. This first product release focuses on low-band spectrum. Future product generations are planned to extend the Foretune(TM) architecture into mid-band and high-band frequencies. Notes to editors Founded in 2020, Forefront RF is a fabless semiconductor company poised to transform the way multi-band smartphones, wearables and other connected devices are designed. Based on award winning academic research, the company is developing a ground-breaking technology that reduces PCB space through fewer components and increases the number of supported frequency bands. With the mobile phone and adjacent markets embracing miniaturization, Forefront RFs next generation solution empowers OEMs and ODMs to incorporate a range of advanced features into their designs while reducing the overall cost, size and weight of the end-product. The company is headquartered in Cambridge UK with a subsidiary office in the Netherlands.

CXO Inc Magazine
Mar 13th, 2025
Forefront RF expands market presence with new subsidiary office in the Netherlands

Forefront RF expands market presence with new subsidiary office in the Netherlands.

Forefront RF
Mar 6th, 2025
Forefront RF Strengthens Leadership Team with Appointment of Business Development Director

Forefront RF, a fabless semiconductor company based in Cambridge, today announced the appointment of Alexander Doust as Director of Business Development, completing its senior management team.