Ever wondered how come Samsung is the phone manufacturer that constantly releases the thinnest mobile phones on the mobile market while other companies try to do their best but almost never succeed to achieve such tiny dimensions? Well, I have the answer. The main reason behind this state of facts is Agere Systems' chip packaging design technique, a technology that allowed the Korean phone manufacturer to launch the X820 Ultra Edition 6.9 candy-bar phone measuring only 6.9 mm in depth and the D830 Ultra Edition 9.9 clamshell 9.9 mm thick handset.

How does it work? The process through which the phones are getting slimmer each day is named "stacking" and consists of a technique that stacks a packaged memory chip on top of the main baseband chip and thus the phone's footprint reduces significantly. Why is this so innovative? Because the usual process is to implement chips on both of the device's sides and therefore, its size grows proportionally.

This new approach to the phone manufacturing process proposed by Agere Systems has made it the most important Samsung partner, a fact recognized by the Korean company by naming them their "Most Valued Partner" and handing them an award during the recent Telecom Partners' Day organized by Samsung. Later on, Ki Tae Lee, the President and CEO for the Telecommunication Network Business from Samsung Electronics, has declared that "Agere has consistently distinguished itself as a company providing not only great chip solutions, but also the system-level understanding and close collaboration required to bring the best possible products to market. Agere has demonstrated a clear commitment to helping Samsung build on our success as a leader in mobile phone quality and innovation."

Furthermore, due to their nomination as Samsung's main partner and primary GPRS and EDGE solution provider, the President and CEO of Agere Systems, Richard L. Clemmer, has said that "we are extremely proud to receive this award three times in a row from Samsung Electronics. Our specialties in 3G W-EDGE, the recently launched Vision product family and our upcoming HSDPA solutions deliver the flexibility and scalability that meet Samsung's needs as they strive to quickly introduce full-featured multimedia mobile phones to ever demanding consumers. We will continue to work with Samsung as a strategic provider focused on bringing the best solutions to the mobile phone market".

And this is how the thin phones arrive in our pockets with us not even knowing who is responsible for all this miniaturization mania going around the world these days. Now we do and we have to thank Samsung for the unveiling of the company that made it all possible: Agere Systems (if not all, at least the most important part).