The mobile industry seems to have just finished its Carnival at the World Mobile Communications Conference (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. The suppliers of the technology industry, system OEMs and mobile operators are facing a series of 5G development obstacles to be solved immediately. In fact, these issues Still just a starting point.
The technical issues for 5G development are manifold. Among them, smart antennas and RF front ends for 5G millimeter waves (mmWave), which are expected to perform at 28GHz, 39GHz, or 60GHz, may seriously affect the yet to emerge. 5G mmWave phone performance.
Claire Troadec, director of RF electronics at Yole Développement, received an exclusive interview with EETimes after MWC. She said: 'While many companies like Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTrk and Samsung are The mobile phone is used as a 5G mmWave display platform, but we believe that the mobile phone will not be the first place to implement 5G mmWave applications. 'By contrast, 5G mmWave is more likely to be a fixed data baseband chip on a desk or desktop. Can be used to download or stream a large number of broadband applications.
Another challenge in deploying 5G mmWave wireless signals in mobile phones is battery life and power consumption issues. During the 2018 Winter Olympics (2018 Winter Olympics) held in Pyeongchang this year, Samsung reportedly displayed its own 5G tablet computer. Although the operation of this device was very smooth, the evaluation on MWC was quite surprising: After 30 minutes, the battery was dead.
In response to this rumors, Troadec believes that 'the phone's 5G mmWave signal transmission will have a problem of excessive power consumption. 'She suspects that most of the leading manufacturers should have been paying extensive attention to this area.' But she added that she found these Technology vendors have not proposed many remedies for this obvious system-level power consumption problem in 5G New Radio (5G NR) applications. She said that no one is willing to discuss this issue further at the show.
The interference that the 5G mmWave RF module will bring to the emerging 5G market will not be limited to the changes in technology. The entire industry supply chain that currently supplies 3G and 4G RF components and modules is also affected.
Yole explained that since 5G mmWave enables suppliers to use CMOS or SOI technology to design RF front-end modules in SoCs, this field will open up into the RF market for 'advanced CMOS designers and manufacturers' currently in the mobile ecosystem. In addition to Intel and Qualcomm, the companies that have entered this field include Samsung, Huawei, and MediaTek.
The more 5G bands, the more RF front-end modules
The mobile industry has made great strides as technology vendors begin to build complex RF front-end (RFFE) modules that can handle increasing frequency bands. According to Teleec, with cellular standards moving from 3G to 4G, RF front-ends The number of frequency bands must be increased from 4 to 30.
With 5G technologies and applications gradually in place, the situation will become more complicated. Although 5G is theoretically a standard, it has three important components: 5G for Internet of Things (IoT), using sub-6 5G in the GHz band, and 5G using mmWave. According to RF technology, Troadec observed that 'this means that different elements of the performance must be integrated together.'
This indicates 5G will follow 'different phases, different versions of the parallel development 5G' direction. In other words, there is not a unified 5G RFFE, but '5G IoT, 5G sub-6 GHz and according to its respective path the mmWave 5G Develop and establish parallel ecosystems with their RF system-in-package (SiP) advances.
So, what kind of RFFE path will be adopted for each type of 5G technology? Troadec believes that 5G mmWave technology will bring the most disruptive innovations. She also expects that next will need to re-design and adopt new materials.
Fortunately, 5G mmWave can end the current SiP-based complex front-end module applications for 2G, 3G and 4G RF front-end systems. Troadec explained: 'You can design each architecture based on advanced CMOS or SOI technology. Modules - including power amplifiers (PAs), low noise amplifiers (LNAs), filters, switches, and passive components. 'This will lead to the development of SoC front-end models for many digital chip vendors that previously lacked RF expertise. Group of opportunities.
At the same time, for 5G technologies below 6GHz, Troadec believes it will be based on incremental innovation. She explained that in this band it is expected that only minimal changes to the bill of materials (BoM) will be required. Change the current RF package architecture.
Since 5G IoT will use frequencies below 1 GHz, Troadec believes that 5G RFFE's semiconductor package 'needs little or no need for innovation' in this band. Nevertheless, 5G IoT for data transmission problems with large number of IoT devices Norms and agreements have not yet been defined and standardized.
What are the 'big coffee' in the RF supply chain?
Before delving into the details of 5G RF solutions, let us first look at the major RF component and module suppliers currently available.
In general, RF front-end modules consist of RF components such as RF switches, PA/LNA, RF filters, and antenna elements (tuners and switches).
In this crowded RF supply chain, major RF vendors include Sony, Murata (acquired Peregrin Semiconductor at the end of 2014), Skyworks, Qorvo, Infineon, Broadcom/Avago, Cavendish Kinetics, TDK EPCOS Wait.
Each company has its own proprietary RF components, usually using different substrates and process technologies. These technology options include everything from RF-SOI and BiCMOS to bulk CMOS, GaN and RF MEMS.
Because different types of RF components use different process technologies, the route used to integrate RF modules today is usually selected in the form of SiP rather than SoC.
Currently, for 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G frequencies below 6 GHz, Troadec confirmed that the only way to meet the stringent wireless performance requirements in smart phones is the SiP approach.
No RF component supplier currently has the ability to have each of the best technologies. Troadec explained that in the RF front-end integration, 'Each of the building blocks requires a very dedicated technology: The use of gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology The best PA, the best switch using SOI technology, the best filter using surface acoustic wave (SAW) and bulk acoustic wave (BAW), and the best LNA using silicon germanium (SiGe) technology.
Troadec and said: 'Broadcom, Murata, Qorvo, Skyworks and TDK / Qualcomm, is currently able to provide RF front-end modules for SiP process technology vendors.'
She explained that each product has its own characteristic requirements, such as high-frequency module, intermediate frequency module, low-frequency module and diversified receiving module, etc., respectively, using the "integrated multiplexor PA module" (PAMiD) Or it is a form of "integrated multiplexer front end module" (FEMiD). PAMiD is a highly integrated custom module, which is performance-oriented but costly. It is limited to Apple, Samsung and Huawei. FEMiD offers better performance and cost trade-offs, favored by Tier 2 smart phone manufacturers such as LG and mobile phone companies.
She concluded: 'We do see that only a few companies can play a role in this highly technologically mixed environment.'
5G sub-GHz: Follow SiP...
As the cellular industry develops towards 5G, for the 5G sub-GHz RF front-end module, it is expected that the same principle will continue to be used—SiP integration.
However, according to Yole, there will be some changes in the future for more integration of SiPs and packages. Troadec explained that these new measures include integrating LNAs and switching on the same chip and adopting more on SOI-based platforms. Mostly used for the wafer-level packaging (WLP) approach of filters to save chip space (for example, only Broadcom is using this method, and Qorvo is developing this method). In addition, the wafer-level packaging approach is also suitable for packaging PA (today still use wire bonding).
5G mmWave: From SiP to SoC
Undoubtedly, the 5G mmWave RF front-end module will revolutionize the most complex RF component/module supply chain. Due to the use of various process technologies, a large number of complex RF components are manufactured. In the future, the possibility of the upcoming may be based on Import mmWave front-end module in SoC implemented by advanced CMOS or SOI technology.
There are many reasons why 5G mmWave can design RF modules in SoC.
First of all, Troadec explained that 5G mmWave means that it is moving to the spectrum area where the bandwidth is available. 'So, we don't need a lot of frequency bands to send information, further simplifying its wireless architecture.'
Therefore, this also reduces the restrictions on the filter technology. 'High-order filtering is not necessary in the module,' However, she cautioned, 'We still have to use different wireless technologies (4G or 5G sub-6 GHz and 5G mmWave) Switch high-order switches (highly isolated, linear).
She also pointed out that for 4G technology, 'we used a carrier aggregation (CA) of 20MHz bandwidth per band, and we also used multiple frequency bands. Therefore, it requires high-order filter technology to distinguish each band. In each signal, but currently only BAW components (MEMS technology) are available.
Another important factor is that 5G mmWave will use beam-forming technology to enable it to form beams while transmitting information to multiple users. 'This will reduce the PA power transmission limitations and requirements. On the other hand, This also means that CMOS technology can play a role. 'She added: 'At mmWave frequency, the inductance becomes smaller; therefore, it is possible to integrate passive components using CMOS/SOI technology.'
However, Troadec once again emphasized that for the 5G mmWave RF module, one of the limiting factors seems to lie in the power consumption of the entire system. 'Why must we clarify this issue? And, no one has yet technically explained why and why What to do, 'can solve this problem.
New entrants into the RF field
Once the industry shifts to adopt CMOS or SOI technology, design 5G mmWave RF front end module in SoC, the current RF ecology will be from a seemingly harmonious RF front end module provider club (such as Broadcom, Murata, Qorvo, Skyworks and TDK/Qualcomm began to change.
Troadec pointed out that Intel and Qualcomm are ready to enter the handset baseband chip and transceiver business. They are very hopeful to master the wireless RF field and provide end-to-end solutions. The goal of these companies is to 'bring the RF industry chain. And under the complete home design'.
If Broadcom acquires Qualcomm...
From the perspective of Broadcom and Qualcomm’s products and technologies, the mobile phone market is a highly complementary market for these two giants. According to observation from Broadec, Broadcom is highly positioned in the wireless and Wi-Fi space, and Qualcomm is widely used in applications. Processors (AP), baseband chips, transceivers, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth (BT) and other markets, plus NXP's NFC and its microcontroller (MCU) business.
Today, Qualcomm has gradually gained market momentum from 5G mmWave, and Broadcom focuses on sub-6 GHz. Troadec said that if the acquisitions of the two companies were not previously blocked by US President Chuanpu, then Broadcom and Qualcomm’s entire And 'will form a highly oligopolistic situation in the market.' She questioned: 'That's why we saw Intel become very worried and tried to get involved in the discussion of this acquisition, even if it is considering buying Broadcom. Come. '
Compilation: Susan Hong