The telecommunications revolution at the beginning of the 21st century triggered the development and proliferation of diverse and large-scale communications equipment. According to recent estimates, everyone on the planet has an average mobile phone. One of the effects of this significant growth is the concomitant effect. The demand for data transmission has led to the need to increase the radio spectrum. In fact, from the four frequency bands of the 2000s, there have been more than 30 frequency bands - and this figure will increase again with the arrival of 5G. In order to manage these frequency bands, The mobile radio module field has seen significant development.
At present, we are taking the first step towards 5G network. It is estimated that 5G will become the standard of RF radio communication by 2020. The 5th generation of cellular networks is expected to be launched in the next 2-3 years to realize a large number of new applications. And services, and Gigabit per second data transfer rates. One of the key drivers for developing this speed is the high resolution (resolution) video requirements on mobile devices (get image quality above 4K and 8K). Future applications, such as mobile-driven Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), will benefit from this technological capability. In addition, data generated by Internet of Things (IoT) terminal devices will also require It is transmitted over cellular networks. Therefore, from 2017 to 2022, global mobile data traffic will grow at a CAGR of over 40%.
According to Yole Développement, the RF front-end module market for 5G mobile phones is expected to reach 7.8 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, and is expected to reach 35.3 billion U.S. dollars by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 35% from 2020 to 2025. As 5G faces Strong technical challenges may reshuffle and change the situation in the mobile telecommunications market. Therefore, the strategy of intellectual property rights is very important to ensure that enterprises have an advantageous market position in the coming years.
In its new patent analysis report, KnowMade thoroughly investigated the patent situation of RF FEM dedicated to mobile applications. KnowMade also assessed the intellectual property status of major participants through detailed analysis of patent portfolio, including the legal status of patents, geography. Coverage, their claimed invention content and their existing technical contributions. In addition, KnowMade has studied the IP intellectual property strategies and IP blocking potential of major market players, and their IP portfolio that addresses the challenges of 5G applications, such as Multiple input output MIMO, beamforming, carrier aggregation, millimeter wave and other technical solutions.
The most important results are as follows: As of 2017, more than 500 patent applicants have issued more than 1,380 RF front-end module inventions worldwide. In the late 1980s, there were RF FEM-related patent activities, including Alcatel, Mobile phone pioneers such as Motorola and Panasonic. RF FEM IP activities have been closely linked to the development of new standards since then. For example, the first wave of patent publication in the 2000s was related to democratization of mobile phones and 2G and 3G standards. The echo of the arrival.
Since 2010, with 3G deployment and market integration (2008 - 2012), 4G and imperative 5G (needs to develop new technologies) have relaunched patent activities. At present, mobile phone RF FEM-related intellectual property pattern Driven by market leaders, M&A activity has consolidated the patent portfolio of key players in the industry, such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, Skyworks, and Murata Murata, etc. Surprisingly, part of the industry participants focused on integrated processes (ie, LG Innotek, Samsung Electromechanics, Hon Hai, etc.) are also among the top 20 patent applicants in RF. In addition, the rapid development of Chinese corporate R&D activities has encouraged established companies to actively deploy and protect their inventions and markets. Interestingly, Oppo ranks The 20th most important applicant, and Apple did not even score in the top 20.
Presumably, companies such as Broadcom, Qualcomm, Qorvo, Skyworks, and Nokia have the highest potential for patent blockade blocking. However, the most important part of KnowMade analysis is the subject of patents. Carrier Aggregation and MIMO Receiver/Transmitters are KnowMade analysis. Of all patents, there are the subjects of the most relevant patents, but this is not surprising, because they are the main topics of 5G. However, it is surprising that the important new trends related to millimeter-wave communications are currently not related to many patents. The topic. This means that it is either a very complex R&D topic, and companies that develop this block lack innovative solutions, or there are many patents to be published, and we are currently in the 'gray zone' on the eve of release.
As 5G becomes a key market for equipment, modules and system level, you can expect intense war of patents among industry participants!