Antenna Modules and Networking Components for 5G Systems

The arrival of Long Term Evolution (LTE) has had a larger impact on developed and emerging economies than any other single technology, as its benefits extend to all types of end users. With the increase in smartphone adoption and access to the internet through LTE services, the mobile industry has driven more new economic opportunities across the world than could ever have been imagined. In most parts of the world, particularly in emerging economies, mobile is the leading platform for internet access.

5G is the 5th generation of mobile networks and is designed to meet the very large growth in data and connectivity demands from ubiquitous wireless connectivity. The deployment of 5G targets vast improvements in the following areas:

• System Capacity: Enhanced mobile broadband will deal with growing system capacity with the goal of greater than 10Gbps peak, and a minimum of 100Mbps for every user. This will require a high spectrum efficiency and New Radio (NR) communications above 6 GHz.

• Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication: This will enable new applications that require mission-critical communications with almost no latency. The goal is to ensure very high reliability and availability with extremely low latency (1 ms or less).

• Extreme Density: 5G is intended to accommodate more IoT products and other low-cost, low data rate emerging markets that constitute a vast amount of new connections to LTE networks.

The Move to mmWave Communication

5G standards are currently under development. In 2018, the Mobile Broadband Standard Initiative, known as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), issued 3GPP Release 15. This consists of the first full set of 5G standards, including a stand-alone radio system specification complemented by a next-generation core network. This release introduced a new level of RF complexity by incorporating operation over the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum, beam forming capabilities, higher spectral efficiency waveforms, lower latency, multiple modulation schemes, and non-orthogonal multiple access.

The Shannon-Hartley Theorem states that the capacity of a data link is proportional to its bandwidth. Because mmWave bands currently have the widest achievable bandwidths, they allow vast amounts of data to be transmitted dramatically fast. Couple this with carrier aggregation in 5G, and you can provide much higher data rates to end users. Some challenges involve directional transmission and accommodating greater power consumption, which requires batteries with longer life.

Any new 5G product, particularly mobile products, will require one or more 5G antenna module that provide connectivity via existing 4G and/or 5G networks. The 5G rollout is happening gradually. First, 3GPP decided to tether 5G New Radio (NR) to the existing 4G LTE environment. In this scenario, 4G LTE remains as it is currently practiced, and 5G NR is deployed concurrently in the spectrum below 6 GHz. Until the technical obstacles around beamforming and battery life can be overcome, 5G NR use cases may center around small cells in fixed wireless applications, where close proximity to small cell base stations and narrowly focused bins are needed to achieve data rates in the range of several tens of gigabits.

Qualcomm QTM052 Antenna Module

The QTM052 antenna module runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem and is the world’s first fully-integrated mmWave RF solution for 5G smartphones and other mobile devices that are engineered to run on mmWave frequencies. QTM052 modules contain a 5G NR transceiver, power management IC, RF front-end components, and a phased antenna array.

There are already propagation, range, and directionality challenges in mmWave communication. Beam forming, beam steering, and beam tracking for bi-directional mobile mmWave communication will drastically improve the range and coverage of mmWave signals. The small footprint-phased antenna array design in the QTM052 minimizes the space required to support mmWave inside 5G devices:

The ability to overcome blockage by switching to other beams made available through four differently located mmWave modules, thanks to the small form factor of the QTM052 and interface support from the Snapdragon X50 modem.

Beamforming example with the QTM052 5G antenna module

Telit ENG3990251885

The Telit LM960 (ENG3990251885) is the first Gigabit-LTE mobile data product designed specifically for use in enterprise-class routers and networking equipment. This product supports download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps over 23 bands. This card has a mini PCIe footprint with reasonable power requirements (3.1 to 3.6 V), and with USB 2.0/3.0 and Dual SIM interfaces. If your new product will support first responders, this product includes a band exclusively dedicated to support FirstNet.

Telit LM960 module footprint, from the LM960 datasheet

MediaTek MT6297 5G SoC

The MediaTek MT6297 5G SoC baseband platform chip from MediaTek integrates the company’s Helio M70 modem and supports 2G/3G/4G/5G. It also provides dynamic bandwidth switching that allocates 5G bandwidth required for specific applications to improve power efficiency by 50%, providing extended battery life for mobile devices. The MT6297 runs on top of the new ARM Cortex-A77 CPU and includes the ARM Mali-G77 GPU for extremely fast streaming and gaming experiences at 5G speeds (4K video encode/decode at 60 fps with 80MP resolution).

Notably, this baseband module is the world’s first 5G SoC built on TSMC’s 7 nm production process, providing energy savings in a compact package compared to other baseband ICs. The architecture is built to support mobile artificial intelligence applications. Overall, this baseband platform provides 4.7 Gbps download speeds and 2.5 Gbps upload speeds at sub-6 GHz, making this product ideal for the first wave of new 5G devices while still being compatible with 2G-4G cellular networks.

MediaTek IC footprint, image from Anandtech

As new cellular networks are slowly rolled out, new products will need 5G-compatible antenna modules and networking equipment that can support these devices. This area of the electronics market is still in its infancy, so expect more products to become available as time goes on. If you’re developing network equipment, IoT device, or next-generation mobile devices, try using Octopart to determine the best option for your next product.

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