The antenna design solution of the next generation of mobile devices

The antenna design solution of the next generation of mobile devices

The rapid innovation of the next generation of mobile devices brings major engineering challenges in antenna realization. The key issue is that because honeycomb, Wi-Fi, UWB (UWB), millimeter wave (MMW) and GPS standards specify the new frequency band and put forward new requirements, so that the radio frequency path of 5G mobile phones is usually more than twice that of the LTE mobile phone. However, insufficient space restrictions on increasing the ability to share antennas between the new antenna and/or in multiple frequency bands, which causes more complicated problems. Industrial design innovation (such as foldable or curling screens and replace physical buttons with virtual controls) brings significant restrictions on antenna design and layout. Increasing the conflict between the increasing carrier power requirements and the OME system efficiency goals and improvement (such as the service life of the battery) also brings additional challenges. Qorvo has rich experience in helping companies solve difficult radio frequency problems. Its re -assumes the Qorvo antenna solution (QASR) can help engineers respond to space, design, and performance challenges in order to use the antenna power in the radio frequency architecture.

Rapid development of the mobile industry

As smartphones and wearable equipment manufacturers compete with mobile operators to provide larger coverage, higher data rates, new wireless communication functions and transformative industrial design, the innovation pace of the mobile industry continues to move forward quickly.

Smart mobile phone manufacturers have begun to expand the 5G support of the product series to meet the growing needs of data -intensive services such as video flow, video conferences, music and games. Therefore, the 5G high bandwidth 6 GHz bands (N77/N78 and N79) and a wider millimeter wave frequency band (N257-N261) for high-end mobile phones (N257-N261) have also begun to be used in mid-range and mass market phones. While increasing the complexity of RF, 5G not only needs to increase the new honeycomb band, but also supports 4X4 MIMO on a higher frequency band to achieve faster data transmission speed.

The manufacturer also added more non -honeycomb bands to the mobile phone to provide faster networks and support new positioning services. For example: Wi-Fi 6E/7 expands Wi-Fi to 6 GHz frequency bands, and provides an ultra-wide 160-320 MHz channel in order to provide higher performance for applications such as HD transmission, virtual reality and point-to-point games while alleviating The congestion caused by Wi-Fi spectrum is widely used.

UWB technology, which was originally used for high -end mobile phones, has also begun to be used for mid -end and mass market mobile phones. UWB can have an unprecedented accuracy (the error is within a few centimeters), calculate the distance and position indoors or outdoor, and start to support new positioning applications and equipment. As the name suggests, the channel width used by UWB is at least 500 MHz, and the frequency range is 3.1-10.6 GHz. At present, the main frequency range of mobile applications is 6-9 GHz. Manufacturers have also begun to increase new GPS L5 and L2 frequency bands, which provides various advantages such as higher positioning accuracy for key types of task.

At the same time, as mobile operators seek to optimize the use of existing spectrum to increase data rates, smartphones have begun to increase complex combinations of polyphonic frequency bands. Many operators began to use EN-DC (E-UTRAN new radio-dual connection), so that they can deploy 5G data rates faster in some areas by using 4G anchor bands and 5G data frequency bands. The carrier aggregation (CA) integrates multiple components (CC) to achieve larger bandwidth and higher data rates. As more and more frequency bands are added to the combination options, the CA is now becoming more and more complicated. 5G defines hundreds of new combinations of up to 16 CCs. The continuous bandwidth of each combination can reach 100 MHz, and the total aggregate bandwidth can reach about 1 GHz. These include two or more low -frequency bands with challenging, such as the B20 + B28 combination of Europe or Asia and the B5 + B12, B13 or B14 combinations in North America. They have the advantages of larger and larger throughput.

Manufacturers also began to use higher transmitting power to expand the coverage of high -frequency signals, because the transmission distance of high -frequency signals was less than low -frequency signals. Grade 2 power can double the transmitting power of the antenna (reaching 26 dB), which is currently widely used, and the industry has also begun to explore the power of 1.5 levels of 1.5 more (to 29 dB).

Who will take the lead in solving the challenge?

As shown in this article, the next generation of mobile devices brings quite a lot of antenna design and engineering problems. So who will take the lead in solving the challenge? In addition to the well -deserved pride brought about by overcoming the extremely difficult challenges, the team that won the innovation competition will have a significant competitive advantage in the dispute between consumers.