Samsung has been working very hard over the past few years for the commercialization of next-generation 5G networks and the company has announced that it has now taken a big step on the road to commercial 5G. Samsung has announced the commercial readiness of its 5G RF Integrated Circuit (RFIC) which is an important component that will be used in the production and commercialization of next-generation base station and other radio access products.
“We’re excited to finally bring all the pieces together and announce this important milestone on the path to commercial 5G. This will have a big role to play in the upcoming connectivity revolution,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of Next Generation Communications Business Team at Samsung Electronics.
The new RFIC was announced by Samsung at a 5G mobile technologies workshop. It gave details about the development and the strengths of the chip and also outlined its role in the roadmap to commercial 5G products. The chip has been designed to “greatly strengthen” the overall performance of 5G access units. Samsung has particularly focused on designing it for low cost, high efficiency and compact form factors. The chip uses a high-gain/high-efficiency power amplifier that Samsung unveiled in June last year.
This enables the RFIC to provide extended coverage in the millimeter wave (mmWave) band, overcoming a big challenge of high-frequency spectrum. It also provides improved transmission and reception performance. The RFIC is destined for use in the 28GHz mmWave spectrum band, making it a primary target for early 5G deployments in marks like the United States, Japan and South Korea. Now that development on the chip is complete, Samsung is going to accelerate its plans for 5G commercial product readiness and expects to announce the first RFIC-equipped solutions by early next year.
