An article about Qorvo's layout in mobile phones

btty038

An article about Qorvo's layout in mobile phones [Copy link]

For smartphones, the iPhone in the Steve Jobs era was the industry leader. It was also because of the emergence of the iPhone that smartphones officially opened a new era. However, in the post-Steve Jobs era, the smartphone industry seems to be in a state of lack of innovation. "One face for all machines" has become the norm, and it seems that all smartphones have become the same. In the inertial cycle of smartphone development in recent years, there have been two innovations focusing on the interaction of mobile phone screens. One is the curved screen design led by Samsung, which has led the industry's trend in the past few years; the other is the recently popular full-screen design. The emergence of Xiaomi MIX directly made the direction of the curved screen turn 90 degrees. Almost all major mobile phone manufacturers have shifted their focus to the full-screen market, including Apple and Samsung. Due to the narrowing of the upper and lower borders of the full-screen, the distance between the antenna and the metal middle frame is shortened, and the distance between the camera and other devices and the antenna is closer, the "headroom" is less than that of traditional screens, which also poses a higher challenge to RF manufacturers. Along with this wave of full-screen trends, related industry chains are also undergoing innovations. Qorvo is one of the main suppliers of smartphone RF. It has been rumored that Qorvo is also the RF supplier of iPhoneX. At the "Jiwei Semiconductor Summit" jointly held by Jiwei.com and the China Mobile Alliance in Xiamen, we also talked with Qorvo CEO Jiang Xiong about the innovation of RF technology behind the full screen. Mobile phone RF is a functional module that receives, sends and processes high-frequency radio waves. Its main circuits include antenna, wireless switch, receiving filter, frequency synthesizer, high-frequency amplification, receiving local oscillator, mixing, intermediate frequency, transmitting local oscillator, power amplifier control, power amplifier, etc. The radio waves need to be transmitted, and the frequency must be high to a certain extent. For example, the frequency of sound is only 20HZ-20KHZ, so it must be modulated to a high frequency before it can be transmitted. In order to achieve good communication between mobile phones and base stations, the RF emitted by mobile phones must reach sufficient strength, and the frequency needs to be dynamically adjusted according to the location with the base station. An important parameter of RF is TRP, which refers to the total radiated power and the overall transmission power. This is a customization, generally specified by the operator. The latter must meet the TRP specified by the latter before the mobile phone can pass the factory test. Generally speaking, the antenna is basically around the outer frame. Generally speaking, the larger the space left for the antenna, the better the RF effect and the higher the TRP value. However, the upper and lower borders of the full screen are narrowed, the distance between the antenna and the metal middle frame is shortened, and the space left for the radio frequency is squeezed. In the past, the space left by the screen was about 7-9 mm. With the 18:9 full screen, the space left is only 3-5 mm. All mobile phone manufacturers generally strive to make it narrow, and the final result mainly depends on the extent to which the mobile phone manufacturer's technology can achieve. In general, the longer the antenna, the lower the channel can be covered. After the space for the antenna is squeezed, the low frequency is most affected and the bandwidth becomes narrower. At present, there is still a single antenna in China, but there are already many multi-antennas abroad. For example, the latest 5G technology and low-frequency 600Mhz requirements, the number of antennas will increase. In the future, if all these functions are used, about 4 antennas will be needed. The contradiction between the smaller space and the increased antennas begins to emerge. Then the question is, how to solve this problem. Jiang Xiong explained that there are five general ideas: 1. Improve PA. The power of PA needs to be improved. Although part of it may be absorbed, there is still a lot of it released later, which is equivalent to open source. 2. Improve power management through Boost or ET. As the voltage increases, the power of the PA can generally be made larger, and the power of the entire link increases. 3. Improve the filter. The function of the filter is to allow signals of a specific frequency to pass through, and then try to suppress the interference of signals of other frequencies. The filter must be improved to be able to withstand this high power. 4. Impedance tuning. 5. Antenna tuning. In this regard, Qorvo has also made some innovations around these aspects. Jiang Xiong believes that the 18:9 full screen has posed challenges to RF manufacturers, but it has also brought new opportunities. On the one hand, more components are needed; on the other hand, better solutions are needed. For manufacturers with technology, this is good news. Jiang Xiong believes that there are currently four major manufacturers providing RF modules on the market: Qorvo, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Skyworks, each with its own characteristics. Under this competitive landscape, Jiang Xiong analyzed that Qorvo's advantage lies in its relatively "wide" technology and relatively rich product categories; and innovation in this industry tests the ability to define products, how to launch related products earlier than peers, and guide the market.

alan000345

Qorvo is getting stronger and stronger.

btty038

alan000345 posted on 2020-9-4 14:43 Qorvo is getting stronger and stronger.

Just give more device parameters.

alan000345

btty038 posted on 2020-9-4 14:45 Just give more device parameters

yes.