Entering 4nm, Qualcomm launches the world's first 10Gbps 5G modem

Latest update time：2021-09-04 12:32

Reads：

As Dr. Mingkai Nan, senior director of business development at Qualcomm Technologies, said at a media conference recently, 5G is becoming popular at a faster rate than any previous generation of communication technology.

From the data he provided, we can see that so far, 140 operators around the world have launched 5G commercial networks in 59 countries and regions, and 412 operators have invested in 5G in 131 countries and regions. It is worth mentioning that more than 40 operators are providing 5G fixed wireless access or home broadband services, giving full play to the high bandwidth characteristics of 5G.

"From the perspective of terminals, there are currently 335 5G terminals on the market, an increase of 51% from September last year. Among them, there are 233 5G smartphones in commercial use, an increase of 55% from September last year. Looking ahead to 2021, global 5G mobile phone shipments are expected to reach 450-550 million units," added Dr. Nan Mingkai.

Behind the rapid popularization of 5G, we should see that the current global industry is still mainly promoting the eMBB scenario. For this scenario, Sub-6GHz can only increase the bandwidth to the gigabit level. In order to pursue faster 10G level (that is, more than 10Gbps), millimeter waves are required, which requires faster 5G modems and RF front-ends, which is exactly the problem that Qualcomm's recently released X65 baseband and its RF system focus on solving.

The world's first 10Gbps 5G modem

Dr. Nan Mingkai told reporters at the press conference that the Snapdragon X65 5G modem released by Qualcomm this time is the world's first modem to increase the air interface rate of a single 5G machine to 10Gbps. It is reported that this chip built using 4nm technology is the world's first modem that supports 3GPP Release 16. At the same time, the Snapdragon X65 also supports flexible software upgrades and can provide targeted support in line with the communication feature requirements and deployment plans of operators in different regions of the world .

Nan Mingkai specifically pointed out that as 5G expands to new vertical industries such as computing, industrial Internet of Things and fixed wireless access, this upgradeable architecture can support the creation of future-oriented solutions based on Snapdragon X65 to support the adoption of new features, extend the terminal usage cycle, and help reduce total cost of ownership.

As the world's first 5G baseband to reach 10Gbps speed, speed is undoubtedly its biggest highlight. As shown in the figure below, compared with LTE, when LTE was first launched in 2010, the peak rate could reach 100Mbps; the Sub-6GHz networking launched last year and the year before can support air interface peak rates of 1Gbps to several Gbps; and the 10Gbps peak rate supported by the Snapdragon X65 is 100 times the peak rate of early LTE, which requires greater bandwidth support to achieve such a rate.

In addition to speed, another highlight of the X65 is its upgradeable architecture. It can support enhancement, expansion and customization across 5G market segments, and through software updates, it can support the rapid deployment of upcoming new features and functions, as well as new features of 3GPP Release 16.

In addition, by introducing technologies such as Qualcomm Smart Transmit 2.0, Qualcomm AI-assisted signal enhancement and Qualcomm 5G PowerSave 2.0, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X65 5G baseband can not only achieve the optimal balance between speed, network coverage, and connection reliability, but also achieve excellent energy efficiency.

"The application range of Snapdragon X65 is very wide. It not only supports traditional mobile phone applications, but can also be used in mobile broadband, fixed wireless access, industrial Internet of Things, and 5G enterprise private networks. Compared with previous generations of mobile communication technology, one of the biggest highlights of 5G is that it not only supports To C business, but also supports the digital transformation of the entire society by empowering a wide range of vertical industries. I believe that the Snapdragon X65 5G modem and RF system will also reap considerable results in the fields of 5G enterprise private networks, industrial Internet of Things, etc.," Nan Mingkai continued.

From Nan Mingkai's introduction, we can see that when Qualcomm released the Snapdragon X65, it also brought a matching millimeter wave antenna module, that is, the Qualcomm 545 millimeter wave antenna module. It is understood that this is the fourth generation of millimeter wave modules for mobile terminals released by Qualcomm. Compared with the previous generation of products, the Qualcomm 545 millimeter wave antenna module supports a wider coverage range and more comprehensive support for global millimeter wave frequency bands. The previous generation of millimeter wave antenna modules supports 26GHz, 28GHz, and 39GHz frequency bands. The latest Qualcomm 545 millimeter wave antenna module has added support for the 41GHz (n259) frequency band.

"Qualcomm QTM545 millimeter wave antenna module can help our customers deploy millimeter waves globally and launch corresponding solutions for different operators, different frequency band requirements and different scenarios. The so-called different scenarios include not only the typical application scenario of mobile phones, but also some broadband access scenarios, especially in Europe and North America where broadband access resources are limited and fiber-to-the-home is not particularly common. Using millimeter-wave supported fixed wireless access (FWA) to provide broadband access services to households is a more economical, suitable and fast solution." said Nan Mingkai.

In response to customers' differentiated product needs, Qualcomm has launched the Snapdragon X62 chip in addition to the Snapdragon X65. As shown in the figure above, these two basebands also have different performances and are currently being sampled to customers. Commercial terminals based on these two modems and RF solutions are expected to be available later in 2021.

Qualcomm said that Snapdragon X65 will lead 5G into the 10Gbps era, which will not only bring the industry's broadest feature set to top-level smartphones, but also bring excellent 5G performance to many other segments in all major regions, empowering all major operators in the world.

RF solutions for next-generation 5G

When releasing the Snapdragon X65, Qualcomm has been emphasizing the RF system that goes with it. In their view, the tight integration of modem and RF and advanced modem and RF technology will help terminal manufacturers bring consumers excellent data transmission rates, network coverage, call quality and all-day battery life through stylish terminals.

Li Yang, senior manager of product marketing at Qualcomm Technologies, also said that the reason why Qualcomm has attached so much importance to RF technology over the past few years is mainly because the complexity of 5G mobile phone design continues to increase. At the same time, users' pursuit of performance continues to increase, which also makes the advantages of this system-level RF front-end solution more prominent. For this reason, while launching the Snapdragon X65, Qualcomm also brought an RF front-end solution for the next generation of 5G.

According to the introduction, the complete Qualcomm RF front-end product portfolio includes the 7th generation Qualcomm wideband envelope tracker (Qualcomm QET7100); the world's first wideband envelope tracking solution that supports multi-mode, multi-output, and multiple power amplifiers (PA), supporting global 5G Sub-6GHz and LTE bands; Qualcomm AI-assisted signal enhancement technology: the world's first AI-assisted 5G adaptive antenna tuning solution, designed to improve scenario-based antenna performance, helping terminal manufacturers cope with the growing number of antennas and frequency ranges required for 5G mobile terminals and new integrated 5G/4G power amplifier modules and diversity modules.

First, let’s look at the 7th generation Qualcomm wideband envelope tracker;

From Li Yang's introduction, we learned that in terms of energy efficiency, Qualcomm QET7100 can improve energy efficiency by 30% compared with the most advanced products currently provided by other manufacturers on the market. In terms of bandwidth, QET7100 can support 100MHz uplink bandwidth and uplink MIMO (UL-MIMO). With its excellent power-saving characteristics, QET7100 supports longer mobile phone battery life. QET7100 can also be equipped with multiple power amplifiers.

"One of the differences compared to the previous generation of technology is that the new generation of broadband envelope tracking technology supports 5G, 4G and even traditional communication standards, and can achieve the integration of various communication standards." Li Yang told reporters.

The 7th generation Qualcomm wideband envelope tracker QET7100, together with the Snapdragon X65 modem, provides a more excellent digital algorithm that can greatly optimize the signal quality and system performance of the 5G power amplifier, improve the quality of the transmitted signal, and reduce distortion, thereby greatly improving the uplink rate of the mobile phone. QET7100 also supports smoother communication between mobile phones and base stations, expanding the network coverage of 5G mobile phones. The above are the advantages of the 7th generation Qualcomm wideband envelope tracker QET7100.

From the perspective of solution implementation, QET7100 needs to be used with the Snapdragon X65 modem to provide excellent transmission performance; on the other hand, QET7100 can also support Qualcomm's newly developed power amplifier module QPM6679 for the next generation of 5G. In addition, Qualcomm also provides terminal manufacturer partners with more flexible options, allowing them to use QET7100 with RF components from other manufacturers.

"I want to emphasize that although the new tracker can be used with RF components from other manufacturers, our complete system-level solution from modem to antenna can fully leverage the advantages of broadband envelope tracking technology and achieve excellent performance," Li Yang told reporters.

Qualcomm's second key technological innovation in RF front-end solutions is Qualcomm AI-assisted signal enhancement technology. It is reported that this is the world's first AI-assisted antenna tuning system, which can significantly optimize the antenna performance of 5G mobile phones, allowing mobile phones to maintain the best connection with base stations in real time, thereby greatly optimizing the user experience.

According to Qualcomm, this is their first step in introducing the company's more than ten years of pioneering AI research and development results into mobile RF systems, bringing significant improvements to the performance and energy efficiency of cellular technology. For example, compared with previous generations of technology, AI can achieve a 30% improvement in the accuracy of hand-held terminal detection. This improvement can bring enhanced antenna tuning capabilities, thereby increasing data transmission speeds, improving coverage, and extending battery life. Specifically, Qualcomm has actually launched a complete set of algorithms and features for antenna optimization, and also uses closed-loop antenna management.

It is understood that the so-called closed-loop antenna management means that people will constantly touch the outer wall of the mobile phone when using the mobile phone in daily life, which will affect the performance of the antenna. Qualcomm's chip platform can dynamically detect people's hand holding movements, judge the impact of mobile phone usage on the antenna, identify application scenarios, and thus optimize the antenna, so that the antenna performance can reach the best in each application scenario.

Nan Mingkai told reporters that many countries and regions have already commercially deployed millimeter waves. After the United States, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia also commercially deployed millimeter waves last year or early this year. Next, it is expected that other European countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, as well as South Korea and Australia will carry out commercial deployment of millimeter waves in 2021. For this reason, Qualcomm expects that millimeter waves will achieve a certain scale of commercial deployment in several major regions around the world in 2021. And their recently launched new products are just in time for this competition.

*Disclaimer: This article is originally written by the author. The content of the article is the author's personal opinion. Semiconductor Industry Observer reprints it only to convey a different point of view. It does not mean that Semiconductor Industry Observer agrees or supports this point of view. If you have any objections, please contact Semiconductor Industry Observer.

Today is the 2582nd content shared by "Semiconductor Industry Observer" for you, welcome to follow.