Detailed explanation of the 5G base station antenna and filter industry chain!

Base station antennas: integrated development and industry reshuffle

In the 5G era, base station antenna structures will be more complex, more integrated, and both quantity and price will increase.

• Structural and morphological changes : 1) 4G antennas are mainly 4/8 channels, while 5G antennas are mainly 64 channels; 2) 4G antennas are separated from RF, while 5G antennas are integrated with RRU (active antenna); 3) Traditional base station antennas are mainly composed of radiation units (diopter), reflectors (bottom plate), power distribution networks (feeding networks), packaging protection (radome), and electrically adjustable antenna controllers (RCU). For 5G antennas, diopter, power amplifier, and filter are all integrated on the PCB.

• Quantity : 1) The number of base stations increased; 2) One base station is equipped with three antennas, which is consistent with the 4G era.

• Price : The latest quotation for 4G antenna is about 1,200 yuan/pair (tax included), and the quotation for 5G antenna test network is over 10,000 yuan, which is about 3,500 yuan/pair (tax included).

• According to conservative estimates, the domestic 5G base station antenna market is about 56.7 billion yuan, and the annual market is about 12 billion yuan during the peak construction period.

In the 5G era, the bidding model for base station antennas has changed, bringing changes to the industry landscape.

• In the 4G era, operators purchased base station antennas separately. In the 5G era, antennas will be integrated into the equipment vendor’s AAU and will no longer be tendered separately. Antenna manufacturers and equipment vendors will conduct integrated R&D and testing of active antennas.

Summary of core base station antenna manufacturers: In the 4G era, taking the global base station antenna shipments in 2017 as an example, the top six companies (shares in brackets) include Huawei (32%), Comba Telecom (13%), CommScope (12%), Mobi Development (8%), ACE (7%), Tongyu Communications (7%), and Catherine (5%).

The core suppliers of 5G base station antennas are shown in the following table:

As an important component of the antenna, the antenna vibrator has a flexible market space, benefiting from the growth of base stations and the exponential growth of single-sided antenna vibrators. In the 4G era, base station antennas generally have 10 to 40 antenna vibrators. The number of single-sided antenna vibrators in 5G antennas will reach 128-256, and the number of 5G base stations will be more than 1.5-2 times that of the 4G era. The main manufacturers involved in 5G antenna vibrators include:

Base station filters: Ceramic dielectric filters are the mainstream trend, and the industry has great space flexibility

The market space for filters in the 5G era = number of base stations x amount of filters used per base station (i.e. number of channels per base station) x price of single-channel filters

The market space of filters in the 4G era = the number of base stations x the price of filters used in a single base station (the number of antennas x the corresponding value of a single antenna)

According to estimates, during the 4G era, the domestic filter market was worth about RMB 21.483 billion, and the global market was worth about RMB 42.966 billion. During the 5G era, the domestic filter market was worth RMB 36.22 billion (1.68 times that of 4G), and the global market was worth about RMB 71.38 billion (1.66 times that of 4G) (please refer to previous reports for the specific calculation process).

There are two solutions for filters used in 5G base stations, namely miniaturized metal filters and ceramic dielectric filters. We believe that the former is a transition solution from 4G to 5G, and the latter is the mainstream solution for future base station filters. At present, except for Huawei, which is more aggressive in the application of ceramic dielectric filters, most other major equipment manufacturers, such as ZTE, Ericsson, and Nokia, choose to take both routes into account and adopt miniaturized metal filters in the early stage of 5G commercialization. According to the downstream major equipment manufacturers, 5G base station filter suppliers are sorted out, as shown in the following table.

The following is a 5G filter PPT: