Today, with the increasing development of mobile communication technology, the printed circuit board (PCB) space inside smartphones has become more and more important, becoming a key resource second only to the radio spectrum. Facing the growing demand for radio frequency bands, the PCB space of smartphones faces huge challenges. These challenges arise from the increase in radio frequency (RF) front-end components, including power amplifiers, multi-band switches, etc. At the same time, the demand for larger screens, more powerful processors and other add-on components makes it particularly difficult to effectively expand the RF front-end in a limited space.
Against this background, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. (QTI) has launched the Qualcomm RF360 radio frequency front-end solution, which is a highly integrated system that effectively integrates various basic components between the modem and antenna. By integrating antenna switches, RF power amplifiers, etc., the RF360 solution not only simplifies the complexity of the cellular RF front-end, but also expands the product frequency band by improving performance and reducing size. In addition, this solution can also reduce the design size of a single SKU and maximize the advantages of production scale. Since the solution was released in February this year, many OEM manufacturers have begun to adopt it and are expected to launch corresponding products before the end of the year. This solution is designed from a system-level perspective from the early stages and can work together with various hardware components of the terminal to provide new performance improvements.
At a technical level, this design method is based on the continuous expansion of global 2G and 3G networks, and is mainly used to solve the problem of non-uniform radio frequency bands caused by 4G LTE (FDD and TDD). This front-end design can support all relevant frequency bands on a single terminal or as few SKUs as possible without increasing space requirements or impacting performance.
On an economic level, this front-end design helps cellular terminal manufacturers scale up production and significantly reduce costs. Instead of requiring up to 10 different designs to meet global LTE band requirements, OEMs can now use three or fewer designs without changing board layout or increasing board space.
Finally, the main challenge in the RF field is how to cope with the rapid growth in service demand and network capacity without increasing PCB space. At present, the total number of cellular frequency bands in the world has reached 40, and OEM manufacturers need to launch a variety of handheld terminals to achieve the maximum return on product investment. Traditional RF solutions have limitations in dealing with these challenges, and this innovative solution from Qualcomm provides new possibilities for mobile terminal manufacturers, allowing them to achieve wider coverage in limited spaces.