4G/5G/Cellular

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Every year at the end February, we make our annual pilgrimage to Barcelona, Spain for the world’s largest wireless conference, the Mobile World Congress.  The shear scale of the conference can be overwhelming with all wireless companies demonstrating the latest technologies, outlining future directions, and of course showcasing the latest wireless products.  I just returned from Barcelona and MWC 2019, and here are some thoughts.

The biggest hit at MWC19 was flexible display technology that was shown off in 2 foldable phones, the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, and in a wearable smartwatch phone from ZTE, the nubia Alpha. While 5G was everywhere (I don’t think I saw one booth that did not mention 5G), it is just emerging into the market but will certainly take off later this year. Nokia voiced this timing in their press conference saying that they expect the first half o 2019 to be somewhat slow with 5G taking off more quickly in the second half of this year. Read this thorough summary of the event.

MACOM Technology Solutions and STMicroelectronics (ST) announced ST will expand 150 mm RF GaN on Si production capacity for power amplifiers supporting the initial build of 5G base stations. MACOM will invest approximately $23 million in the expansion, which is scheduled to complete this year.

The biggest hit at MWC19 was flexible display technology that was shown off in 2 foldable phones, the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, and in a wearable smartwatch phone from ZTE, the nubia Alpha. Read this review of the event.

Anokiwave has announced the first in a family of third-generation silicon ICs for 5G beamforming, supporting a four channel, dual polarization system or eight channel, single polarization at 28 GHz.

Ericsson President and CEO Börje Ekholm says Ericsson will switch on 5G globally in 2019, backed by a strong, secure and available portfolio.