As the market turns to 5G, new C-band and mm-wave RF front end components are starting to ramp up production. According to a new report from Mobile Experts, the millimeter-wave market for RF Front End (RFFE) components will grow to more than $1B by 2024, driven by smartphones, hotspots, and fixed customer premises equipment.
In the report, Mobile Experts explores how 5G will drive renewed replacement of smartphones and add a few new bands and growth in complexity. Further, the report shows how 4x4 MIMO is driving additional RF content in handsets, and how Carrier Aggregation requires more complex RF filter assemblies. 5G mm-wave will be significant, whether in smartphones or in hotspots/tablets/CPEs. IoT growth is starting, which will become noteworthy in the long term.
New tech such as Thin-Film SAW (also known as Piezo on Insulator) and RF Artificial Intelligence will hold substantial promise in the years to come. Future tuning and optimization of the RF front end will also demand very tight co-design between the modem and RFFE; this means that independent RF companies should consider partnering with major modem suppliers.
According to the report, the ban on US shipments to Huawei is likely to have a significant impact on Huawei's rise in the smartphone market. A detailed evaluation of the availability of non-USA RF components, ARM cores, software/operating systems, and non-Android applications is included for illustration.
Click here to get full access to RF Front Ends Report 2019.
