Qualcomm announces RF front-end design wins with Google, HTC, LG, Samsung and Sony Mobile

Qualcomm Technologies Inc, a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc of San Diego, CA, USA, has announced radio-frequency front-end (RFFE) design wins with leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) including Google, HTC, LG, Samsung and Sony Mobile.

Qualcomm Technologies says that its portfolio of RF front-end platform solutions is designed to help OEMs deliver advanced mobile devices at scale and with accelerated time to commercialization, and that its design pipeline supports the value of its modem-to-antenna solutions. Qualcomm Technologies claims to be the first technology provider to produce the hardware and software needed to deliver a comprehensive modem-to-antenna system solution to OEMs. This includes new QPM26xx series gallium arsenide (GaAs)-based power amplifier modules incorporating duplexers (PAMiDs), envelope tracker, antenna tuners, antenna switches and discrete and integrated filter modules.

“Only Qualcomm Technologies is delivering robust end-to-end RFFE and modem solutions tailored for each tier of devices to address the increasingly complex RF demands of current networks in Gigabit LTE and beyond,” claims Qualcomm Inc’s president Cristiano Amon. “This is proven out by our extremely strong design pipeline for RF front-end,” he adds. “Our advanced RF solutions deliver superior connectivity performance and flexibility in form-factor design,” Amon continues.

Complementing its modem technology for next-generation mobile devices, Qualcomm Technologies’ RF front-end portfolio delivers mobile solutions supporting technologies such as Gigabit LTE, 4×4 MIMO and LTE Advanced, and is crucial to the evolution and commercialization of 5G technologies in 2019.

Qualcomm Technologies’ RF front-end design pipeline represents the culmination of recent steps in the firm’s business strategy to develop and commercialize comprehensive mobile solutions from the digital modem to the antenna. Following the formation of the RF360 Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd joint venture between Qualcomm Inc and TDK Corp in February 2017, Qualcomm Technologies introduced a suite of comprehensive RF front-end products that added new capabilities to its portfolio. These included its first GaAs power amplifier modules, the next-generation Qualcomm TruSignal antenna tuning solution, premium-tier PAMiD modules, comprehensive 600MHz band (B71) support with a low-band PAMiD module, temperature-compensated (TC) surface acoustic wave (SAW) diversity receive filters and duplexer, the extension of B71 capability to its GaAs MMPA products and a B71-optimized aperture tuner. Also, at a groundbreaking event in Singapore last November, RF360 Holdings conducted a signing ceremony to expand production capacity at its key manufacturing production site dedicated to manufacturing RF front-end SAW structured wafers, as well as thin-film acoustic packaging.

With its core of RF front-end technologies and the ability to provide a comprehensive solution, Qualcomm Technologies reckons that it is uniquely positioned to address the rapidly expanding complexity and challenges of 4G and 5G.