The mystery of 5G research and development by mobile phone manufacturers, a war is about to begin

Are you ready to switch to a 5G phone?

Before answering this question, let’s take a look at some news:

• OnePlus invested nearly $30 million to upgrade and improve its 5G R&D lab;
• OPPO and communications technology service provider Keysight established a joint communications laboratory to strengthen cooperation in the research and development of 5G smart devices;
• When both mobile phone processors and 5G basebands can be purchased from Qualcomm, why do mobile phone manufacturers spend so much effort on 5G research and development? Is it time for consumers to switch to 5G phones?

The mystery of mobile phone manufacturers' 5G research and development

Selling mobile phones may not require much technical content, as marketing accounts for the majority, but developing mobile phones is another matter.

Since the beginning of this year, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have successively released 5G flagship phones, and the 5G phone replacement wave has officially begun. Consumers can also clearly feel that the starting price of this wave of new phones is higher, and 5G phones are no longer associated with low prices.

Price is the most intuitive reflection of the high R&D investment in 5G mobile phones.

Logically speaking, Qualcomm has prepared the processors and basebands for 5G mobile phones, so mobile phone manufacturers can be said to have everything ready except for the favorable conditions.

But as can be seen from Qualcomm’s press conference last year, the application of the new generation of communication technology is not an easy task for mobile phone manufacturers.

Qualcomm released its latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 865, in December last year. What was surprising was that the Snapdragon 865 adopted the design of an "external" independent 5G baseband chip. At that time, Qualcomm executives clarified and explained the issue of baseband externalization: the use of external solutions can allow OEMs to quickly commercialize Snapdragon 865 and X55 and bring products to market as soon as possible.

From this perspective, mobile phone manufacturers and chip manufacturers have reached a consensus to speed up the launch of 5G smartphones into the market without making too many adjustments to the existing internal design.

It is understood that the main difference between 5G mobile phones and 4G mobile phones is the core "RF devices" - the differences in 5G baseband chips, RF front ends and terminal antennas, which in turn involve the internal design of the mobile phone, including a systematic redesign of the platform, structure, heat dissipation and antennas.

There are many issues to consider when adding hundreds of components in a space as small as a mobile phone.

First of all, the number of antennas needs to be increased. 5G mobile phones not only contain the antennas of 4G mobile phones, but also need to add multiple sets of 5G frequency band antennas. The increase in the number of antennas is a huge test for the design of the mobile phone structure.

The second is the heat dissipation problem. The data power consumption of 5G networks is 50% to 100% higher than that of traditional 4G mobile phones. This is why some 5G mobile phones use the liquid cooling system commonly used by PC hosts.

In addition, the external 5G baseband requires an additional interface to transmit data, and the area occupied will be larger.

Moreover, optimization from modem to antenna design is critical in 5G applications, where any signal degradation will result in noticeable lag or delay at the user end.

To sum up, how to stack these components in a mobile phone within a limited space is one of the biggest challenges for mobile phone manufacturers in developing 5G.

This is also the key reason why they seek cooperation and invest huge amounts of money.

Industrial chain upgrade under 5G mobile phones

For many mobile phone manufacturers with relatively weak technical foundation, cooperation is undoubtedly a win-win approach. 5G also gives them the impetus to transform their technology. In recent years, OV has participated in the deeper design of the internal structure of mobile phones. For example, vivo and Samsung jointly developed the 5G SoC chip Exynos980.

However, 5G chip design is not the focus of most mobile phone manufacturers. The mature chip and supply chain system have relieved them of the burden.

Today's smartphone industry chain is very mature, and many problems can be easily solved. What they need to solve are the problems of internal design.

In order to alleviate problems such as high power consumption caused by the increase in the number of antennas, ZTE has spent a lot of effort on 5G mobile phone device stacking and architecture planning; and in order to avoid signal interference between the increased number of antennas, OPPO has developed its own multi-channel intelligent switching algorithm and independent RF management module technology, and vivo has also applied for related patents such as antenna decoupling technology.

Even though there are many problems in the development of 5G mobile phones, upstream component suppliers have already developed countermeasures.

For example, the number of components in 5G mobile phones has increased significantly, but the size of the mobile phone must remain unchanged, so the density of components needs to be increased, and SLP (substrate-like substrate) is the key.

SLP can connect multi-layer PCB circuits, thereby changing the motherboard from 2D to 3D, making full use of the space of the phone body. The minimum line spacing can reach 30um, and electronic components can be packaged inside the phone in the highest density and smallest form factor.

The next step is to use the LCP substrate to solve the problem of antenna miniaturization. LCP has good physical properties and low power consumption, which can reduce the electromagnetic loss of 5G signals. In terms of bending performance, the LCP antenna can fit the middle frame of the fuselage and will not produce obvious rebound effect.

From the perspective of LCP alone, 5G mobile phones involve technological upgrades of the entire industry chain, and many key components have also become the first choice for 4G mobile phones in the past two years.

According to Lin En, chief analyst of mobile devices and networks, following the evolution of 4G LTE modems nearly a decade ago, we will see the integration of multi-mode 5G modems with the smartphone SoC itself in the 2020 5G smartphone design iteration. This higher integration will affect the SDRAM and power management of existing SoC support and eliminate additional chips on the motherboard, and more importantly, affect the bill of materials (BOM) cost.

Future 5G smartphones will rely on compact modem-to-antenna designs to integrate support for more 5G frequencies and modes.

Technology competition among mobile phone manufacturers

With the iteration of communication technology, mobile phone manufacturers need to do more and more things. Technological innovation and product innovation are both big tests, and every component may be an innovation point.

Considering the increasingly fierce competition in the global mobile phone market, strong technical R&D capabilities have become the brand that domestic mobile phone manufacturers most want to stamp. In order to change the stereotype of OEM machines with no technical content and being replaceable, annual R&D investment has also risen sharply.

Moreover, after experiencing the ups and downs of the market, several major domestic mobile phone manufacturers with high market share have become more diverse in order to improve their competitiveness.

This is even more prominent during the iteration cycle from 4G to 5G.

5G undoubtedly provides them with an excellent opportunity for technological transformation and is also the best vehicle for them to show off their technological muscle. Among them, making their own chips is the first big step for many mobile phone manufacturers, but unfortunately, except for Huawei, no domestic mobile phone manufacturer has been able to take on this task.

In addition, as the smartphone industry chain becomes more mature, it is becoming increasingly difficult for mobile phone manufacturers to seek breakthroughs in technology. Camera capabilities, charging speeds, system intelligence, linkage with other smart hardware, etc. have gradually become the main points of competition in recent years.

The core of 5G mobile phones is still the baseband chip. From this perspective, the competition among mobile phone manufacturers will not undergo a qualitative change due to the launch of 5G mobile phones.

What’s interesting is that in order to balance technology research and development and product launch time, the prices of domestic 5G mobile phones remain high. Many manufacturers trying to transform into the high-end mobile phone market are ready to take advantage of the 5G mobile phones.

Ten years ago, the first 4G mobile phone designs were costly and power inefficient, but since then, many integrated silicon solutions have helped reduce the cost of 4G smartphones to more reasonable prices.

The same applies to the update and iteration of 5G mobile phones. The current 5G mobile phone chips are not very mature, which can be seen from the fact that Qualcomm still insists on external basebands. Therefore, these early launched 5G mobile phones also test the technical strength of major manufacturers.

However, with the advancement of semiconductor manufacturing processes and higher integration of silicon chips, especially the tight coupling of modems and RF front ends, the industry has begun to realize the advantages of mature 5G chipset designs. Better, cheaper, and faster 5G smartphones are coming soon.

The survival of the fittest in the mobile phone market will become more and more intense.