With the advent of the 5G era, what new types of electronic components are in demand?

3,3762020-01-04

On June 6, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued four 5G licenses, marking that China officially entered the first year of 5G. The issuance of 5G commercial licenses has accelerated the implementation of 5G base stations, driven the market demand for electronic components, and increased the speed of replacement of electronic components. From the perspective of 5G demand, the development prospects of the electronic component market are extremely impressive.

1. Antenna volume and price go up

5G spawned the mobile phone and base station antennas into the Massive MIMO era, with both antenna volume and price rising. 5G needs to be deployed in multiple frequency bands, so it needs to use millimeter wave bands with wider spectrum and wider bandwidth for communication, and use large-scale antenna technology. As a result, the number of mobile phone antennas has increased in the 5G era. Array antennas may become mainstream, and the antenna packaging materials will also change. LCP antennas are expected to become mainstream, and their market space is expected to reach more than 24-3 billion US dollars in 2020. In terms of communication base stations, antenna technology such as MIMO in the 5G era has been upgraded. Not only has the number of antennas increased, but the number and performance of radiating units also have higher requirements.

Second, drive the RF front-end acceleration

In the 5G era, the communication standards have been further upgraded, which has led to the rapid and rapid growth in the value of mobile phone RF front-end single devices. Its value is expected to grow to more than $ 22 in the 5G era. It is expected that the mobile phone RF front-end market size will reach 22.7 billion US dollars in 2022, with an average annual compound growth rate of 14%. Filters are the business segment in the RF front-end market. The number of mobile phone bands supported in the 5G era will increase substantially, driving the rapid growth of the value of single-machine filters. Its market size will increase from US $ 5.2 billion in 2016 to US $ 16.3 billion in 2022. The average annual compound growth rate is 21%.

Third, the increase in base station upgrades, driving the volume and price of PCB

With the advent of 5G commercialization, millimeter wave development is advancing the construction of millions of small base stations. The large-scale construction and upgrading of communication base stations will create a huge demand for corporate communication boards, and PCBs will meet the demand for upgrading and replacement. The 5G era of PCB volume and price improvement is specifically reflected in the following aspects:

1. On the one hand, the number of PCBs used for a single antenna of a base station may increase, on the other hand, low-loss and ultra-low-loss high-frequency PCBs will be used, and the average price will also be greatly increased.

2. The size of the PCB used by the RRU will be larger, and the material is a high-speed material, which has a higher value.

3. The area and number of PCBs used by the BBU will increase, and low or ultra-low loss is required. There are certain requirements for PCB performance, and the added value is improved.

Fourth, high-frequency high-speed substrates are in great demand

Compared with low-frequency signals, high-frequency signals have a wider frequency band. The frequency of communication transmission in the 5G era is higher. Therefore, the demand for high-frequency PCB boards and high-speed PCB boards is higher. Therefore, the high-frequency substrates and high-speed substrates for copper-clad boards The amount increases. The antenna reflection plate, back plate, and TPX & PA circuits in DU and AAU in 5G base stations all use high-frequency substrates, and have higher performance requirements for high-frequency substrates. The high-frequency substrates need to maintain the dielectric constant while maintaining the dielectric loss * minimized. Stability, so the demand and added value of high-frequency copper clad laminates in the 5G era will expand