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From the early days of feature phones, which were mainly used for voice calls and text messaging, to the modern era of smartphones that can download data faster than most home Wi-Fi networks, the RF front end has always been somewhat overlooked. Today, many smartphone users might not even realize what the RF front end is, but it remains an essential component of every phone design since its introduction. The RF Front End (RFFE) is the crucial link between the RF transceiver and the antenna in a mobile phone. It includes power amplifiers (PAs), low noise amplifiers (LNAs), switches, duplexers, filters, and various passive components. Without a properly designed RFFE, the device simply cannot connect to the mobile network, rendering it useless for contemporary users. A well-engineered RFFE is vital for enhancing today’s mobile phone performance, functionality, and design aesthetics.
As the smartphone market matures, the high-end segment continues to evolve. Early premium smartphones had smaller screens, shorter battery life, and limited mobile network bandwidth, which hindered the smooth transmission of HD videos or the downloading of large files. Fortunately, thanks to advancements beyond simple calls and texts, users can now fully immerse themselves in their phones, particularly with the advent of LTE devices. Over the last few years, smartphone users' demands have grown significantly, partly driven by the popularity of social media apps like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. These platforms have accelerated the creation and consumption of user-generated content, pushing for faster, more reliable download and upload speeds. Since the introduction of LTE devices, the complexity of the RFFE has surged dramatically. While improvements in other areas of the device have enhanced the overall user experience, they have also made RFFE design more challenging.
Today, video consumption has become one of the most common activities among smartphone users, further fueling the demand for larger screens. In 2016, smartphones with screens measuring 5 inches or larger accounted for 73% of total shipments, up from 53% the previous year. Larger screens, however, often drain the battery faster, prompting the need for bigger batteries. These changes, combined with other functional upgrades, have squeezed the physical space available for key RFFE components. Additionally, given the impact of large screens on battery life, the focus on power efficiency in RFFE design has never been greater.
"Gigabit LTE and the RF Front End: It's Complicated"
With each new generation of wireless wide-area network (WWAN) technology, the complexity of the RF front end also rises. However, compared to previous generations, the latest flagship models represent a significant leap in both RF content and complexity. The transition from LTE-A to LTE-A Pro marks perhaps the largest advancement in RFFE design.
The complexity of RFFE designs increases as the number of transmit and receive channels grows within the same device. This is typically linked to the number of antennas used in the RFFE and the number of spatial data streams supported. Looking at the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the S7 Edge, the antenna architecture remains fairly consistent between Cat 6 and Cat 9/12 devices. However, with Cat 16 devices, there is a notable increase in the number of antennas.
With its advanced carrier aggregation capabilities, higher-order modulation, more intricate antenna architecture, additional spatial streams, and LTE-U functionalities, the RFFE of new high-end smartphones like the Galaxy S8 and S8+ represents some of the most complex RF designs in the smartphone industry.
The Galaxy S8 and S8+ are the first commercially available smartphones to support Cat16 LTE, offering downlink speeds of approximately 1 Gbps, a substantial improvement over the previous generation’s flagship modems, which supported LTE Cat12 with 600 Mbps speeds. Faster download speeds not only benefit end-users but also provide advantages to mobile network operators and other devices on the network. Cat16 LTE enables quicker data transfers, reduced duty cycles for mobile devices, extended battery life, and more efficient network interactions. Furthermore, operators can leverage license-free spectrum through technologies like LTE-U.