Why Are 5G Phones Different Than 4G

Fifth-generation mobile network deployments are in the initial phase and will work jointly with 4G initially, and then eventually it will be a standalone technology. One of the many differentiators of 5G from 4G is the higher frequency spectrum and larger bandwidth. The use of higher frequencies in 5G leads to more complexity of end devices and built-in chipsets.

Current wireless networks i.e., 4G, uses the frequencies ranging from 450MHz to 3.7GHz. The smartphones are integrated with the digital part and the RF component part. The digital part includes a modem while the RF component includes a separate RF transceiver and an RF front end module.

The transceiver consists of a transmit antenna and a receive antenna. The RF front module consists of different components integrated in the same unit. The components included in the RF front end module are power amplifiers (PAs), low noise amplifiers (LNAs), filters and RF switches. PAs are used to power the signal to carry information to the destination. LNAs are used to amplify the weak signals while filtering out the noise and the switches are used to route the signals through different components. Current smartphones are also incorporated with other RF modules such as…