It is no doubt that the hottest topic in the past few years is 5G technology. 5G refers to the fifth generation technology of broadband cellular networks, and comparing to 4G technology, it is faster with less latency, higher frequency and shorter transmission distance.

The speed of 5G ranges from 50 Mb/s to 1 Gb/s, which is around up to 100 times faster than 4G; the latency of 5G is below 10 ms comparing to 20～30 ms of 4G. Moreover, 5G bandwidth could increase up to 1000 MHz, which is almost 10 times higher than 4G. Overall, these characteristics of 5G make it suit to be deployed into IoT related applications and VR, AI, autonomous vehicles, etc. In other words, only 5G could realize transmitting large amount of information in real time.

According to the article of “5G Nowadays and Its Future” from TECHDesign blog, it is projected to be 1 billion 5G connections by 2023 when 5G overtakes 2G; and 1.8 billion 5G connections by 2025 when 5G overtakes 3G, based on the report of “The Mobile Economy 2020”. “5G Nowadays and Its Future” further specifies the mid-band and high-band spectrums of 5G, which indicate that the electronic components inside need to support the frequencies higher than 1 GHz.

5G deployment also brings up some new opportunities for electronic component suppliers. For instance, more infrastructures. The demand of 5G base stations is much higher than 4G base stations due to the restriction of short transmission distance, and the base stations are even categorized into different cell types including femto cells, pico cells, micro cells and macro cells. All of these create more needs on components, and capacitor is definitely one of them.

MLCC requirements for 5G and Walsin is leading the trend

MLCC (Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor) is the most widely used capacitors in decades with its high performance, wide range of sizes and capacitances. In the era of 5G, MLCC is especially suitable to be applied to 5G base stations. The requirements of MLCC for base stations are small size, high accuracy capacitance, high reliability (more than 5 years), high rated voltage (≧250 V), and high temperature endurance (100～125oC), which are exactly consistent with the upcoming trend of MLCC. Besides, MLCC fits to be implemented in the 5G related end products as well.

Walsin Technology, the leading passive component supplier, has provided multiple product series such as RF, RH, RT and UF series with broad size, capacitance, and operating voltage ranges, which are great for 5G applications. They can also operate at high temperature and perform high reliability.

The high performance of these 4 MLCC product series comes from the advantage of Cu (copper) technology. Holding more than 10 patents over the Cu technology, Walsin has developed multiple related techniques and implemented into the products, which include Cu-cofirable dielectric, Cu termination, and Cu inner electrode, etc. Owing to the characteristics of Cu, these products could perform low ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance), high Q value, high reliability and high accuracy.

Furthermore, with the ability to operate in microwave bands, RF, RH, RT and UF series could be used in high frequency applications, which again make them a perfect fit for 5G base stations and end products. Other than Cu technology implementation, RH series has passed high reliability test (150oC for 2000 hours at 2 RV); RT series is compliant with AEC-Q200 standard; and UF series is with the highest accuracy (down to +/-0.02 pF).

Among the four series addressed above, RF series is now available on TECHDesign, your best electronic component advisor. With a wide range of capacitance (0.75～100 pF) and multiple size selections (0201, 0402, 0603 and 0805), Walsin offers nearly 500 parts of RF series on TECHDesign for customers to choose from. Therefore, on TECHDesign, customers could easily find the part which meets their needs.

Conclusion

5G is gradually emerging recently along with the massive implementation of fundamental infrastructure such as base stations. Based on “The Mobile Economy 2020”, 5G connections are projected to be 1 billion by 2023 and 1.8 billion by 2025, which reaches 20% penetration of total connections.

As a result, 5G technology brings a lot of opportunities to passive components such as capacitors. MLCCs with small-sized, high accuracy capacitance, high reliability, high rated voltage and high temperature endurance are the best fits for 5G applications. As a leading MLCC manufacturer, Walsin is providing RF, RH, RT and UF series, which operate in microwave bands, exceptionally suit 5G base station applications and all its relevant end-products.

As stated above, RF series is currently available at TECHDesign. Do you want to choose some capacitors for your 5G design? Come visit TECHDesign now to shop immediately!