The 5G era has lifted the ceiling of the RF industry. Given the significant increase in consumer demand for mobile intelligent terminals, and the substantial enhancement in the volume and speed of mobile data transmission, higher requirements have been set for RF chips.
Among them, the RF power amplifier (RF PA) is an indispensable key component in the field of wireless communication.
So, what exactly is an RF power amplifier? Before understanding the RF PA, it is necessary to briefly understand what an RF front-end chip is, what functions it performs, and what role the RF PA plays in this "workstation"?
01
What is the RF PA, after all?
The RF front-end module is located at the front end of the baseband chip in the wireless communication system, serving as the receiver and transmitter of the radio system, capable of realizing the transmission, conversion, and processing functions of RF signals, and is the core component of mobile terminal communication.
The antenna is mainly responsible for the mutual conversion between RF signals and electromagnetic signals, while the RF chip is mainly responsible for the mutual conversion between RF signals and baseband signals (i.e., the mutual conversion between high-frequency electromagnetic wave signals and binary signals). The RF front-end is responsible for amplifying and filtering the received and transmitted RF signals.
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The RF front-end chip includes chips such as RF switches (Switch), RF low-noise amplifiers (LNA), RF power amplifiers (PA), duplexers (Duplexer), and RF filters (Filter).
These devices are not working independently, but are coordinated and interconnected.Among them, the RF power amplifier (PA) is a key part of the transmission system, and its importance is self-evident.
The RF PA can amplify weak signals into signals with higher power, and its performance directly determines the strength and stability of the signals, which in turn directly affects the user experience of the terminal.
With the commercialization of 5G, the importance of RF chips has also increased. It can be said that the era of 5G has provided the RF industry with a broader stage.
Looking at the current competitive landscape, the PA market is currently dominated by foreign manufacturers, with market share concentrated in international manufacturers such as Skyworks, Qorvo, and Broadcom; Chinese RF PA chip manufacturers are still in the early stages, with limited market discourse. However, in this sub-track full of challenges and opportunities, several benchmark enterprises have emerged.
02
The four major application scenarios of RF PA
Mobile phone PA
Domestic RF PA has four major markets: mobile phones, base stations, WiFi, and NB-IoT, with mobile phones being the largest terminal application market in China.
According to data from Yole Development, mobile phones account for about 65% of the downstream market of domestic PA modules, followed by WiFi at 20%, and the base station market accounting for about 10%.Benefiting from the 5G phone replacement cycle and the increased demand for PAs within 5G phones. It is reported that a 4G phone requires 5-7 RF PA chips, while in the 5G era, this number will increase to as many as 16, and the value of each chip is higher than that of 4G chips, with market demand surging more than double.
According to the latest report published by the market research institution Counterpoint Research, it is estimated that in the first half of 2024, for every 3 smartphones sold globally, 2 will have 5G capabilities, with a penetration rate of 66.7%. The institution stated that since the first 5G-enabled smartphone was introduced in 2019, OEM manufacturers have been accelerating the promotion and popularization of 5G technology; in 2023, the shipment of 5G-enabled smartphones exceeded 2 billion units.
Domestic mobile phone RF PAs are divided into: 2G PA, 3G PA, 4G PA, and 5G PA. Looking at the competitive landscape of mobile phone PAs, in this race, international manufacturers have basically given up on the 2G PA market, and domestic 2G PAs are not inferior to foreign products in all aspects, with lower costs and greater advantages. The overall performance of domestic 3G PAs is comparable to foreign products, with cost advantages; domestic 4G PAs have also achieved some results, and there is still some gap between domestic manufacturers and international manufacturers in the high-power 5G PA field.
The main domestic mobile phone PA manufacturers currently include: Wejie Chuangxin, Huizhi Micro, Zhuosheng Micro, Angrui Micro, Feixiang Technology, Rui Shi Chuangxin, and Unisoc, etc.
Looking at the base station PA.
Base Station PA
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the economic operation of the communication industry in the first half of 2024, revealing the continuous progress of 5G network construction.
As of the end of June, the total number of mobile phone base stations in China has reached 11.88 million, an increase of 265,000 from the end of last year; the number of 5G base stations has reached 3.917 million, with a net increase of 540,000 since the end of last year, accounting for 33% of the total number of mobile base stations. This proportion has increased by 2.4 percentage points compared to the first quarter.
In terms of market size, compared to 4G, the number of PAs used in 5G base stations has doubled. 4G base stations use a 4T4R scheme, with a demand for 12 RF PAs for three sectors, while 64T64R has become the mainstream scheme in 5G base stations, with a demand for as many as 192 PAs.
The market size of 5G base station RF PAs is much larger than that of 4G, and it is expected to usher in both an increase in quantity and price.5G base station power amplifiers (PAs) are primarily of three types: Silicon-based Lateral Diffusion Metal Oxide Semiconductor (Si LDMOS), Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), and Gallium Nitride (GaN), representing the first, second, and third generations of semiconductor materials, respectively. Among them, LDMOS and GaN power amplifiers are suitable for macro base stations, while GaAs power amplifiers are suitable for small base stations. The LDMOS power amplifier is only effective in the 3.5GHz frequency range, while the GaN power amplifier can effectively meet the high power, high communication frequency band, and high efficiency requirements of 5G.
LDMOS is a mature and cost-effective technology that took the lead in the 4G base station market. LDMOS is suitable for lower frequency bands, and some mobile operators are deploying low and high frequency bands for 5G.
The LDMOS power amplifier market is mainly monopolized by Freescale, NXP, and Infineon. The main manufacturers of GaAs PA are Skyworks, Qorvo, Broadcom, and Murata from Japan; the main foreign manufacturers of GaN PA are Sumitomo Electric, Cree, Qorvo, and MACOM, with Sumitomo Electric and Cree being the industry leaders, each holding a market share of over 30%.
Domestic base station PA manufacturers include Zhicheng Micro, Anqiwei Micro, Xinbaite, Mingyi Technology, etc. Compared to mainstream foreign manufacturers, domestic manufacturers are mostly newly established and small in scale, thus having many shortcomings in technology/product maturity, solutions, market promotion capabilities, and stable supply.
WiFi PA
The key to optimizing the performance of the WiFi radio frequency front-end also lies in the PA. With the continuous updating of WiFi communication protocols, WiFi PA is also facing more market opportunities.
As the IEEE protocol evolves from 802.11n (WiFi 4) to 802.11ac (WiFi 5), dual-band routers (2.4GHz + 5GHz) have become widely used, and the traditional two 2.4G antennas have gradually changed to a configuration of two 2.4G and two 5G antennas, each requiring a corresponding PA chip.
At the current stage of development, WiFi 6 is still the mainstream, and the WiFi 7 protocol is becoming the focus of the entire communication industry. The related technology research and development competition has already begun, and it is believed that WiFi PA manufacturers are also honing their technical skills to respond quickly when the WiFi 7 era arrives.
The main domestic WiFi PA manufacturers are Zhuosheng Micro, Sanwu Micro, and Kangxi Communication, etc.
NB-IoT PANB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) is characterized by "large connections, wide coverage, low cost, and low power consumption." With the acceleration of the 5G construction process, NB-IoT, as an important branch of the Internet of Things, is also about to usher in a new stage of industrial development, mainly covering the smart gas meter, smart water meter, smart smoke detector, smart lock, and other sub-industries.
As is well known, the NB-IoT network itself has the characteristic of low power consumption, and the NB-IoT PA, as a key component of the radio frequency front end, is also designed and optimized to reduce power consumption. For example, integrating the PA into the SoC is a good solution. Using the built-in power amplifier PA in the SoC can reduce the requirements for terminal Flash storage space, terminal size, terminal RF, etc., thereby greatly reducing the terminal cost and power consumption of NB-IoT.
At present, the main domestic NB-IoT SoC manufacturers include Unisoc, Airoha Technology, and Xingyi Information.
In summary, Chinese manufacturers seem to have made more significant progress in the direction of mobile phone PA. With the continuous advancement of future 5.5G and WiFi 7 technology, Chinese manufacturers will have more room for development. However, to achieve a comprehensive breakthrough and lead in the field of RF PA, Chinese enterprises still face many challenges.
03
How is the progress of high-end RF PA?
The leading enterprises in China's RF PA market include Wejie Innovation, ZTE Microelectronics, Fei Chang Technology, Hui Zhi Micro, and Rui Shi Innovation, etc.
The route of domestic manufacturers is to gradually evolve from a single product to a modular product, starting from the 2-4G frequency band and gradually penetrating into 5G, by improving design capabilities and accumulating design experience to make up for the gap. At present, these manufacturers have the ability to benchmark with overseas first-line leaders in the mid-low integration 2-4G PA module, and the domestication rate of 5G PA modules is still relatively low, only about 10%.
In the competition with international giants, although domestic manufacturers cannot choose to confront head-on, they also have their own "little tricks."
L-PAMiD (a radio frequency front-end module that integrates power amplifiers, low-noise amplifiers, couplers, RF switches, filters, duplexers, etc.) is the most difficult and highly integrated module in the mobile phone RF front end. When international giants are limited in production capacity, they tend to prioritize the production of high-value modules such as PAMiD and L-PAMiD. Domestic manufacturers have taken the opportunity to make progress in the mid-low-end PA module market.For example: Qorvo fully ensures the supply of transmission modules, ceding part of the reception modules and discrete device market; Skyworks, due to its high dependence on Apple, prioritizes the supply to its core major customer Apple, causing Android customers such as OPPO and vivo to face insufficient supply, and some orders are turned to domestic manufacturers.
Domestic mainstream brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, Huawei, and Honor have a high acceptance of domestic PA modules, and the share of domestic 4G PA modules has exceeded 60%.
In terms of 5G PA modules, domestic PA manufacturers such as Weifang Chuangxin, Zhuosheng Micro, and Hui Zhi Micro have made progress one after another, and all have mass-produced products, and some companies have even made breakthroughs in L-PAMiD modules.
Weifang Chuangxin, Hui Zhi Micro: Leaders in L-PAMiD Modules
Weifang Chuangxin is the company that first mass-produced L-PAMiD modules.
In 2019, Weifang Chuangxin launched a multi-mode multi-frequency PA module for 5G NR, which has achieved mass production and contributed to revenue in 2020, and has accumulated a deep foundation in the Phase5N plan for the Sub3GHz frequency band. In 2023, domestic RF companies began to launch L-PAMiD products one after another, and achieved mass production and shipment of low frequency & mid-high frequency L-PAMiD in the first half of 2023.
The year 2023 is the first year of mass production and sales of Weifang Chuangxin's L-PAMiD products, and the delivery of new orders is mainly in 2024, and the company is still expected to benefit from the process of increasing the penetration rate of new products in 2024.
Weifang Chuangxin's customers include Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, etc.
Hui Zhi Micro's product line covers various communication systems such as 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, including dozens of products such as 5G new frequency band L-PAMiF transmission modules, 5G new frequency band reception modules, 5G refarming frequency band transmission modules, 4G transmission modules, etc., compatible with the main product series of the current international mainstream SoC platform manufacturers, and can provide customers with a comprehensive RF front-end solution.
Hui Zhi Micro not only achieved mass production of MMMB PAM in the 4G field and was rated as the 14th "China Core" excellent market performance product at the 2019 China Integrated Circuit Industry Promotion Conference, but also took the lead in the 5G field to launch high-end products such as L-PAMiF and L-FEM, covering the 3GHz-6GHz 5G new frequency band.In 2020, Hui Zhi Microelectronics took the lead in launching a new 5G frequency band L-PAMiF fully integrated transceiver module supporting n77/n79/n79 bands, integrating PA, LNA, filter, SRS switch, coupler, etc., which is the most integrated 5G module. Relying on technical accumulation and team advantages, Hui Zhi Microelectronics achieved the simultaneous launch of high-integration module products under new protocols with international manufacturers. The product has been successfully introduced into international brand terminal phones such as Samsung and OPPO, achieving large-scale application.
Since then, Hui Zhi Microelectronics' products have been rapidly iterated, continuously maintaining a leading position. Hui Zhi Microelectronics has successively launched 1T2R (integrated with 1 transmission path and 2 reception paths) L-PAMiF supporting n77/n78/n79 bands, 1T1R/1T2R L-PAMiF supporting n77/n78 bands, and L-FEM receiving modules supporting the corresponding bands, all of which have been successfully mass-produced and sold.
In recent years, Hui Zhi Microelectronics has achieved a product upgrade from mid-to-high-end. In addition, after taking the lead in breaking through L-PAMiF products, Hui Zhi Microelectronics took the lead in developing L-PAMiD.
The investor research summary released by Hui Zhi Microelectronics in October 2023 shows that the company's 5G low-frequency and mid-high-frequency L-PAMiD modules are currently in small-scale mass production and in the customer promotion stage. For the entire domestic RF chip industry, Hui Zhi Microelectronics believes that with the development of the domestic industry chain, from a technical perspective, domestic RF industry chains have gradually had companies with the mass production capability of L-PAMiD large modules, and the overall RF industry chain has completed the development stage from 0 to 1, and is gradually moving towards more high-end product forms.
In May of this year, the record of investor relations activities disclosed by Hui Zhi Microelectronics showed that the company's Phase7LE scheme's low-frequency and mid-high-frequency L-PAMiD products are expected to be mass-produced in 2024, and domestic and foreign Android brand customers are the fields that the company has focused on expanding in recent years.
Zhuosheng Microelectronics: Taking a Different Path
Zhuosheng Microelectronics further develops L-PAMiD products through multi-dimensional approaches such as filters and discrete solutions.
Although the PAMiD module solution has many performance advantages, its supply disadvantages are also relatively obvious: manufacturers must master both active (PA and LNA, Switch) and passive (SAW, BAW or FBAR) capabilities at the same time to design a PAMiD module. Only a few manufacturers with complete resources such as Skyworks, Qorvo, Broadcom, and Qualcomm can master these resources at the same time.
As a result, terminal companies such as Huawei and Samsung have started to promote the FEMiD solution. FEMiD integrates the antenna switch and filter into a module, provided by the filter company; PA still uses a discrete solution, provided by the PA company. This solution effectively leverages the strengths of passive and active companies. Huawei, Samsung, and other terminals have also broken away from their absolute dependence on PAMiD manufacturers. In 2016, the main suppliers of PAMiD and FEMiD were Murata and Qualcomm. Relying on its own filter advantages, Zhuosheng Microelectronics started from the receiving end, successfully developed the L-FEMiD module in Q2 of 2023, and entered the customer sampling promotion stage in Q3 of 2023, promoting a more comprehensive product coverage of high-end modules.In addition, the company is pursuing a dual-track technological approach, starting from the Phase5N plan to complement the capabilities at the transmission end. As of the investor relations records in August 2023, the company's MMMBPA module products have reached the stage of sending samples to customers for promotion. This product is not only an important module for the development of L-PAMiD products but also an essential technology for their research and development. At the same time, the company will also continuously improve the technology and product capabilities of RF filters and RF power amplifiers, to boost the development of the "pearl-type" product L-PAMiD, which is the most technologically complex and highly integrated in the RF front end.
In May of this year, during the 2023 annual performance briefing, Zhuo Sheng Micro disclosed that by the end of the first quarter of this year, the L-PAMiD product integrated with the company's self-produced MAX-SAW had achieved a breakthrough from "0" to "1" and had reached the stage of engineering samples.
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