Issue link: https://resources.mouser.com/i/1315957
37 | this task by offering antenna management, MIMO, and diversity as well as modules for the Global Positioning System (GPS), Wi-Fi, and Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA) frequencies. Sky5's product family includes PAs with integrated filters and duplexers as well as switches. Qorvo ® Qorvo introduced the industry's first 5G integrated RFFE module, called the QM19000, in 2017. The module was fabricated in the company's GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor process and integrates a PA, LNA, transmit/ receive switch, and filter into a single module with a 400MHz channel bandwidth between 3.3 and 4.2GHz. The QM19000 supports the two amplifier schemes necessary to serve both 4G LTE and 5G, envelope tracking (ET), and average-power tracking (APT). The QM19000 module can switch between the 4G LTE and 5G technologies using an advanced power management scheme (PMS). Both the ET and APT technologies are required because ET currently supports channel bandwidths of only 60MHz, which is fine for 4G but not for 5G's more than 100MHz channel bandwidths, which APT can accommodate. For millimeter-wave operations, Qorvo offers the dual- channel QPF4005, which covers 37 to 40.5GHz and is designed for small cell base stations with phased-array antennas. The QPF4005 is notable for being the first RFFE fabricated in GaN-on-SiC as a monolithic-microwave integrated circuit (IC). It combines an LNA, transmit/ receive switch, and multistate PA in a 4.4 x 6mm package that is configured to accommodate the tight spaces between antenna modules in a phased array. Summary The good news for manufacturers and carriers is that all the necessary technologies to fully implement the 5G infrastructure won't be needed all at once, so developments can continue apace as networks are deployed in the number that is essential to blanket coverage areas. Considering this flexibility in the 5G infrastructure, all signs point to 5G rolling out faster than early projections indicated. Verizon™, AT&T ® , and T-Mobile ® continue to add more and more cities to the list of where 5G wireless is available, although these additions are more like advanced trials than commercial services because wide-area coverage has not yet been deployed, so the early adopters who take the plunge may be less excited than the 5G hype indicates. After all, these are the early days of 5G networks, so the best is yet to come.