Issue link: https://resources.mouser.com/i/1437753
15 RF engineers face a slew of design challenges, and successful RF product design —particularly 5G products—requires considerable work on the front end. Although the 5G NR and 5G Core (5GC) standards provide much-needed specifications and requirements, they add considerable complexity to already-intricate design requirements. Meeting and testing these requirements has lengthened the time to market, which now can be 18 months to 2 years or longer—all while companies are racing to deploy 5G capabilities. One of the most important aspects is understanding the application requirements. For example, choosing the right frequency range depends on the area you're trying to cover as well as potential signal obstacles, such as walls, humidity, and metal objects in the area. Considering power assemblies is also essential, especially with 5G, because the core, signal chain, and components increase power requirements. Thermal considerations will further impact board-level design decisions, which in turn impact system-level design decisions. The list of technical dimensions for analog, digital, RF, and power aspects of RF design is seemingly interminable: Spectrum allocation, materials, linearity, data rates, peak data rates, volume density per traffic capacity, latency, modulation type, handover, link layer protocols, MIMO layers, and component certification, to name a few. Determining the right level of integration is key to component selection and for potentially easing other aspects of design. Highly integrated solutions, like concentrating functions on a single chip, often meet requirements but might not offer enough flexibility. RF Wireless Product Design Poses Difficult Challenges, Too Chapter Three RF Wireless Product Design Poses Difficult Challenges, Too " As we have moved from 3G to 5G, the sheer number of different radio channels has increased markedly due to the continual demand for bandwidth to support an increasing number of users. This puts a strain on the radio channel designer." Ed Long RF Design Engineer, Cambium Networks