Physics / mechanism
RF & wireless covers electromagnetic signal transmission in the 3 kHz–300 GHz range. Signals propagate via oscillating E/M fields; key parameters are frequency, bandwidth, path loss, noise figure, and linearity (IP3). Antenna efficiency, impedance matching, and modulation scheme (QAM, OFDM, MIMO) determine system throughput. Current 5G NR sub-6 GHz achieves ~4 Gbps peak; mmWave (24–100 GHz) pushes 10+ Gbps but with severe path loss (~20 dB/decade above 28 GHz). Front-end components—PAs, LNAs, filters, switches—are the performance bottleneck. GaAs, GaN, and SiGe BiCMOS dominate RF front-end ICs; bulk CMOS integration at mmWave remains lossy but cost-driven.
Competitive landscape
Primary competition is between III-V (GaAs/GaN, high performance, expensive), SiGe BiCMOS (mid-tier, integrated), and advanced CMOS nodes (cheap, scaling-challenged for RF). Optical/photonic interconnects compete at short range (data center, chip-to-chip). Wi-Fi 7 (6 GHz, 46 Gbps theoretical) competes with cellular for indoor coverage. Satellite LEO constellations (Starlink, OneWeb) pressure terrestrial 5G for rural broadband. Ultra-wideband (UWB) competes in precision positioning. Terahertz (100 GHz–3 THz) is the emerging frontier, still pre-commercial.
| Approach | Frequency range | Key tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| GaN RF | 1–100 GHz | High power, expensive substrate |
| SiGe BiCMOS | 1–77 GHz | Integration density vs noise |
| Advanced CMOS (5 nm) | sub-6 GHz | Cost efficient, poor mmWave efficiency |
Companies using
Connected ideas
Sources
Frontier (open questions)
- To be added.