Samsung Electronics’ Network Business today made two important announcements – ahead of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021.
First, Samsung unveiled new chipsets that will be embedded into the company’s next generation 5G solutions.

Second, Samsung unveiled a new radio designed to help mobile operators overcome the challenges they face in deploying 5G networks.

New chipsets

Samsung revealed that its new chipsets will be embedded into the company’s next generation 5G solutions. The new 3GPP Rel.16 compliant chipsets consist of a third generation mmWave Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) chip, a second generation 5G modem System-on-Chip (SoC), and a Digital Front End (DFE)-RFIC integrated chip.

The company’s latest chips will power Samsung’s next-generation products for 5G build out, including the next generation 5G Compact Macro, Massive MIMO radios, and baseband units, which will all be commercially available in 2022.

Samsung’s 3rd generation RFIC chip supports both 28GHz and 39GHz spectrums, and will be embedded in Samsung’s 5G Compact Macro. The chip incorporates technology that reduces antenna size by nearly 50 percent, maximizing the 5G radio’s interior space.

The latest RFIC chip improves power consumption, resulting in a more compact-sized, lightweight 5G radio. Lastly, output power and coverage of the new RFIC chip has increased, doubling output power of the next generation 5G Compact Macro.

Samsung’s first 5G modem SoCs, introduced in 2019, powered the company’s new 5G baseband unit and Compact Macro. To date, more than 200,000 of these 5G modem SoCs have been shipped, Samsung said.

This new second generation chip will enable Samsung’s forthcoming baseband unit to have twice the capacity, while cutting power consumption in half per cell, in comparison to the previous generation. Moreover, supporting both below-6GHz and mmWave spectrums, it offers beamforming and increased power efficiency for Samsung’s next generation 5G Compact Macro and Massive MIMO radio, while reducing the size for both solutions.

This new chip combines RFIC and DFE functions for both below-6GHz and mmWave spectrums. By integrating these functions, the chip doubles frequency bandwidth, and reduces the size and increases output power for Samsung’snext generation solutions, including 5G Compact Macro.

New radio

Samsung revealed that its new radio is designed to help mobile operators overcome the challenges they face in deploying 5G networks.

The One Antenna Radio features integrated antennas, providing operators with the ability to simplify and speed up 5G installations by consolidating 3.5GHz Massive MIMO radio with low-band and mid-band passive antennas into a single form factor.

Samsung’s radio will address varied environmental and site demands–easing installation, saving space and reducing Opex for operators. The solution will become part of Samsung’s Radio Access Network (RAN) portfolio in early 2022, initially targeting the European market.