Two innovative 5G antenna modules were announced by Qualcomm on Monday Morning. These gadgets are the mmWave-capable QTM052 and sub-6 GHz QPM56xx.
Details about the antennas
Qualcomm says that QTM052 is the next breakthrough in technology. With the help of this antenna, they achieved the goal to create a mmWave antenna minuscule enough to be featured into a smartphone.
The director of 5G product marketing from Qualcomm, Sherif Hanna, confirms that this technology was considered to be impossible to create. Another significant achievement about this array is that it is small enough even four of it could be fitted in the smartphone based on QEM’s design.
If a smartphone takes advantage of its QTM052 antenna arrays, it can send mmWave radio signals even though not every one of them is working.
Hanna states in an interview on MobileSyrup:
“It was important for us to do this because mmWave is such a new technology for everyone involved. It impacts every aspect of a device’s design — from the industrial design and form factor to the thermals and materials. We felt compelled to give OEMs an all-in-one solution that they can take and integrate into their own devices, helping them get over the hump of this very complex design challenge to get mmWave working in mobile devices.”
Tests
While being tested, 4.5 Gigabits per second was the speed of downloading a prototype smartphone equipped by Qualcomm with an X50 modem, and a couple of QTM052 antennas has achieved. Outside the lab, the company says that such a combination would generate a speed of downloading of at least 1.4Gbps. Regarding the sub-6 GHz QPM56xx antenna array an estimated 500-600 Megabits per second speed is expected.
To sum up, if you are excited about this breakthrough, keep in mind that these antenna arrays were already sent to network operators and smartphone makers, according to Qualcomm which also expects a first device featuring QTM052 to appear in early 2019.
Henry Lares is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including Tech Crunch and the Huffington Post. In regards to academics, Henry earned an engineering degree from Apex Technical School. Henry has a passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.