Bench Talk

And so, another year passes.

Just last week, I celebrated my birthday.

The last of my four daughters graduates college this summer and at present, they all live elsewhere. So, my birthday parties are not as big of a deal in terms of celebration as they once were.

We all gather to celebrate each of the girls’ birthdays, but it is different now as they are scattering away in various locations with husbands, jobs, and the like. 

I imagine in the near future I will be celebrating grandchildren’s birthdays.

A few generations, all in different life stages, will be part of my family experience.

Every generation persists for a time and then hands everything over to the next generation. Their lives are a reflection of determination and perseverance giving testimony to their character. It is their actions that try to make the world a better place in which to live. A generation’s values and accomplishments go on to leave a lasting mark for all others to follow, advancing our civilization forward. Each generation faces historic challenges and works to successfully address them.

New generations of technology often promise the same. Each advancement challenges the status quo by ushering in changes that vow to make our lives better, smarter, and more connected. The next generation of mobile networks and wireless systems— fifth-generation (5G)—promises to change the future by providing the necessary solutions for connectivity to change and improve lives. Some of the ways it will touch our lives include the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Virtual Reality (VR).

The company making a lasting mark to follow is Qorvo. Qorvo is ready today with their next generation of RF smart solutions to connect people, places, and things faster, further, and more reliably. Qorvo partners with leading companies to create tomorrow’s connected world using core RF products and engineering expertise. Qorvo provides higher performance in more power-efficient networks and devices to connect and protect mission-critical defense systems and emerging commercial and consumer applications. Qorvo is all around you—making a better, more connected world possible. (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Qorvo products and solutions are all around you enabling 5G (Source: Qorvo).

5G is the next generation and an evolution forward from the currently deployed fourth-generation (4G) networks. 5G will improve on 4G in three critical ways.

First, it will provide capacity enhancement for mobile broadband. This means that greater amounts of data can be sent at even faster speeds. Secondly, it will ensure ultra-high levels of system reliability while simultaneously offering lower latency. Latency is the time interval between the stimulation and response. Essentially, it is the time lag for the electronic system to respond. In human biological terms, this is analogous to Olympian Usain Bolt’s reaction time out of the starting blocks in the 100-meter final in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (2016). In the 100-meter final, Bolt’s reaction time from the sound of the starting gun to when he left the starting block was 0.155 of a second. Although he won the race, Bolt was not even the fastest out of the blocks. (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Starting Gun at a Race (Source: Getty Images).

Thirdly, 5G allows for and provides massive IoT connectivity. This will enable massive machine-type communications for intelligent and smart cities, buildings, factories, healthcare, infrastructure, and agriculture.

Open standards will predominate in 5G, allowing quick and easy adoption by all willing participants. The move to 5G requires an infrastructure evolution using 4G as the springboard to support these coming changes. 5G infrastructure changes will include new frequency communication bands, smaller form factor products and solutions, lower capital costs allowing widespread and quick adoption, as well as lower power consumption.

Qorvo is leading the way in making 5G deployment reality by providing a broad portfolio of validated solutions with innovation and breadth of scale. Their robust RF portfolio for both wireless infrastructure and mobile devices include power amplifiers (PAs), phase shifters, switches, integrated modules and other high-performance RF solutions. One of the ways they are doing this is by leveraging their long history of millimeter-wave technology (30GHz–300GHz). Qorvo is uniquely positioned in the market to support the development of both sub-6GHz and cmWave/mmWave wireless infrastructure. Additionally, Qorvo's gallium nitride (GaN) technology is enabling reductions in size and power consumption.

I am excited to see how the next generation of my family develops. In a similar way, I look forward to the next generation of mobile networks and wireless systems that comes with the introduction and adoptions of 5G. It is my hope that my family and this technology spawn newfound hope in the promise and potential of a new generation.