www.cavendish-­‐kine.cs.com  

High Performance Handset Antenna Design Using RF MEMS Capacitors Co-authors Jianfa Wang, ZTE MT (nubia) Zhisheng Tian, ZTE MT (nubia) Paul Tornatta (presenter), Cavendish Kinetics Li Chen, Cavendish Kinetics

November 6, 2014

Outline

§  CK at a glance §  Market Drivers §  Benefits of Aperture Tuning §  Device Requirements for Aperture Tuning §  Comparison of Tuned and Non-tuned Antenna in

Smart Phone configuration §  Product Roadmap §  Summary

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Cavendish Kinetics Snapshot

Business   Tunable  RF  solu/ons  focused  ini/ally  on  Smartphone/Tablet  antennas  

Market  Size >  $2B  for  Tunable  RF  Front-­‐end  Components  by  2015  

Solu.on   Industry’s  highest-­‐performance  Antenna  Frequency  Tuning  Solu.on  

Loca.ons   San  Jose,  CA  (HQ);  Netherlands;  Asia  (3  loca.ons)  

Patents  &  IP   >100  patents  &  applica.ons  

Major  Investors   Tallwood  Venture  Capital,  Wellington  Partners,  Cel.c  House  Ventures,  Qualcomm  Ventures    

Company  Status  Technology  &  Product  qualified  over  process  and  temperature,  released  to  Produc.on.  In  mass  produc.on  on  Nubia  Z7  Smartphone.  Design-­‐in  process  on  a  number  of  addi.onal  pla`orms  

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Decreasing antenna efficiency is degrading connection quality Antenna frequency tuning is becoming a requirement

1995   2000   2005   2010   2015  

75%    

50%    

25%    

Antenn

a  Effi

cien

cy  

Internal  antennas  

More  radios  

Full  screen  phones  

Mul.-­‐mode  12+  bands  

Outstanding  Connec.on  Quality  

Antenna  Tuning  

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Antenna Size and LTE Spectrum kill Antenna Performance

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1200  mm3  500-­‐700  mm3  

Efficiency    ~  Size/Wavelength  

Bandwidth  

Antenna  volume  shrinking  

Smaller  antenna  =  Lower  Efficiency  

1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20/29/34/38/39/40/41  

GSM/CDMA/TD-­‐SCDMA/TD-­‐LTE/FDD-­‐LTE  

Antenna  covers  wider  bandwidth  

700  -­‐  960   1700-­‐2100   2300-­‐2700  

Efficiency    ~  Size/Wavelength  

Bandwidth  

Wide  bandwidth  =  Lower  Efficiency  

Full  screen,  Thin  Form  Factor   LTE  deployed  in  new  RF  bands  

Key Requirements for Aperture Tuning Antenna  Performance  

Impact   Requirements  for  Aperture  Tuning  

Antenna  Efficiency   TRP,  TIS   Low  Cmin  Low  ESR  High  Q  

Cmin  0.8pF,  0.6pF  ESR  <  0.5  Ohm  Q>  150  @  2GHZ  Q>  225  @  750  MHz  

Tuning  Range   Band  Coverage   C-­‐range  >3:1  High  SRF  

4:1,  5:1  SRF>8GHz  

Low  Noise   TIS   High  IIP3  Low  harmonics  Low  parasi.cs  

IIP3  >  65dBm  Tx  spurious<  -­‐85dBm  Rx  spurious<  -­‐120dBm  

Small  Size   Cost,  Performance  

Board  space  Low  cost  

2  mm2  

Most  important  features  for  aperture  tuning:  Q,  Ra/o,  Size  and  Cmin  

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Important parameters for tuning devices

Parameter   Effect   CK  MEMS  Status  

Switching  Cycles   Reliability   5B  heading  to  30B  by  July  

RFFE  Soqware  Compa.bility  

Base  Band  Compa.bility   Verified  with  all  key  base  band  chip  suppliers  

Voltage  Handling   IP3,  Harmonics   40  V  RMS  (57  V  peak),  maintain  all  specs  

Frequency  Tuning   TRP/TIS   Simultaneous,  Independent,  Low-­‐Band  and  High-­‐Band  tuning  

Manufacturing  and  Delivering  

Mass  produc.on  .ming   Partnering  with  larger  company  to  support  customers  

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nubia Z7: the World’s First Smartphone with SmarTune

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TRP Comparison – Tuned PIFA vs. Non-Tuned PIFA

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Frequency  MHz  

TRP  dB

m  

B40   B41  

Antenna  tunes  between  B40  and  B41  

Other  Bands  not  effected  by  tuning  

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China  Mobile  LTE/3G/2G  Spectrum  Band  Support  Requirements  

Low-­‐band  China  Mob

ile  

Performance  Spe

cs   Global  2G/3G  Spectrum  

§  Despite the twin performance challenges of a thin ID and 15 different spectrum bands

SmarTune enabled nubia’s Z7 to provide industry leading LTE performance above the China Mobile requirements

Mid-­‐band   High-­‐band  

GSM      B5;  B8                          B2;  B3    TD-­‐SCDMA                        B34;  B39  WCDMA          B5                          B1;  B2  TD-­‐LTE                                B39                          B40                                                        B38;  B41  FD-­‐LTE        B20                    B1;  B3;  B4        B7  

960   1710   2700  2170   2300   2400   2500  820  Spectrum  (MHz)  

Mid/  High  

>80%  >40%  

Tunable  PAs:  •  Improved    Efficiency  •  Increased  band  coverage  •  Reduced  Power  draw  

Tunable  Filters:  •  Improved    Efficiency  •  Increased  band  coverage  •  BOM  improvements  

PA

LNA PA

High  Band  

ASM  

RFIC  

Low  Band  

PA  Module  

LNA

BeRer  Switches:  •  10x  lower  inser.on  loss  •  Increased  switch  throws  •  BOM  improvements  

Antenna  Tuning:  

Cavendish’s Roadmap: RF MEMS for EVERY RF Application

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Summary

§  Industrial design trends, extended frequency range, and added features are driving the need for tunable antennas

§  Aperture tuning provides best performance over frequency §  Tuning element must meet key critical performance parameters, like low

ESR and low Cmin to be viable for aperture tuning §  Nubia Z7 SmartPhone is the first phone in the industry to have

SmarTune technology enabling superior upload and download speeds §  >40% improvement over spec in B4, >80% improvement over spec in

B41 §  RF MEMS now in full mass production for Antenna Tuning §  Also applicable to switches, filters, power amplifiers 12  

Thank You

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