The new chipsets were announced today at “Samsung Networks: Redefined,” the company’s virtual public event highlighting notable 5G accomplishments and new solutions for network transformation. At the event, Samsung emphasized its experience in developing in-house chipsets for more than two decades and reiterated the significant investments behind the launch of multiple generations of chipsets starting from 3G, leading to today’s cutting-edge 5G solutions.

The newly introduced chipsets are designed to take Samsung’s next generation 5G lineup to a new level, boosting performance, increasing power efficiency and reducing the size of the 5G solutions.

Samsung’s newly-introduced chips are:

• 3^rd Generation mmWave RFIC:
  This new chip follows prior generation RFICs from Samsung. The first generation, introduced in 2017, powered the company’s 5G FWA solutions supporting the world’s first 5G home broadband service in the U.S. Two years later, the second generation powered Samsung’s 5G Compact Macro, the industry’s first mmWave 5G NR radio, which has since been widely deployed in the U.S.
  
  Samsung’s 3^rd generation RFIC chip supports both 28GHz and 39GHz spectrums, and will be embedded in Samsung’s next generation 5G Compact Macro. The chip incorporates advanced technology that reduces antenna size by nearly 50%, maximizing the 5G radio’s interior space. Moreover, 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 have increased, doubling output power of the next generation 5G Compact Macro.

• 2^nd Generation 5G Modem SoC:
  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.
  
  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.

• DFE-RFIC Integrated Chip:
  In 2019, the first Digital/Analog Front End (DAFE) chip was introduced by Samsung, serving as an essential component of 5G radios (including Samsung’s 5G Compact Macro), by converting analog-to-digital and vice versa, and supporting both 28GHz and 39GHz spectrums.
  
  This new chip combines RFIC and DFE functions for both below-6GHz and mmWave spectrums. By integrating these functions, the chip not only doubles frequency bandwidth, but also reduces the size and increases output power for Samsung’s next generation solutions, including 5G Compact Macro.

“This newly unveiled chipset is the fundamental component of our state-of-art 5G solutions, developed through a long-standing R&D effort that enables Samsung to be at the forefront of delivering cutting-edge 5G technologies,” said Junehee Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “As one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world, we are committed to developing the most innovative chips for the next phase of 5G advancement, integrated with the features mobile operators seek to stay competitive.”

“5G chipsets are critical to achieving the performance capabilities required for next-generation network deployments,” stated Anshel Sag, Moor Insights & Strategy. “Samsung’s long-standing expertise in developing chipsets in-house is a key differentiator, positioning it as a leader in the delivery of 5G network solutions with the features and benefits operators seek to advance their 5G strategies.”

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios, and core. This includes the creation and shipment of innovative chips from Samsung’s manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from fully virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

President Youngky Kim of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics estimates that monthly wireless internet usage will soar to 100GB in the 5G era from the current usage of 10 GB at most in the 4G environment. In other words, users will be able to enjoy wireless internet services including 4K and 8K UHD videos, virtual reality (VR), holograms, and autonomous vehicles to their satisfaction.

Using the 5G technologies that have been developed over the last seven years, President Kim has been committed to deploying 5G networks in many parts of the world. He said, “We will focus on the U.S. where 5G services will launch this year, as well as Korea and Japan – the leaders of 5G commercialization. It is our goal to become one of the top three global network equipment suppliers within the next five years.”

President Kim sat with Samsung Newsroom on 27^th February at MWC held in Barcelona, Spain. The Q&A outlines the types of benefits consumers will be able to enjoy in the 5G era, and Samsung’s competitive edge and business strategies.

Q. How do you think the 5G will make a difference in our lives?

Kim: “4G brought us mobile connectivity so that we can use our smartphones anytime and anywhere. 5G will extend wireless connectivity to cities and factories as a whole. Internet of Things (IoT) will become a part of our lives, and consumers’ monthly wireless internet usage will skyrocket to 100GB. Furthermore, hologram video calls, augmented reality (AR)-based GPS, and autonomous vehicles will be more widely available.”

Q. Almost every participating enterprise at MWC 2018 talks about 5G. What differentiates Samsung from the rest?

Kim: “The telecommunications business is no longer just about expanding network coverage and enhancing performance. Going beyond simple connectivity, we aim to implement an automated and intelligent network that focuses on our consumers. The main task is to develop new services that are virtually latency-free. Samsung will demonstrate its unique competencies to bring 5G services to life, based on the company’s businesses and experiences in networks, mobile devices, TVs, home appliances, semi-conductors, and electronics parts as well as IoT platform.”

Q. For the first time in the world, the 5G network will be commercialized in the U.S. When do you think it will be distributed on a major scale?

Kim: “Countries like the U.S, Korea, Japan are on the verge of jumping into 5G commercialization. Samsung will accelerate the commercialization of 5G by working actively with service providers in 5G adoption-advanced countries. To deliver 5G services seamlessly, “killer applications” must be provided along with the network and user devices.”

Q. Samsung collaborates with Verizon for the commercialization of 5G in the U.S. What meaning does this partnership hold?

Kim: “The U.S. is an early-adopter and has a very large market, of which Verizon is the No.1 operator. In this respect, the partnership is recognition of our technological competencies. The 5G network employs the millimeter wave spectrum, which is a distinctive frequency bandwidth yet to be used for communications. It is therefore crucial that it successfully works out in an in an everyday setting. We believe that coming in first place to let users experience commercial services based on the millimeter wave spectrum will bolster our presence in the 5G market.”

Q. What is Samsung’s strategy to become one of the top three network equipment suppliers?

Kim: “Technological competency is our competitive edge. Samsung has been dedicated to validating 5G technologies and applying the requirements of global standards. Furthermore, we have been committed to developing and demonstrating “world first” technologies over the last seven years. To achieve success in our 5G business, our viewpoints on technologies, products and strategies must stay focused on consumers. I am positive that Samsung has every potential to grow into a top-tier enterprise with our consumer-centric products, services and infrastructure in the global 5G market.”

The live demonstration, which was held in Samsung’s lab in Suwon, South Korea, achieved multi-gigabits per second downlink speeds, as well as latencies as low as 1 millisecond. The fiber-like speeds and low latencies will be essential to meeting the increasing connectivity requirements of emerging mobile broadband experiences such as virtual/augmented reality, as well as enabling new high-reliability, low-latency services for industrial control, autonomous vehicles and drones, among other use cases.

“KT has worked closely with Samsung and Qualcomm Technologies on testing innovative mobile technologies,” said Seo, Chang-Seok, EVP and Head of Network Strategy Unit, KT. “KT believes that this 5G NR trial will pave the way to a successful launch of 5G NR networks and mobile devices, which will mark another technology breakthrough beyond the first broad-scale 5G trial services at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.”

“As the industry works toward the goal of commercial launches of 5G NR products and networks in 2019, close collaboration among global mobile industry leaders on testing and successful trials are necessary to validate the technologies and continue to build and improve our capabilities,” said Cristiano Amon, president, Qualcomm Incorporated. “We are proud of our achievement with Samsung and KT and look forward to further collaboration on the path to making 5G a commercial reality.”

“The cooperation, led by the major game changers of the industry like KT and Qualcomm Technologies, is important to the progress of 5G and its implementation,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of the R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “As an active participant of 5G NR development, Samsung is extremely excited to see that our joint efforts have opened up the pathway for business models and use cases yet to be experienced.”

The end-to-end 5G NR interoperability testing demonstrated the essential components of the 5G NR air interface — fully compliant with 3GPP Release-15 5G NR specifications — including scalable 5G NR OFDM numerology, advanced 5G NR channel coding and modulation schemes, low-latency 5G NR slot structure and 5G NR control and data channel support for Massive MIMO and mobile mmWave.

The 5G NR interoperability demonstration will be on display at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 26 through March 2 at the Qualcomm Technologies booth in Hall 3 – Booth 3E10,  Samsung booth in Hall 2 – Stand 2M20, and KT booth in Hall 4 – Innovation city.