GaAs PK CMOS？

RF元件產業風起雲湧，隱伏暗流。

繼Avago併購LSI以跨足企業儲存市場後，Triquint與RFMD亦宣布合併









緣何如此大陣仗的整併？山雨欲來風滿樓！

Qualcomm以CMOS技術“RF360 Front End Solution”高調進軍RF元件市場雖是舊聞（2013年2月），衝擊卻是與日俱增。















Qualcomm has moved deeper into providing the RF radio chips for LTE. That includes the power amplifier and antenna chips that have traditionally been the province of dedicated RF vendors such as RF Micro Devices (RFMD) .

Qualcomm’s move to be a “bombshell” for players in the RF chip market. The complete RF front end solution, including an antenna tuner, envelope power tracker, integrated power amplifier (CMOS) and antenna switch (ASM) and full packaging solution. Qualcomm’s entry into new chip markets have had only modest success in the first 1-2 years, but almost universal success over a 3-5 year time frame given its substantial R&D scale and systems expertise.
- Tavis McCourt with Raymond James

而Qualcomm下一代的基頻MDM9x35，以TSMC的20nm製程打造（Qualcomm今年唯二，除MSM8x94外的另一20nm產品，WTR3925 射頻仍為28nm），是目前市面上唯一支援Cat6 300Mbps的產品，超越對手100~150Mbps的LTE水平，預計仍將在今年下半的旗艦智機中獨領風騷。MDM9x35另有車用版本。

Upward of 8 operators are gearing up to offer so-called “LTE Broadcast,” which will provide things such as breaking news feeds and digital magazine downloads and popular live multimedia events, and which makes use of special capabilities that Qualcomm has built into its chips.

南韓鮮京電信在去年中啟動150Mbps的LTE-A服務後，並計畫在今年下半商轉225Mbps、年末再提速至300Mbps（20MHz×1+10MHz×2；3band LTE-A）。結合三個20MHz頻段的3band LTE-A服務，下載速度可達450Mbps。





香港CSL亦在MWC 2014宣布正式啟動首個300MBps基地台，與ZTE、Qualcomm進行測試。此整合了兩段20 MHz的2600MHz頻譜和1800MHz頻譜之服務預計在今年下半商轉。

在智機紅海中，多核處理與高速聯網，究竟孰能勝出？