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Qualcomm Unveils First mmWave 5G Antennas For Smartphones (theverge.com)
Qualcomm announced its new QTM052 mmWave antenna modules that will enable 5G networks on select mobile phones. The penny-sized antenna array features four antennas that can accurately point toward the nearest 5G tower. It can even bounce signals off of surrounding surfaces, if needed. The Verge reports: The QTM052 is designed to be small enough that device manufacturers will be able to embed it into the bezel of a phone. Qualcomm's X50 5G modem is already designed to support up to four of the antenna arrays, one for each side of the phone, allowing for 16 total antennas and ensuring that no matter how you hold your phone, the signal won't get blocked. Qualcomm says that the first devices with the QTM052 antennas should be launching as early as the beginning of 2019 -- and hopefully, there'll be some actual 5G networks to use them with by then.
I'm sort of surprised to see Qualcomm releasing a discrete part at this level of integration (rather than "here's an entire cell modem on module so you can 5G your widget with minimum regulatory hassle and without adding an RF witch doctor to your traffic light control company's team" or "here's the silicon and some design guide docs; engineering support for larger customers").
Is there just more demand than I realize from people who are doing things too tightly integrated/space constrained for the full "lump of cell module" treatment(would be phone ODMs with limited RF experience, such that they buy antennas rather than integrate them as trace antennas or into phone body/structure?) or do the requirements of '5G' impose sufficiently new and stringent requirements that it's expected that relatively few will be able to so it in house, at least for the first generation or two?