The wireless data transmission via mobile communication is reliable and affordable. However, data volume per user is rising exponentially. Causes are not only the continuously growing number of smartphones, but also trends as car-to-car (C2C) or machine-to-machine (M2M) communication – cars and machines need to communicate in high speed with each other.
Fraunhofer is developing new power amplifiers based on the semiconductor gallium nitride.
At least 8 billion wireless devices are currently linked via mobile communication worldwide. Chatting with friends and the family, watching videos while on the road, playing online or simply surfing the Internet can be done without problems and is affordable. However, will this still be the case if the number of users is rising and therefore data volume keeps increasing? "We are at a turning point", says Dr. Rüdiger Quay of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF in Freiburg (Germany). "So far, it is mainly humans who are communicating with each other using mobile communication devices. In the future, cars, devices, or production machines will join the networks." However, real-time radio communication is necessary for visions such as Industry 4.0 or autonomous driving. Maximum data rates of 10 gigabits per second are needed and thus targeted. However, today's 4G LTE mobile standard is designed for 300 megabits per second and does not support real-time transmission. Surfing the Internet on your mobile device is comparatively slow with an average peak data rate of 50 megabits per second. For this reason, wireless carrier and network equipment providers are working jointly with researchers on the more powerful 5G. The new cellular network standard will enable the live transmission of high-quality video.
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