Huawei’s HiSilicon is keen to develop modem integrated 5G chipsets

HiSilicon

HiSilicon, Huawei’s chipmaking arm, is planning to increase the development rate of 5G mobile chipsets with an integrated modem. It is also planning to make 5G mmWave solutions for smartphones after releasing a new chipset later this year.

Huawei is planning to release its next chipset called the Kirin 985 in the second half of this year. The chipset will support Huawei’s high-end 4G smartphones. Furthermore, it can also come with add-on Balong 5G modem chips to support 5G sub 6GHz smartphones.

Kirin 985

The much-awaited Huawei Mate 30 series could get the same chipset too, which is rearing to launch in the fourth quarter of this year. The Kirin 985 chipset will be manufactured by TSMC on its 7nm+ node and packaged by ASE Technology Holding. As far as its precision is concerned, Siliconware Precision will provide it with its FC-PoP technology.

HiSilicon

HiSilicon following Qualcomm

Reports indicate that the company’s new mobile SoC will undergo trial production in the second quarter and based on that, it will go into mass production in the third quarter. HiSilicon wants to follow the footsteps of Qualcomm in its pursuit to develop 5G modem chipsets.

It is planning to roll out 5G SoCs with modem chips between late 2019 and early 2020. As per the expectations, it will become the mainstream AP solutions for smartphones in the 5G era.

To support the transition from 4G to 5G, chipmakers are also rolling out multiple mobile AP versions. They can be installed with add-on 4G and 5G modem chips, before launching the chipsets integrating 5G modem chips and mmWave 5G SoCs in 2020.

MediaTek slowly keeping up

With such rapid pace development, Qualcomm and Huawei are eyeing to be among the top two suppliers of 5G SoC. On the other hand, Taiwan-based MediaTek will release a sub-6GHz 5G chip by the end of this year.