Future Trends in Mobile Handset Radio Electronics

Mobile telephone handsets have become pervasive throughout the world. As they have become more common, they have become more capable, compact and multi-functional. These trends have had a profound effect on the RF electronics that have been at the heart of mobile handsets. The past history of the handset, as well as current trends, are instructive in guiding exploration of future handset developments. We will see that performance demands will continue to grow, while size, cost and power consumption allowances will continue to shrink. The ability to meet these demands is closely tied to innovations and enhancement in the technologies in almost all the RF components in the handset. System architectures will likewise continue to evolve and adapt to technological capabilities and handset requirements.