Enhanced ceramics could spark the 5G revolution

But according to a new paper, published Tuesday in the journal Applied Physics Letters, enhanced ceramics could help 5G reach its full potential.

Authored by Michael Hill, technical director of Skyworks Solutions, an advanced-semiconductor company in California, the paper provides a survey of budding 5G technologies.

The fifth-generation technology standard for cellular broadband, also known as 5G, utilizes two different frequency bands. Long-distance links use a lower band, 3 to 6 gigahertz, while the higher frequency band, 20-100 GHz, powers ultrafast data speeds.

The lower frequency band is not all that different from 4G, but the higher frequency band requires more support infrastructure -- because high frequency waves can't travel as far.

To amplify the signal of 5G's higher frequency band, engineers at Skyworks Solutions developed a new type of enhanced ceramic material.

Researchers used the new ceramic to build a circulator, a three-port device that works like a traffic circle for broadband signals.

Most circulators are built with yttrium iron garnet, but scientists with Skyworks swapped out the yttrium for bismuth. The substitution boosted the ceramic's dielectric constant -- a measure of a material's ability to accommodate multiple electric fields.

Though enhanced ceramic could encourage greater 5G adoption and unleash the technology's powerful potential, researchers acknowledge that circulators may soon be replaced by high-power gallium nitride-based switches.

"Millimeter-wave technology is likely to be the wild west for some time, as one technology may dominate only to be quickly supplanted by a different technology," Hill said.