BEIJINGApril 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The 11th Electronic Design Innovation Conference (EDICON 2026) was recently held in Beijing. As a premier global event in the microwave and RF field, EDICON brought together top experts from across the industry chain to discuss the evolution path of next-generation communication technologies. Sanan Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Sanan Optoelectronics, was invited to attend and delivered a technical report titled “Sanan RF Technology Layout in Next-Generation Applications,” providing in-depth insights into its latest process advancements in Gallium Arsenide (GaAs), Gallium Nitride (GaN), and filter technologies.
With the evolution of 3GPP R18 to R20 standards and the imminent release of R21, the industry is extensively discussing the capabilities of 5G-Advanced/6G networks. Consequently, RF front-end devices are facing severe challenges in performance and design. Future RF designs need to achieve higher Power Class under new standards like R19/R20, while new application scenarios such as Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) impose stringent requirements on output power and isolation.
Furthermore, with the proliferation of Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology and 4G/5G co-existence dual connectivity (ENDC), RF chains must support larger bandwidth and output power within smaller physical dimensions, leading to a sharp increase in the thermal density of power amplifier devices. How to improve Power Added Efficiency (PAE) while addressing thermal coupling and reliability issues under high power has become a core challenge urgently needing resolution by RF engineers.
Addressing these challenges, Sanan Integrated detailed the performance of its latest-generation GaAs process, HP56, in the report. Compared to Sanan’s previous generation process, HP56 maintains good linearity in the 3.5GHz band while achieving higher power gain and superior maximum PAE. Compared to the previous HP12 process, gain increased by 2.6dB and efficiency improved by 2.6%. This effectively supports the amplification of very high-frequency and larger bandwidth modulated signals while significantly reducing PA power consumption.
The report also objectively noted that with increasing power density, chips face a more pronounced risk of Thermal Runaway. In response, through simulation and actual testing, Sanan Integrated proposed specific process optimization suggestions. By adjusting structure and metal spacing, junction temperature can be effectively reduced, mitigating thermal coupling effects. This provides a practical and feasible reference solution for design customers to address reliability issues under high power.
For future high-frequency communication application scenarios like commercial aerospace and non-terrestrial communication, Sanan Integrated also showcased its technological layout in GaN processes and filter products:
- Gallium Nitride (GaN) Technology: The new-generation process focuses on optimizing power density and current collapse effects. It aims to achieve dual improvements in efficiency and reliability through generational upgrades in epitaxy and processes, meeting the urgent demand for high efficiency in civilian base stations and commercial aerospace.
- Filter Products: The company’s 1109 NTN SAW filter series already covers the n256 frequency band and BDS reception bands. It specifically addresses technical difficulties in satellite communication, such as excessively dense adjacent frequency bands in existing networks and high requirements for sideband suppression. Meanwhile, the in-band insertion loss is only about 1dB, providing crucial support for integrated space-ground communication.
Sanan Integrated will continue to invest in RF process R&D, centering on customer needs to provide global clients with high-performance, high-reliability RF manufacturing solutions, supporting the high-quality development of next-generation wireless communication technologies and the industry.