5G chips and modules address power efficiency and size

5G chipmakers have placed a lot of attention on supporting new 5G technologies, including 5G-Advanced, satellite non-terrestrial network (NTN) connectivity, 5G fixed wireless access (FWA), and 5G Open RAN (O-RAN). This also means growing support for millimeter-wave (mmWave) and massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO).

This has translated into more focus on simplifying designs, improving performance, and delivering power savings. Many of these new 5G devices feature higher integration for easier deployments, AI for better power efficiency and device performance, and power-saving technologies.

The global 5G chipset market size is projected to reach $43.9 billion in 2025, up from $33.1 billion in 2024, according to Fortune Business Insights. The market is also expected to grow at a 31.7% compound annual growth rate, over the forecast period of 2024 to 2032, reaching $300.9 billion by 2032.

The market research firm attributes the growth to increasing demand for high-speed, low-latency connectivity to support mobile broadband, IoT, and cloud-based services; growing adoption of 5G-enabled devices, including smartphones, connected vehicles, industrial IoT systems, and enterprise wireless access equipment; and investments by telecom operators and governments in 5G infrastructures.

Here are the top 10 5G chips and modules introduced over the past year that address these challenges with performance improvements to further drive 5G adoption.

Let’s start with the latest advanced modems that support all of the latest 5G trends, from AI integration for better performance to supporting mmWave, 5G-Advanced NTN connectivity, 5G FWA, and 5G O-RAN.

At Mobile World Congress (MWC) in March 2025, MediaTek unveiled its M90 5G-Advanced cellular modem with AI for enhanced power efficiency. The advanced modem meets 3GPP Release 17 and the upcoming Release 18 specifications and claims exceptional downlink performance of up to 12 Gbits/s and improved uplink performance by up to 20% with 3GPP Release 17 2T-2T Uplink transmitter (TX) switching.

The 5G-Advanced modem supports both sub-6-GHz (FR1 with up to 6CC-CA) and mmWave (FR2 with up to 10CC-CA) connectivity. It also offers dual SIM dual active (DSDA) support with dual data capabilities.

Featuring the MediaTek Modem AI (MMAI) technology that delivers AI models for enhanced power efficiency and performance, these models include features such as identifying data traffic patterns to optimize power consumption and latency, as well as detecting device orientation and usage scenarios for a better connectivity experience.

As part of MMAI, MediaTek’s Smart Antenna technology leverages AI to train high-performance models using aggregate massive antenna impedance and signal data. This enables precise key operating environment identification with 99.5% accuracy, MediaTek said, and boosts data throughput by up to 24%.

The M90 modem also leverages the MediaTek UltraSave technology, which reduces average power consumption by up to 18% compared with the previous-generation modem, extending battery life. It also integrates satellite (NTN) connectivity, featuring 3GPP IoT-NTN for low-data-rate applications and New Radio (NR)-NTN technology for high-data-rate services.

Qualcomm Technologies Inc. also unveiled advanced 5G products at MWC 2025, including the X85 5G modem-RF, Dragonwing cellular infrastructure platform for 5G O-RAN and Dragonwing 5G-Advanced FWA platform.

The X85 5G modem-RF is the company’s eighth-generation 5G modem-to-antenna solution and fourth-generation AI-powered 5G connectivity platform, targeting premium Android smartphones. It also supports 5G-Advanced capabilities in other devices and applications, including PCs, FWA points, IoT, automotive, and extended reality.

The X85 features an improved Qualcomm 5G AI processor with a hardware tensor accelerator, which achieves 30% faster AI inference. This delivers improvements in speed, efficiency, coverage, and power consumption.

Qualcomm said the X85 features the first downlink carrier aggregation with 400-MHz bandwidth in sub-6-GHz with 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation and the first UL carrier aggregation with four layers for sub-6-GHz bands. This advanced platform also achieves peak download speeds up to 12.5 Gbits/s and supports sub-6-GHz and mmWave for streaming, downloads, and gaming. Key benefits include improved network reliability in congested areas, extended battery life, and enhanced location accuracy for better user experiences.

Powered by the X85 5G modem-RF, Qualcomm also launched the Dragonwing FWA Gen 4 Elite Platform, claimed as the industry’s first 5G-Advanced FWA platform. It delivers ultra-fast wireless mobile broadband with downlink speeds up to 12.5 Gbits/s.

The FWA platform features a quad-core processor, dedicated hardware acceleration, integrated 5G modem-RF, GNSS, tri-band Wi-Fi 7, and broad carrier middleware support, offering comprehensive wireless connectivity. It offers on-device AI-enhanced traffic classification and 40-TOPS edge AI integration.

Qualcomm said the Dragonwing FWA Gen 4 Elite Platform breaks ground for the FWA category by delivering up to 14 km of long-range 5G mmWave performance, NTN satellite communication capabilities, and DSDA for high-performance aggregation, reliability, and remote management.

Qualcomm’s Dragonwing FWA Gen 4 Elite Platform (Source: Qualcomm Technologies Inc.)

Qualcomm is also addressing entry-level smartphones with its Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 Mobile Platform, delivering a 5G modem-RF system that features a 64-bit Qualcomm Kryo CPU with up to 2-GHz clock speed and the Qualcomm Adreno GPU. The 5G chip also delivers upgraded UFS 3.1 memory that delivers faster data processing, app usage, and overall performance. This platform is the first in the series that supports GPP Release 17. It can also seamlessly switch from 5G to Wi-Fi 5 while on the go and supports Bluetooth 5.1.

The mobile platform delivers several advanced features, including a 1-Gbits/s peak download speed, which is 7× faster than LTE platforms in the same price range, according to Qualcomm, along with dual-frequency GPS with NavIC for better location accuracy, AI-enhanced audio, and smooth gameplay with Q-Sync, which synchronizes display rate and game frame rate, and supports FHD+ displays at 90 fps.

The platform’s 4-nm process enhances power savings, while the 40-W fast-charging and Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology delivers up to 50% more battery power in 15 minutes.

Imaging performance is also improved thanks to the Qualcomm Spectra 12-bit dual ISP, together with multiframe noise reduction and electronic image stabilization. It also features in-sensor zoom for sharper images of faraway subjects.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 Mobile Platform (Source: Qualcomm Technologies Inc.)

Semtech Corp. announced an expansion of its 5G broadband module portfolio to address high-performance 5G capabilities and cost-optimized requirements. Unveiled at MWC 2025, the 5G modules include the EM9492, claimed as the first 5G broadband module powered by the Qualcomm X85 modem-RF platform. The company also launched the cost-optimized EM9295 module, powered by the Qualcomm X61 5G modem-RF system.

The EM9492 module is Semtech’s third-generation 5G broadband solution. The platform supports 5G-Advanced, based on 3GPP Release 18. Key features include DSDA and AI on-chip processing to enhance edge-based AI applications and 6CC carrier aggregation for faster speeds and sub-6-GHz band utilization. Applications include routers, gateways, and video surveillance systems.

The EM9295 module offers cost-optimized 5G connectivity. It supports the 3GPP Release 16, delivering download speeds of up to 2.5 Gbits/s over sub-6-GHz bands. This 5G module targets applications that require an optimized balance of cost, performance, and functionality, Semtech said.

Designed to accelerate O-RAN adoption, Metanoia Communications Inc. introduced its ultra-low-power MT5824 5G system-on-chip (SoC) in a compact footprint. Announced at MWC 2025, the 5G SoC with a software-defined radio (SDR) architecture claims the industry’s lowest-power and smallest-footprint O-RAN radio unit (RU) solution.

The MT5824 5G O-RU SoC is a highly integrated device, combining the company’s digital front-end (DFE) SoC (Cobra MT2824 baseband processor) and RFIC (Yucca MT3812 three-band 2 × 2 MIMO transceiver) with complete hardware and software development kits. The modular SDR architecture supports both sub-6-GHz (FR1) and mmWave (FR2) 5G NR standards.

The MT5824 SoC consumes 90% less power (<6 W for 4T4R configurations), reduces bill-of-material costs by 80%, and shrinks the footprint by 70% compared with FPGA-based solutions, according to Metanoia. In addition, the open SDR framework and in-house digital pre-distortion (DPD) and crest factor reduction (CFR) deliver optimal power amplifier (PA) efficiency.

The MT5824, optimized for 5G FR1/FR2 O-RU and small-cell applications, operates seamlessly across networks that require high security, traffic aggregation, and redundancy. The chipset meets O-RAN 7.2x and 3GPP standards and is PoE-ready.

Metanoia also offers a 5G FR1 4T4R RU reference design using the MT5824 chipset. The evaluation board (C-EVB) is a 5G RU sub-6-GHz reference design that includes two MT3812 RFICs as well as additional RF front-end components, including PA, low-noise amplifier, circulator, and bandpass filters.

Also targeting O-RAN mobile networks is MaxLinear Inc.’s highly integrated Sierra radio SoC. This complete O-RU solution can help radio vendors develop new O-RUs with a smaller size, lower weight, and higher energy efficiency, the company said, with a maximum system reuse across all RU applications, including traditional macro, massive MIMO, and small-cell.

The Sierra’s RF transceiver uses a low-power wide-band Zero-IF architecture and supports eight TX and eight receivers (RX) with two feedback receivers (FBRX). Each RX supports wide signal bandwidths up to 400 MHz, and each TX and FBRX supports signal bandwidths up to 900 MHz. It can operate in 8T8R single-band or 2 × 4T4R multiband configurations.

The DFE integrates DPD, CFR, PIM cancellation, and digital up-conversion and digital down-conversion blocks. The company’s proprietary DPD/CFR technology, MaxLIN, linearizes PAs up to 400 MHz of occupied bandwidth. It dramatically improves PA energy efficiency while meeting spectral emission masks with margin, MaxLinear said.

The low-PHY baseband processor supports 4G, 5G, and NB-IoT air interfaces, including uplink PRACH processing. It can process up to eight component carriers per transmit and receive path and is software-configurable for different modes and parameters, including dynamic spectrum sharing, bandwidth parts, mixed numerology, and windowing. It supports an O-RAN fronthaul split option 7.2x Category A interface with up to four 10- or 25-Gbit/s Ethernet interfaces.

The Sierra chip also features an embedded CPU for system control. The CPU is an integrated quad-core Arm A53 processor with Neon extensions. Each Arm core has 1 MB of internal SRAM with access to an additional 8 GB of external DRAM through a DDR controller.

Earlier this year, MediaTek introduced the T930 chipset for 5G FWA and mobile Wi-Fi devices. Enhancing FWA cellular broadband applications with R18 5G-Advanced modem and AI technologies, this third-generation platform is a highly integrated and power-efficient 4-nm chipset solution that supports sub-6-GHz frequency bands and can achieve 5G connection speeds of 10 Gbits/s.

Also claiming several industry-first features, including 6CC-CA downlink and five-layer 3Tx, enabling uplink performance of up to 2.8 Gbits/s, it is the first to support 8Rx with a total 200-MHz DL bandwidth. This can increase spectrum efficiency by 40% at the cell edge, extending signal coverage by up to 40%, MediaTek said.

The T930 combines MediaTek’s M90 5G modem with a quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 CPU and a dedicated network processor. It handles 5G to Wi-Fi/Ethernet throughput at full performance. It supports the 3GPP Release 18 standard and more advanced modem features, including 3Tx and L4S innovations proposed by MediaTek.

The full T930 platform also includes an RF transceiver, a GNSS receiver, and power management. It can be combined with a dedicated NPU chip to form a generative AI gateway device, providing advanced edge AI processing and interaction with devices within the network.

MediaTek’s T930 (Source: MediaTek)

Qorvo Inc. introduced two advanced RF components earlier this year that are expected to simplify the 5G infrastructure with compact radio solutions for 5G massive MIMO and FWA deployments, along with improving thermal performance. These RF building blocks include the QPQ3550 bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter and QPA9862 pre-driver amplifier.

The compact QPQ3550 high-performance BAW filter, operating in the 3.55- to 3.7-GHz CBRS band, targets customer premises equipment, FWA nodes, small cells, and multiband radios supporting next-generation broadband platforms. With growing demand for FWA applications, the QPQ3550 is a drop-in solution in a compact, 2.0 × 1.6-mm footprint to accelerate high-volume 5G deployment. It leverages the company’s multigeneration BAW technology, delivering superior insertion loss, power handling, and enhanced thermal reliability, according to the company.

The QPA9862 is a wideband, high-efficiency pre-driver amplifier for 5G massive MIMO radios, supporting both 32T and 64T base station architectures. Claiming exceptional power efficiency, broad instantaneous signal bandwidth, and compact integration in a 3.0 × 3.0-mm LGA package, this device is designed to help equipment manufacturers meet evolving 5G radio requirements.