Samsung Electronics has begun producing the telecom equipment it will supply to US carrier Verizon this month, TheElec has learned.
The equipment supply is part of 7.9 trillion won deal between the pair for the South Korean tech giant to supply the carrier with 4G and 5G equipment.
The production volume will remain small initially but will be expanded in the second quarter next year.
Samsung Network is procuring the antenna for the radio unit from KMW, Ace Technologies, RFTech and Gigalane. KMW and Ace are also supplying filters.
For 4G radio units, KMW and Ace have installed the filter on aluminum case of the radio unit and supplied it to Samsung Network to assemble them with the antenna. For 5G radio units, the antenna and filter are integrated and supplied as module to Samsung by the two companies.
Samsung had relied on KMW and Ace for its 4G radio units but added RFTech and Gigalane as suppliers for 5G radio units.
Samsung is expected to use more GaN-on-SiC RF power transistor as its begins mass supply to Verizon.
RFHIC is supplying Samsung with GaN transistors. In South Korea, LDMOS transistors were only used up to last year.
Samsung Network is using printed circuit boards from Daeduck Electronics for the telecom kits. It previously mostly used Chinese companies SCC and Wus.
OE Solutions is supplying the optical transceivers to Samsung. Lightron is also the secondary supplier of transceivers.
Seojin System and Glovitech is supplying the aluminum case.
