press release

Fujikura Ltd. (Director, President and CEO Okada Naoki) has recently partnered with Avnet, one of the world's largest electronics technology trading companies, to develop and sales a cutting-edge evaluation/development platform for the 5G NR ^*1 FR2 mmWave frequency band ^*2.

The platform is comprised of AMD Xilinx's ^Zynq® UltraScale+™ RFSoC ^*3 Gen3 and Fujikura's Phased Array Antenna Module (PAAM), controlled by Avnet's RFSoC ^Explorer® software. This combination of cutting-edge components and software will facilitate advanced 5G mmWave system development and prototyping, enabling customers to rapidly create 5G base station prototypes.

In particular, the platform uses Avnet's RFSoC Explorer MATLAB application, which is renowned for its ease of use, to enable control of the entire system, from antennas to digital, and to rapidly implement and test mmWave beamforming applications without the need for HDL (hardware description language) or software coding.

Jim Beneke, vice president of Products and Emerging Technology at Avnet, said the following about the partnership:
"The market is expanding as higher bandwidth applications drive the need for 5G mmWave communications, especially in the industrial and communications sectors. Through our collaboration with Fujikura, AMD Xilinx, and MATLAB, we are delivering a new combination of solutions that will enable our customers to reduce engineering time and enter the 5G market faster."

Fujikura's PAAM is a module that highly integrates an array antenna, beamforming IC, frequency conversion IC, and filter, and operates in the 3GPP bands n257 (28 GHz band), n258 (26 GHz band), and n261 (27 GHz band). Fujikura's unique approach of providing highly integrated modules achieves the optimal structure, performance, power consumption, and total cost of ownership (TCO) required for 5G millimeter wave base stations, and can greatly contribute to shortening the system development time for customers building 5G millimeter wave infrastructure.

"Fujikura is a leader in the development of high-performance semiconductors," said Kenji Nishide, head of Fujikura's Electronics Application Technology R&D Center.
"We are committed to the development of 5G mmWave technology, which can provide great value to our customers through applications in various usage environments such as fixed wireless access (FWA) and mobile broadband, as well as high-density coverage in indoor venues such as stadiums and shopping malls. We are pleased to collaborate with Avnet, a global leader in technology distribution, to deliver Fujikura's innovative PAAM solution to customers around the world."

For more information, please visit the website (https://avnet.me/fujikura-collaborate ).

[Terminology explanation]
*1 5G NR: A new radio access technology whose specifications have been formulated by 3GPP (a project that works to internationally standardize mobile communications systems such as 5G) for 5G mobile networks.
*2 FR2 millimeter wave frequency band: The millimeter wave frequency band used for 5G NR.
*3 RFSoC: RFSoC is an abbreviation for RF System on Chip, and is an AMD Xilinx FPGA device with built-in 8ch A/D and 8ch D/A and an Arm CPU core.

● About Fujikura Ltd.
Since its founding in 1885, Fujikura has been providing highly reliable products and services in the four business fields of energy, information and communications, electronics, and automotive electronics through the "Tsunagu" technology it has cultivated in the field of wires and cables.
Currently, we are working on the field of millimeter-wave wireless communication as a new business, and we are developing millimeter-wave devices in the 28 GHz and 60 GHz bands by making full use of "phased array antenna design technology," "flexible printed circuit board manufacturing technology," and "electromagnetic field analysis technology."
For more information, please visit the following websites:
Corporate site: https://www.fujikura.co.jp/
Millimeter Wave Product Site: https://mmwavetech.fujikura.jp/ja/

About Avnet
Avnet is a leading global technology distributor and solutions provider, serving the evolving needs of customer for a century. We support our customers at every stage of the product lifecycle, from idea to design and prototyping to production. Our unique position in the technology value chain enables us to accelerate the design and delivery stages of product development, so customer realize revenue faster. For the next decade and beyond, Avnet will help customers and suppliers around the world realize the transformative potential of technology.
For more information about Avnet, please visit https://www.avnet.com/japan Please see.