Ace wins ceramic filter supply to global telecom kit firm
Worth 100 billion won for 3 years
South Korean telecoms component maker Ace Technologies will supply ceramic filters for 5G equipment to a global telecom equipment maker.
It will began supplying the filters in the first half of 2021 after distributing the volume with other selected suppliers, it said.
The deal is worth 100 billion won and will last three years.
Previously, most wireless telecom equipment used cavity filters. Ceramic filters are lighter, smaller and cheaper compared to cavity filters but falls behind in performance, and were underused.
But as telecom equipment makers want 5G massive MIMO equipment to become lighter, more ceramic filters are expected to be used. A lighter massive equipment allows people to install and fix them, thereby saving in cost compared to using machines.
As the equipment require higher number of antenna compared to 4G equipment of up to 64, more filters are also expected to be used. Filters are used to sort the spectrum that reaches the antenna.
Ceramic filters are 40% to 50% lighter compared to cavity filters that uses aluminum.
Ace said it was the only company in South Korea that can produce ceramic waveguide filter that improves on performance compared to previous offerings.
It will expand its partnership with the global telecom equipment maker going forward, the company added.