MediaTek unveils RedCap solutions to deliver 5G Data Rates and Power Efficiency for IoT Devices

MediaTek announced it is expanding its modems and chipsets to support 5G RedCap. The new solutions, the M60 modem IP and the MediaTek T300 chipset series, will make it easy for MediaTek to facilitate the transition to 5G-NR for a wide range of applications that require long lasting and efficient battery life, such as wearables, light-weight AR devices, IoT modules, and devices built with edge AI in mind.

RedCap, which stands for “reduced capability,” is designed to bring the benefits of 5G to NR consumer, enterprise, and industrial devices. Taking full advantage of the evolution of 5G networks to the Standalone (SA) network architecture, RedCap claims to deliver reliability for devices that have low bandwidth requirements, offering many of the benefits of 5G without the cost and complexity of typical 5G solutions.

“Our RedCap solutions are a significant part of our mission to democratize 5G, providing our customers the ability to optimize components and deliver 5G-enabled devices from a range of applications and a range of price points,” said JC Hsu, Corporate Senior Vice President at MediaTek. “The migration to 5G RedCap will replace legacy 4G/LTE solutions, offering significantly better power efficiency and more reliable user experiences compared to leading edge 5G eMMB modem solutions and legacy 4G LTE Cat 4 and Cat 6 devices,” he added.

As the world’s first 6nm Radio Frequency System-On-Chip (RFSOC) single die solution for RedCap, the MediaTek T300 series is breaking new ground in the RedCap space. This RFSOC will allow brands to capitalize on the emerging RedCap market and create innovative designs for enterprise, industrial, consumer, AR, and data-card applications. Built on the highly efficient TSMC 6nm process, the MediaTek T300 series integrates a single-core Arm Cortex-A35 in a significantly more compact PCB area. The MediaTek T300 series supports up to 227 Mbps downlink and 122 Mbps uplink data rates.

Both the T300 series and the M60 5G modem IP support the 3GPP R17 standard and combine MediaTek’s industry-leading power efficiency with coverage enhancements and extremely low latency. By leveraging MediaTek’s UltraSave 4.0 technology and reducing unnecessary paging receptions, the M60 offers up to a 70% reduction in power consumption compared to similar 5G eMBB solutions and up to 75% power savings compared to 4G LTE solutions.