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10 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2018 significant change in various industries, and create new business structures." Industry analyst firm Occams Business Research Consulting expects the global 5G network infrastructure market to register a 70% CAGR from 2016 to 2023 and reach up to $28 billion by the end of the forecast period. North America is the leading market for 5G network infrastructure technology and is a strong player of the R&D in 5G, with key market players including Verizon and AT&T having plans for establishing 5G networks. The two companies have successfully completed trials to ensure deployment of 5G by 2023, accord- ing to Occams Business Research Consulting. In fact, a recent global survey by Gartner found that 75% of end-user organizations would be willing to pay more for 5G, especially those in the telecom industry (Figure 1). Testing 5G Despite these bullish projections, however, the impending arrival of 5G is not without its entourage of challenges that will require a different approach in the electronics manufac- turing process. One that is already impacting the electronics manufacturers and assemblers is the testing of the devices. In our discussion with Stig Källman, compo- nent engineer, PCB, at Ericsson, he mentioned that the testing of the devices is challenging because they cannot connect a cable to the antenna. Therefore, signal testing must be done over-the-air. The advent of millimeter-wave in main- stream electronics means that manufacturers, in some cases, are insisting that these radios be tested in the manufacturing process, accord- ing to Roger Nichols, 5G program manager at test and measurement provider Keysight Tech- nologies Inc. "But these measurements must be made not only within chambers that are shielded, but also anechoic, and, in some cases, temperature-controlled. All these tech- nologies are not new to the industry, but what is new is the aspect of applying them all to a relatively high-volume manufacturing process. This adds the complexity of making an accu- rate measurement, quickly, over-the-air (no galvanic connections), and moving the device- under-test (DUT) in and out of the chamber in an efficient manner. This also implies a robust repetitive controlled environment with mini- mal down-time and the flexibility to change the DUT form-factor." The same is being said by Mathieu Kury, busi- ness development manager of EMS provider Asteelflash USA Corp., in another interview. He notes that the challenge they are currently seeing with existing devices is mostly around Figure 1: Three out of every four end-user organizations say they would be willing to pay more for 5G.