AlN Ceramic Substrates Become Thermal Standard for 5G Base Stations at 230 W/(m·K)
2025-05-11
In 5G macro and small cells, RF power amplifiers and filters operate at high frequency and power, making them extremely sensitive to both thermal performance and dielectric loss. Conventional Al₂O₃ often fails to meet both requirements simultaneously.
AlN ceramic substrates deliver thermal conductivity up to 230 W/(m·K) with dielectric loss as low as <0.0005 at 10 GHz. They efficiently remove heat from the chip interface while maintaining signal integrity, reducing RF PA thermal resistance to around 0.3 K/W.
Adopting AlN substrates in 5G base stations significantly lowers junction temperatures, making it easier to maintain output power and linearity, while allowing more RF channels to be integrated into the same cabinet volume to increase site capacity.
When “high power + high frequency + high density” are all required, AlN should be the default substrate choice for RF modules, with layout and cooling optimization built on top of that baseline.