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The unit price of all these technologies has
come down over the last decade making
“things” cheaper and hence more affordable.
Figure 3 shows significant decline in some
of the key fundamental technologies such as
power, various sensor products, and radio
devices from 2012 through 2020. Sensor
products, such as microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS), are key to the success and
growth of IoT products. Figure 4 shows how
the average sensor unit cost has declined by
half from $1.30 in 2004, to $0.60 in 2014
and estimated to go down to $0.38 in 2020.
MEMS technology allows us to “digitize”
our analog world. Figure 5 depicts the unit
price reduction of MEMS sensors from over
$3.00 in the early 2000s, to about $0.50
in 2018. Figure 5 rightfully predicts two
possible outcomes for MEMS unit prices
for the first half of this decade. It is likely
that both will happen depending on MEMS
integration and application. Unit prices of
advanced integrated MEMS products will Figure 3: Unit price for fundamental technology has steadily declined in the last decade [1].
likely rise because of the complexity of such
products, while prices for standard MEMS
products will fall driven by high volume in
IoT application. However, the average unit
price of MEMS will continue to decline.
The most important element for the
technology convergence (as shown
in Figure 2) is the development and
deployment of 5G mmWave technology.
While there is a lot of buzz going around
about the potential for deployment of 5G in
the next two to three years, the real 5G will
not be widely available until the second half
of this decade. It is this real 5G that will be
the very basis for the next generations of
electronic applications.
The best way to look at 5G is to put this
technology deployment into two phases. Figure 4: Average price for sensor products, key enablers for IoT, have come down significantly. SOURCES:
Phase 1 is up to the 6GHz frequency Goldman Sachs and [2]
range, and Phase 2 is in the >24GHz range 4G, 5G mmWave can have up to a 100X 5G mmWave technology will open new
as depicted in Figure 6. The current 5G improvement in data rate, a 10X reduction frontiers of capability and usher in the
deployment that is scheduled to start in latency, and a 100X traffic capacity introduction and growth of advanced
by the end of 2020 is Phase 1. In this allowing a significantly higher number of technologies. For example, the up to
phase, most of the 4G infrastructure can connected devices. 100X transmission speed will allow
be used with 5G component upgrades 5G mmWave will require brand new seamless transmission of high-resolution
while consumers will have to buy new infrastructures as it works only with “line 8K video enabling people to watch such
5G handsets. In this <6GHz frequency of sight” transmission. In other words, the video on their handsets without any
range, while transmission will be faster cell towers will have to be much closer to interruption. This higher transmission
than current 4G, it will not have the step each other. This will take some time to speed along with the 10X reduction in
function improvement as the 5G Phase implement and most likely will not be ready latency is extremely important in the
2, which is called 5G mmWave. It is in in wider areas until 2024, or even later. proliferation of autonomous vehicles.
this frequency spectrum where the true T h e s i g n i f i c a n t p e r f o r m a n c e Driven by improved safety standards, a
benefits of 5G lie. As shown in Figure improvement with the deployment of higher level of connectivity and improved
7, when compared to the performance of

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