In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2016 Economic Survey*, “the growing role of global value chains (GVCs) in international production processes is of critical importance for Turkey’s development... participation in GVCs is one of the key drivers if successful productivity diffusion in a globalised world.” This project is a collaboration between VIPER RF (UK) and an established Turkish industrial company on a high technology project targeting at developing a transmit module for next generation Smart Cities communication systems. Smart Cities will play a significant role in improving the quality of life of urban inhabitants and the efficiency of businesses including for real-time e-Health, smart grids, smart cars, connected housing and entertainment. Such applications can result in a plethora of benefits including the health and well being of citizens and urban pollution control**; for example the increasing number of sensors which individuals already possess such as motion (mobile phones), heart rate (fitness trackers) can be connected to monitoring centres to facilitate intervention for the sick or elderly in real-time, and increasingly such data may be used to make correlations with other macro-factors such a pollution levels collected via central city services to aid city planning. To support the orders of magnitude increase in information traffic demanded by Smart Cities, significant technological innovation is required in the communications infrastructure from the current 4G wireless communications standard.

The aim of this project is to develop a phased array transmit module for 5G telecommunication base stations. The module will be realized as a cost-effective system-in-package operating at high bandwidth millimetre-wave frequencies based on new customized highly integrated chips, integrated antennas and associated control electronics in a single multi-layer package. This project involves significant high technology product innovation and development with engineers from both companies working closely together in the joint goal of fostering innovation. If successful, the impact of this project will include providing a route to market for the Turkish company into the rapidly emerging 5G telecommunications market both internally and for exporting and participation in GVCs thus promoting sustainable growth (UN Sustainable development Goal #9**), supporting domestic technology development, research and innovation and industrial diversification. The socio-economic benefits will include increased manufacturing and high technology jobs with the possibility of increased access to telecommunication at reduced cost.

* https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/oecd-economic-surveys-turkey-2016_eco_surveys-tur-2016-en#page92
**Diane J. Cook et al., Using Smart City Technology to Make Healthcare Smarter, Proceedings of the IEEE PP(99):1-15 • January 2018, https://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~cook/pubs/pieee18.pdf
***https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg9”