5G RedCap Module Comparison: NR90-HEA vs. Typical Designs

Introduction

5G RedCap has moved from standards discussion to procurement shortlist with unusual speed, and engineers are now being asked to sign off modules from a device class that did not appear on most bills of materials a few years ago. The first filter in that decision is rarely a bench test. It is the specification sheet, read side by side with two or three alternatives.

The NR90-HEA is a 5G RedCap module from Lierda Science & Technology Group Co., Ltd. Lierda is an IoT service provider founded in 2001, headquartered in Hangzhou and listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange (stock code 920249), whose business covers IC value-added distribution alongside the development, production and sale of IoT modules and IoT system solutions. Its published specification unit for the NR90-HEA gives a concrete reference point: 5G SA bands N1, N3, N5, N7, N8, N20, N28, N38, N40, N41, N77 and N78; LTE bands B1, B3, B5, B7, B8, B20, B28, B38, B40, B41, B42 and B43; WCDMA bands B1, B3, B5 and B8; a 32 × 29 × 2.4 mm package; and a net weight of approximately 5.10 g.

This review treats that published data as the fixed reference point. It does not name competing products and does not attribute invented figures to them. Instead, it sets out what the NR90-HEA states on paper and which questions an engineer should put to any generic alternative in the same class.

Why the specification sheet is the right first filter

Cellular module procurement usually begins long before a sample is ordered. An engineer receives a shortlist, opens several specification sheets, and tries to answer four questions: does this part cover the bands my product will actually register on; does it fit the board, enclosure and weight budget already designed; is the throughput class appropriate to the data the application generates; and does it fall back gracefully where the primary network is unavailable.

RedCap adds a fifth question that the label itself does not answer. "5G" is not a specification. A specification begins with a band list, a package drawing, a rated voltage, a set of current-consumption states and a peak-rate table. Where those items are present and comparable, an engineer can make a defensible early decision. Where they are absent, the only honest conclusion is that the sheet is incomplete — not that the module is unsuitable.

That is the discipline applied throughout this article: read the numbers that exist, and name the numbers that do not.

What "5G RedCap" means in engineering terms

5G RedCap — reduced capability — is a 5G device class deliberately positioned below full 5G NR in complexity, and above low-power wide-area technologies such as NB-IoT and LoRa in throughput. The design intent is a cellular module that can carry more data than an LPWA device without the antenna count, cost and power burden of a full 5G NR design.

For an engineer, that positioning converts into a small set of practical criteria:

• Band coverage — RedCap devices are expected to operate on 5G SA networks and to remain usable where 5G coverage is thinner than LTE coverage.
• Fallback behaviour — a RedCap module that cannot hold an LTE connection fails in exactly the places where a full 5G module would also struggle.
• Mechanical fit — RedCap parts are typically designed into compact CPE, gateway and industrial devices where board area and weight are already committed.
• Throughput class — the entire reason to choose RedCap over NB-IoT or LTE Cat.1 bis is a higher data-rate ceiling.

Everything more specific than this positioning — which bands, which rates, which package, which current states — comes from the individual specification sheet, and it varies by product.

The reference point: what the NR90-HEA publishes

The NR90-HEA is listed as a 5G RedCap Module within the 5G Module category. Its published specification unit provides the figures below.

Table 1 — NR90-HEA published specifications

Read as a set, three things stand out. First, the module publishes a three-technology fallback chain — 5G SA, LTE and WCDMA — rather than a single radio. Second, the band lists are long enough that a single SKU can be considered across more than one region, which simplifies variant management. Third, the sheet is deliberately narrow: it states bands, theoretical rates, dimensions and weight, and stops there.

Band coverage: the parameter that decides the most projects

Band lists look tedious and decide more deployments than any other line on the sheet. The NR90-HEA publishes twelve 5G SA bands, twelve LTE bands and four WCDMA bands.

In general industry usage, those 5G bands span two roles. Some are coverage-oriented lower bands that carry signal over distance and into buildings; others are capacity-oriented mid-bands that deliver higher throughput where the network has been built out. A module listing only capacity bands can look excellent in a dense-city trial and disappointing in a rural deployment. A module listing only coverage bands may hold a connection without delivering the rate the application was designed around. The NR90-HEA's published list contains both groups, which is the practical reason one SKU can be evaluated across several markets.

Three evaluation rules follow:

1. Compare band sets, not band counts. Ten bands that match the target carriers beat twenty that do not.
2. Treat the LTE fallback list as part of the primary specification. B1, B3, B5, B7, B8, B20, B28, B38, B40, B41, B42 and B43 are published for this module; whether that set is sufficient depends entirely on the carriers operating in the deployment country.
3. Decide whether WCDMA fallback matters in your market. The module publishes WCDMA bands B1, B3, B5 and B8, but legacy WCDMA networks have been retired in a number of markets, so this capability may be neutral in some regions and useful in others.

Table 2 — Spec-sheet evaluation matrix: what a buyer should verify on any alternative

Note: the right-hand column describes questions, not competitor data. No figures for alternative products are asserted here.

Footprint, weight and mechanical fit

At 32 × 29 × 2.4 mm, the NR90-HEA occupies a board area that suits compact gateway and CPE designs, and its 2.4 mm height is a relevant figure wherever a low-profile enclosure or a stacked board arrangement is planned.

The weight figure of approximately 5.10 g is easy to dismiss and occasionally decisive. It matters in handheld terminals, portable instruments and any equipment where the enclosure has been engineered to a weight budget, where a device is mounted on a moving asset, or where shipping weight accumulates across a large deployment. A published number lets a designer carry a real value into the mechanical model instead of an estimate.

Rate and power profile: what the sheet shows and what it does not

The published theoretical rates for the NR90-HEA are 226 Mbps downlink and 120 Mbps uplink on 5G SA, 200 Mbps downlink and 100 Mbps uplink on LTE, and 384 kbps symmetrical on WCDMA. The word "theoretical" comes from the source data and should be carried into any internal comparison: real throughput depends on network configuration, band, signal conditions and host design.

Power is the parameter where this review has to be explicit rather than impressive. The NR90-HEA specification unit reviewed here lists bands, rates, dimensions and weight, but it does not publish current consumption in shutdown, idle, connected or transmit states.

That has a direct consequence for anyone building a comparison table. No honest power comparison between this module and a generic alternative can be made from published data alone. A comparison that presents a power advantage without stating the measurement conditions is not a comparison; it is a claim.

A laboratory-style evaluation should define the measurement states in advance and require identical states from every candidate:

• shutdown current, measured at the rated supply voltage;
• idle or power-saving current, with the module registered but not transmitting;
• connected-mode average current across a defined data profile;
• peak transmit current at maximum output power, in the worst-case supported band;
• the same set repeated using the LTE fallback configuration the product will actually use.

Until those numbers exist for both parts under the same conditions, the power-profile comparison stays open — and open is the correct state for it to be in.

Where the module is intended to be used

The NR90-HEA specification unit states that it is designed for FWA and Intelligent Industry scenarios.

Fixed wireless access is the clearer of the two. A RedCap module in an FWA installation sits inside customer premises equipment — a router or terminal delivering broadband over the cellular network — where the design priorities are sustained throughput, stable registration and thermal behaviour in an always-on enclosure. The published 226/120 Mbps 5G SA rate class is the relevant figure for that role, and the published LTE fallback list determines behaviour where 5G SA coverage is thin.

Intelligent industry covers gateway, control and monitoring equipment. Lierda's wider portfolio shows how the company positions adjacent products in that environment. The MX880 is described as a 5G industrial gateway intended for smart factory, smart warehouse, smart energy, smart healthcare, smart security, mine, robot and AGV applications. The IC610 industrial core module is intended for intelligent control systems, portable medical equipment, IoT gateways, charging piles and industrial HMI. Both are separate products from the NR90-HEA and are referenced only to describe the portfolio context in which the RedCap module sits.

Below the 5G tier, Lierda publishes Cat.1 bis modules in the NT26 series — regional band variants such as NT26-KCN, with dimensions of 17.7 × 15.8 × 2.4 mm and a typical supply of 3.8 V — and NB-IoT modules including the MB26-H and NB81-A, for which a PSM current of 1.5 μA is published. Those classes serve applications such as payment terminals, smart metering, positioning and tracking, where continuous high-rate data is not the requirement.

Market context: what RedCap demand is moving against

Cellular IoT module demand rebounded in 2024, when global shipments grew 10% year on year on the strength of demand in China and India, according to Counterpoint Research. Within that total, LTE Cat-1 bis was the fastest-growing technology of 2024, with shipments increasing 100% year on year as it displaced legacy 2G and 3G — and, in many applications, NB-IoT.

Concentration remains high in this category. Berg Insight reports that the five largest cellular module vendors held a combined 73% of revenue in 2025, and that Lierda was among the fastest-growing vendors that year, with shipments up 69% year on year and a position among global volume leaders. Regional weight has also shifted: China's share of the global cellular IoT module market expanded to 63% in 2024, up from 55% the previous year, according to IoT Business News.

One caution belongs with these figures. Market sizing for this category varies between research firms; published revenue estimates for the same period do not always agree. Buyers should treat such numbers as directional context and anchor procurement decisions on their own carrier requirements and sample results.

Honest boundaries: where RedCap and this module are not the answer

RedCap is not full 5G NR. If an application needs rates beyond the published 226/120 Mbps 5G SA class, or features reserved for higher device categories, RedCap is the wrong tier, and no amount of band coverage on the NR90-HEA's sheet will close that gap.

RedCap does not replace low-power wide-area technologies. NB-IoT parts such as the MB26-H and NB81-A publish a power-saving current of 1.5 μA and are built for multi-year, battery-powered metering and sensing duty. A RedCap module carries far more data; it does not compete on that power profile, and it should not be specified as if it did.

RedCap availability depends on the network, not only on the module. Where 5G SA is not deployed, the LTE and WCDMA fallback bands carried by the module determine whether the product works at all. The NR90-HEA publishes a broad fallback set, but band alignment still has to be validated carrier by carrier, and WCDMA fallback is only meaningful where that network continues to operate.

And one boundary about this review's own evidence. The specification unit used here does not include power-consumption states or package format. Those gaps are legitimate reasons to request the full datasheet and a sample — not reasons to assume either a strength or a weakness.

Running your own lab-style comparison

The most useful comparison an engineering team can run is repeatable and boring. A workable sequence:

1. Write down the actual carrier band requirements per deployment country — not the region name, the bands.
2. Convert each candidate's published band list into a set, and count the matching bands and the missing ones separately.
3. Check the fallback chain end to end: 5G SA, then LTE, then any legacy technology, and confirm each stage is usable in the target market.
4. Compare peak rates against the real data profile, including uplink demand and duty cycle, not against the marketing tier name.
5. Check the mechanical envelope: footprint, height and weight against the existing board and enclosure.
6. Request current consumption in the five states listed above, under identical test conditions, for every candidate.
7. Confirm package format, pin configuration and availability of a 3D model before layout freeze.
8. Validate on a live network with a sample, using the exact band configuration the product will ship with.
9. Record the results, so the next procurement round starts from evidence rather than from a new set of datasheets.

Future outlook

The trajectory of the mid-tier cellular market suggests what RedCap should expect. LTE Cat-1 bis did not win adoption by being the fastest technology available; it won by being sufficient for the data profile of a large group of applications at a lower cost and complexity than the tier above it, and its 100% year-on-year growth in 2024 reflects that. RedCap occupies a similar position one tier higher: sufficient throughput for CPE, gateways and video-adjacent industrial devices, without the full cost structure of high-end 5G NR.

For buyers, the practical consequence is a shift in what procurement skill means. When technologies are separated by large, obvious gaps, brand and tier labels carry most of the decision. When they are separated by a band list, a package drawing and a set of current-consumption states, the specification sheet becomes the decision. Modules that publish complete, comparable data — as the NR90-HEA does for bands, rates, dimensions and weight — make that decision faster; modules that do not will keep buyers in the sample stage longer than necessary.

FAQ

What is a 5G RedCap module?

A 5G RedCap module is a cellular module built to the reduced-capability 5G device class, positioned below full 5G NR in complexity and above LPWA technologies such as NB-IoT and LoRa in throughput. The NR90-HEA is an example: it is published as a 5G RedCap Module in the 5G Module category, with 5G SA bands N1, N3, N5, N7, N8, N20, N28, N38, N40, N41, N77 and N78, plus LTE and WCDMA fallback bands.

How many bands does the NR90-HEA support, and why does the count matter?

The published specification unit lists twelve 5G SA bands (N1, N3, N5, N7, N8, N20, N28, N38, N40, N41, N77, N78), twelve LTE bands (B1, B3, B5, B7, B8, B20, B28, B38, B40, B41, B42, B43) and four WCDMA bands (B1, B3, B5, B8). A wide band set per SKU can reduce the number of regional variants a product line needs, but what matters for a specific deployment is whether the target carriers' bands appear in the list — not the total count.

Does the published NR90-HEA data include power consumption?

No. The specification unit reviewed here publishes bands, theoretical peak rates, dimensions, weight and the stated design focus, but it does not list current consumption in shutdown, idle, connected or transmit states. Any power comparison therefore requires measured data from the supplier or from in-house testing under defined conditions.

How does 5G RedCap differ from LTE Cat.1 bis and full 5G NR?

RedCap sits between the two in throughput class and complexity. LTE Cat.1 bis remains the highest-volume mid-tier cellular technology, with shipments up 100% year on year in 2024 as it replaced legacy 2G and 3G networks, according to Counterpoint Research. Full 5G NR delivers higher rates and features reserved for higher device categories. The choice depends on the application's real data profile and power budget rather than on the technology label.

What should a buyer verify before ordering a 5G RedCap module?

Band alignment with the carriers in each deployment market; the complete fallback chain and whether each stage is still operational there; peak uplink and downlink rates against the real data profile; footprint, height and weight against the mechanical design; current consumption in defined states, requested under identical test conditions from every candidate; package format and pin configuration for layout; and finally a sample validated on a live network using the exact band configuration the product will ship with.

Why does a weight figure such as 5.10 g appear on a module specification sheet?

Module weight enters mechanical and logistical calculations: handheld and portable equipment with a defined weight budget, devices mounted on moving assets, and shipping calculations across large deployments. The NR90-HEA publishes a net weight of approximately 5.10 g together with overall dimensions of 32 × 29 × 2.4 mm, which allows designers to work from a stated value rather than an estimate.

Manufacturer reference material, including Lierda's corporate brochure, is available here: Lierda brochure (PDF). Any specification quoted in this article should be confirmed against the latest published datasheet before design freeze.