Qualcomm's ultraSAW filter technology significantly improves RF performance below 2.7 GHz

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today introduced Qualcomm® ultraSAW filter technology, another breakthrough innovation in its industry-leading wireless technology portfolio. This innovation builds on Qualcomm’s heritage of developing groundbreaking technologies, enabling new experiences, and expanding the mobile ecosystem.

Radio frequency ( RF) filters separate the radio signals transmitted and received by mobile phones from different frequency bands. Qualcomm ultraSAW filters can achieve an insertion loss improvement of a full 1 decibel (dB), providing higher performance than competing bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filters in the frequency range below 2.7 GHz.

Qualcomm ultraSAW technology enables superior filter characteristics, providing high performance support in the 600MHz to 2.7GHz frequency range and delivering a range of benefits:

• Excellent transmit, receive and cross isolation capabilities

• High frequency selectivity

• Quality factors up to 5000 – significantly higher than competing BAW filters

• Very low insertion loss

• Excellent temperature stability, maintaining very low temperature drift in the single-digit ppm/Kelvin range

Qualcomm ultraSAW technology enables OEMs to implement a more energy-efficient RF path in 5G and 4G multimode mobile devices at a lower cost than other commercial solutions with similar performance metrics.

“Our thin-film SAW technology innovations deliver game-changing performance improvements over existing BAW technologies,” said Christian Block, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm’s RF Front End business. “As the world’s leading wireless innovator, Qualcomm continues to push the boundaries of mobile technology with groundbreaking contributions. As the number and complexity of filters in 5G device designs continue to increase, our OEM customers are excited about the best combination of low cost and high filter performance that Qualcomm ultraSAW technology can deliver.”

Qualcomm ultraSAW is critical to further improving the performance of Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced RF front-end (RFFE) portfolio and Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 5G Modem-RF Systems. The company is integrating Qualcomm ultraSAW technology in multiple product lines, including power amplifier modules (PAMiD), front-end modules (FEMiD), diversity modules (DRx), Wi-Fi splitters, GNSS splitters, and RF multiplexers.

Improvements in RF performance will enable OEMs to bring consumers 5G devices with excellent connectivity and long-lasting battery life. A series of discrete and integrated products using Qualcomm ultraSAW technology will begin mass production in the first quarter of 2020, and commercial flagship devices using this technology from OEMs are expected to be launched in the second half of 2020.