Soitec has entered into a multi-year agreement to supply Piezoelectric-On-Insulator (POI) wafers to Skyworks Solutions for volume production. The agreement continues the existing collaboration between the two companies and provides a long-term wafer supply to support Skyworks’ future production requirements.
Under the agreement, Soitec has supplied POI wafers for use in Skyworks’ Sky5 platform for 5G smartphones. The technology has met RF front-end requirements for high-volume manufacturing and enabled compact device integration compatible with advanced packaging and assembly processes for front-end modules. The POI wafers are designed to support RF performance and signal coexistence in dense-spectrum environments at frequencies above 3 GHz.
Sky5® is Skyworks’ platform for 5G RF front-end solutions designed for both network infrastructure and user equipment. The platform includes highly integrated transmit/receive front-end modules and diversity receive (DRx) modules that simplify RF design for 5G systems. Designed for operation in sub-6 GHz spectrum, Sky5® products support MIPI® interfaces, are baseband-agnostic, and comply with 3GPP standards. The platform can be customized and manufactured to meet specific system requirements for mobile and IoT applications.
Piezoelectric-on-Insulator (POI) substrates from Soitec are engineered wafers used to manufacture high-performance Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) RF filters. These substrates combine a thin piezoelectric layer with an insulating base using Soitec’s Smart Cut™ technology, enabling improved acoustic wave control within the filter structure. As a result, SAW filters built on POI substrates offer higher quality factor (Q), lower insertion loss, and better thermal stability compared to conventional substrates. This allows RF filters to meet the performance requirements of modern communication bands while supporting flexible bandwidth design and high-volume manufacturing for RF front-end modules.
Pierre Barnabé, CEO of Soitec, said, “We are very pleased that Soitec POI substrates are now an important part of Skyworks Solutions’ 5G offering for mobile devices. This milestone highlights the industry’s confidence in our high-quality substrates as a key enabler for the next generations of mobile connectivity.”
Click here to learn more about the Sky5® platform from Skyworks.
