Soitec, an industry leader in designing and manufacturing innovative semiconductor materials, announced a business agreement with Qualcomm Technologies for the supply of piezoelectric-on-insulator (POI) engineered substrates for 4G and 5G RF filters. Soitec’s piezoelectric-on-insulator substrate brings a strong value proposition to smartphone 5G filters for mass markets.
After multiple years of collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Soitec is now ramping up POI wafer production so that Qualcomm can develop RF filters that will get integrated into front end modules for smartphones. With Soitec’s game-changing thin-film technology and innovation in the Qualcomm® ultraSAW RF filter products, both companies continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in mobile technology.
Christian Block, senior vice president and general manager, RFFE, Qualcomm Germany RFFE GmbH stated that this agreement with Soitec is key to ensure the supply of high-performance POI substrates from Soitec, and to securely support the demand from the OEM customers for high-performance Qualcomm ultraSAW RF filter products. The combination of Soitec Smart CutTM based Piezoelectric-On-Insulator substrates and Qualcomm Technologies’ filter design and system expertise leads to high-yield multiplexers with multiple filter functions per die.
POI is an innovative substrate manufactured thanks to Soitec’s proprietary Smart CutTM technology in 150 mm. At its foundation lies a high resistivity silicon substrate, complemented by a buried oxide layer and a very thin and uniform layer of a mono-crystal piezo material on top. Soitec’s POI engineered substrates have been designed to build the latest generation of 4G/5G Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filters. They offer performance with built-in temperature compensation.
Dr. Bernard Aspar, Senior Executive Vice President of Soitec’s Global Business Units, stated that this business agreement is the outcome of a collaboration between Soitec and Qualcomm Technologies. They are very pleased that Soitec POI substrates are now an important part of Qualcomm Technologies’ 5G offering for mobile devices. Soitec has a long experience in serving RF markets notably with large RF-SOI volumes. They are confident of their ability to handle high-volume production for POI to become a standard in materials for 5G RF filters, thanks to their robust and proven Smart Cut technology.
