In 2018, the market for Radio Frequency (RF) Front-Ends and connectivity was worth $15 billion, Yole Développement estimates. The leader in this market was Murata, with a quarter share, mainly with its discrete filters. In this segment, more than 60% of the filters are based on Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology in 2020. There are three main process: SAW, Temperature-Compensated SAW (TC-SAW) and Thin-Film SAW (TF-SAW). For pure SAW, several Asian companies are involved, like Wisol and Kyocera. For TC-SAW, the market is split between four players. Two of them are Skyworks and Qorvo. The other two companies have now introduced TF-SAW technology into their portfolio, Murata in 2019 and Qualcomm in 2020.
This report provides insights and technology data for SAW filter technology for different suppliers. It includes a comparative study of thirteen components from Murata, Skyworks, Qorvo, Qualcomm, Wisol, Taiyo Yuden, Sawnics, Kyocera, Tai-SAW and Shoulder.
Physical data for several components has been compared in terms of process flow, cost and integration to provide a large panel of technical and economic choices from the market such as:
- Standard SAW technology from emerging Asian companies compared to leaders on the market
- Temperature-Compensated and High-Performance SAW filters using oxide layers, air cavity and protective layer
- Thin-Film SAW from Murata using ceramic/silicon wafer bonding to improve standard SAW technology
The report includes a description of each process flow for the thirteen SAW technologies on the market. It also contains a complete cost analysis of each process and tries to explain OEM choices.
