Soitec Inks Agreement with Qualcomm for 5G RF Filters

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Soitec (Euronext Paris), an industry leader in designing and manufacturing innovative semiconductor materials, announced a business agreement with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., on the supply of piezoelectric-on-insulator (POI) engineered substrates for 4G and 5G RF filters. Soitec’s piezoelectric-on-insulator substrate brings strong value proposition to smartphones’ 5G filters for mass markets.

An agreement to secure supply for Qualcomm Technologies’ new generation of RF filters

After multiple years of collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Soitec has concluded an agreement to bring POI wafers production to high volume manufacturing to be used for Qualcomm Technologies’ RF filters going to smartphones RF front end modules.

“With our game-changing thin-film technology and innovation in the Qualcomm® ultraSAW RF filter products, we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in mobile technology,” said Christian Block, senior vice president and general manager, RFFE, Qualcomm Germany RFFE GmbH. “This agreement with Soitec is key to ensure the supply of high-performance POI substrates from Soitec, and to securely support the demand from our OEM customers for high-performance Qualcomm ultraSAW RF filter products. The combination of Soitec Smart Cut^TM based Piezoelectric-On-Insulator substrates and Qualcomm Technologies’ filter design and system expertise leads to high-yield multiplexers with multiple filter functions per die.”

Soitec’s POI substrate chosen for its unique value for RF filters

POI is an innovative substrate manufactured thanks to Soitec’s proprietary Smart Cut^TM 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.

“This business agreement is the outcome of a collaboration between Soitec and Qualcomm Technologies. We are very pleased that Soitec POI substrates are now an important part of Qualcomm Technologies’ 5G offering for mobile devices,” said Dr. Bernard Aspar, Senior Executive Vice President of Soitec’s Global Business Units. “Soitec has a long experience in serving RF markets notably with large RF-SOI volumes. We are confident in our ability to handle high-volume production for POI to become a standard in materials for 5G RF filters, thanks to our robust and proven Smart CutTM technology.”