KEYNOTE: The Unexpected Technology Race Between Surface (SAW) and Bulk (BAW) Acoustic Wave Filters in Today’s Cell Phones

There are 2 technologies — Bulk (BAW) and Surface (SAW) mode devices — competing for the RF filter slots in Mobile phones. Above 1.5 GHz, high performance filters have been dominated by BAW devices. But, SAW technologies are catching up. Neither technologies have been staying still in this race. Quantum improvements have been made in both technologies since the 1990’s. We can compare the relative merits of these 2 technologies using 7 or 8 key metrics. A brief overview of these metrics as applied to both technologies and their offshoots will be given. And lastly, some observations about the future and what to expect along with some of the latest breakthroughs in each respective technology. In the end, this race benefits the user in terms of longer battery life, fewer dropped calls and faster data rates (video).