China achieves BAW RF Filter breakthrough, could help Huawei 5G phones ambitions

China’s Sai Microelectronics recently announced mass production of the Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter, which is essential to enable 5G in devices and could also help Huawei phones to return to the 5G market.

So, what’s the main news here?

The Chinese semiconductor firm has achieved the successful development of BAW filters. According to the information, BAW provides a lower resistance and prevents resonators from overheating. BAW exhibits very few frequency shifts, making it ideal for 5G applications that are prone to self-heating due to higher transmit power.

The company announced this mass production news last month but not revealed any further details. Yet, Digitimes brought more insights into its current state of BAW production.

Development and Production:

Sai Microelectronics jointly developed this new RF filter solution with Wuhan-based MEMSonics Technology. It has built a production line for 8-inch BAW filters in Beijing, as mass production was announced in July 2023. The electronics maker confirmed that its BAW filters are gathering attention from Chinese smartphone makers and the semiconductor industry.

The partners involved in this BAW production project want to ramp up the capacity to enter the full fledge market. It’s also said that Sai Microelectronics entered a long-term procurement agreement.

The first phase of cooperation between the two parties includes “12 different models of BAW filters and their derivative components”. The agreement is set to be executed from August 2023 to December 2024, with a contract amount of no less than CNY100 million.

That’s not it, the long-term agreement only covers customers with a specific set of requirements. Although, there’s no information available about the customers but Huawei could be first in the queue to access these BAW filters.

The production will take place in phases, the first phase will produce 10,000 units. The second phase will generate 20,000 units and further improvements in this phase will lead up to 30,000 units per month. There may be future plans based on the customer response.

Verification:

Industry analyst believes that the BAW filter breakthrough will take the technological world in a new direction. However, it will need to continue processing verification for real devices to improve its efficiency and provide optimum performance.

Huawei:

Three years ago, the US restricted Huawei from purchasing tech including RF filter chip modules. Afterward, the phone maker stopped producing 5G devices due to the lack of RF components.

RF industry is dominated by top US and Japanese companies including Murata, TDK, Taiyo Yuden, and Skyworks. These four have a market share of over 95%. Specifically in the filter segment, Broadcom and Qorvo command over 95% of the market.

Thus accessing the RF filter is a very complicated matter for the Chinese tech giant. Reports of 5G return in Huawei devices have fueled over the past month.

It’s true that the BAW filter solution could help resolve the 5G issue for Huawei but, there’s still concrete evidence required to make this theory look true.