LAYERS 9 – RF Filters in 2025
The RF filter market is entering a new era. According to Yole Group’s Status of the RF Industry 2025 report, the global RF filter market will reach $8.2 billion by 2025, driven by the rapid adoption of 5G and Wi Fi 6E/7. These technologies demand ever higher performance from RF frontends, making the choice between bulk acoustic wave (BAW) and surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters more important than ever.
Yole’s comparative study of more than 40 commercial filters from leading suppliers such as Broadcom, Murata, Qorvo, and Qualcomm highlights how OEMs optimize acoustic platforms to balance radio performance, cost efficiency, and board constraints.
- BAW filters (FBAR, SMR, DBAR, XBAW) dominate medium and high band applications. FBAR continues to deliver the best radio performance but comes with higher manufacturing costs. SMR offers a cost effective alternative with only modest trade offs in selectivity. Both rely on advanced aluminum nitride thin films, with many manufacturers now adopting scandium doped AlN for improved electromechanical coupling.
- SAW filters (conventional, TC SAW, ML SAW) remain highly attractive for low band and cost sensitive applications. Enhanced thermal compensation and innovative bonding layers extend their reliability into higher frequency ranges, while maintaining the lowest die cost per resonator.
The data shows a clear division: SAW filters excel in low and mid band applications, while BAW filters remain essential for the most demanding 5G high band channels. OEMs increasingly combine both technologies within the same modules to achieve optimal performance without exceeding budget or board area limits.
This strategic balance between SAW and BAW platforms underscores the importance of choosing the right acoustic technology for each frequency range—a decision that will define the competitiveness of RF frontends in 2025 and beyond.
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