Qualcomm Technologies announced the Qualcomm ultraBAW RF filter technology for bands up to 7 GHz.
With 5G, spectrum band complexity comes into play even more so than with LTE. The new Qualcomm ultraBAW RF filter technology will enable both 5G and Wi-Fi solutions to access spectrum up to 7 GHz – which dovetails with the emergence of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi.
There’s a lot on the plate for RF and it affects the experience that people have with their devices. If there were glasses available showing all the frequency bands, “it would be a pretty noisy world out there,” because there are all kinds of active frequencies out there, said Nitin Dhiman, director of 5G global product marketing at Qualcomm. They’re all playing out in the air, and having an RF front end that can filter through those is of prime importance, he said.
Radio frequency (RF) filters isolate radio signals from the different spectrum bands that phones use to receive and transmit information.
According to Qualcomm, access to sub-7 GHz spectrum will enable next-generation mobile devices, laptops, as well as numerous solutions for automotive, IoT, and industrial applications to benefit from 5G and Wi-Fi co-existence, both indoors and outdoors.
The new Qualcomm ultraBAW RF filter expands on the previously announced Qualcomm ultraSAW technology. Qualcomm ultraSAW covers low-band frequencies from 600 MHz to 2.7 GHz, while the Qualcomm ultraBAW covers the range from 2.7 to 7.2 GHz, expanding mid-band connectivity up to sub-7 GHz.
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Qualcomm said ultraBAW also supports ultra-wide channels of up to 300 MHz, and co-existence for 5G and/or Wi-Fi networks for faster downloads and uploads.
The new Qualcomm ultraBAW RF filters join Qualcomm ultraSAW and numerous other RF front end components in Qualcomm Technologies' antenna-to-modem RF solution portfolio.
Products enabled with Qualcomm ultraBAW filter technology are currently sampling to customers, and commercial devices featuring the technology are expected to launch in the second half of 2022.
Qualcomm, a relatively new entrant to the RF front end space, has been able to grow the business quite fast, Dhiman said during a press briefing.
“We’re excited that we’re still on target to achieving our goal of above 20 percent of the full addressable market for handsets,” he said, noting the market is expected to be about $19 billion next year. “It’s great that we’re on track to get that share as well.”