Monolithic Multiband MEMS RF Front-End Module for 5G Mobile

This work reports a monolithic RF front-end module integrating bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filters, Lamb acoustic wave filters, and electronic RF silicon-on-insulator (RFSOI) switches to deliver single-chip multiband RF front-end module (RF-FEM) manufactured on commercial 200mm RF silicon-on-insulator (RFSOI) foundry technology. BAW and Lamb filters built in the same chip and within the same process enable multiband operation. Vertical System-on-Chip (SoC) integration of MEMS and RFSOI components contributes to footprint reduction up to 50%, compared to system-in-package (SiP) modules, and reduces the integration and design complexity of the modules. At its current state of development, this technology is suitable for diversity receive modules (DRX) for 4G/LTE and 5G bands. Extensive characterization results and case studies demonstrate the robustness of the integrated platform. Further productization of this technology will enable the next generation of hundred-filter 5G sub-6GHz RF-FEMs.