A Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filter is an electronic device designed to convert electrical energy into mechanical or acoustic energy through a piezoelectric material as a substrate. For this purpose, these filters use IDTs; interdigital transducers. Unlike other filter technologies, these filters are best suited for a wide range of applications due to their reduced size, weight, and cost.
From What Materials are They Made?
These highly versatile filters are made of semiconductor piezoelectric materials, including quartz crystal, lithium tantalate, lithium niobate, lanthanum gallium silicate, and piezoelectric ceramics.
How Do SAW Filters Work?
This filter uses two IDTs to convert the electrical signal, which initiates the piezoelectric effect, into acoustic or mechanical waves. The input transducer generates acoustic waves from the incident electrical signal, while the output transducer receives the acoustic waves and converts them back into electrical energy.
Crucial Characteristics and Advantages of SAW Filters
These filters offer a wide range of outstanding characteristics and advantages. These parameters are adapted to meet the demands of modern communication systems and equipment, including portable phones. They offer various advantages like lightness, high frequency and reliability, thinness, shortness, digitization, and high performance.
Applications of SAW Filters
These filters are found in various applications and industrial environments. Some industries that commonly employ this filter technology include:
Mobile Communications & Telecommunications
These compact-sized filters offer specific applications within mobile communications, including:
- 5G
- CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)
- LTE Bands (Long-term evolution)
- WCDMA (Wideband CDMA)
- GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications)
Medical Applications
Surface acoustic wave filters are widely utilized for various applications within the medical industry, where the most common use is for sensors.
Uses in Radars
Radars also have significant use for these filters. Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars are among the most popular that use such filter technology.
Military and Aerospace Communications
Surface acoustic wave filters also offer bandpass filtering for a variety of aerospace and military communication purposes that include:
- Intermediate Frequency (IF) filters in superheterodyne systems
- Transmitter and receiver filters
- IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) applications.
- IF filters in SDR (Software Defined Radios).
