SAWing up the Spectrum: Design of a Switched Acoustic Filter Module

A switched acoustic filter module for 5G NR bands n1, n2, n3, and n7 has been designed, implemented, and evaluated for the 2025 Student Design Competition. The design incorporates bulk acoustic wave-filter chips and micro-electromechanical systems switches. It was characterized using a vector network analyzer, and the measured results demonstrated good agreement with simulations. Good matching performance across all ports was achieved, despite the inherent challenges of combining multiple filter chips in a switched architecture. From the measured S-parameters, the figure of merit was determined to be −135.3, the best result among all participants in the challenge. This confirms that the design not only meets the competition requirements but also demonstrates the feasibility of integrating multiple filters with switching and diplexing functionality into a compact and efficient module.