A 2018 count put more than 50 acoustic filters in a mid- to high-tier 4G phone, more than 70 expected with 5G; many sit on LN or its sibling LT.
Caveat Most SAW filters use LT, not LN (inference from product pages, E). BAW filters use aluminum nitride, not LN (E, no primary source listed).
Piezo-on-insulator filter wafers (LT and LN versions) are made for 5G, GNSS, and Wi-Fi coexistence.
Caveat Soitec does not say which phones use them.
LN modulators write data onto light in fiber links; thin-film LN chips drive 1.6 Tb/s reference transceivers.
Caveat Silicon photonics and InP compete; TFLN market share is not public.
Fiber-optic gyroscopes use LN integrated optical circuits to split and modulate light; Exail states over 25,000 FOGs sold.
Caveat Vendor figure.
Periodically poled LN turns infrared laser light into green; used in Corning lasers for MicroVision pico-projectors (2010).
Caveat Cheap green pointers are not claimed to use LN; no primary source found.
Xanadu's Aurora system used TFLN chips; PPLN makes entangled photon pairs.
Caveat PsiQuantum uses barium titanate, not LN.
Q.ANT builds TFLN-based photonic processors.
Caveat Performance figures are vendor claims.
LN Pockels cells and Q-switches switch laser pulses on and off.
Caveat Catalog listing, not market data.
TFLN IQ modulators are offered for FMCW LiDAR; LN modulators for distributed temperature sensing.
Caveat Niche and industrial so far.
Nearly all niobium comes from Brazil; one 6-inch wafer holds about 26 g of it.
Caveat Calculated, not measured.
One 6-inch, 0.5 mm wafer, 41.0 g (density 4,642.8 kg/m3, standard atomic weights): Nb 25.8 g, O 13.3 g, Li 1.9 g E
> 50 filters (2018, 4G mid/high tier)
A 2018 count put more than 50 acoustic filters in a mid- to high-tier 4G phone, more than 70 expected with 5G; many sit on LN or its sibling LT.
Most SAW filters use LT, not LN (inference from product pages, E). BAW filters use aluminum nitride, not LN (E, no primary source listed).
Piezo-on-insulator filter wafers (LT and LN versions) are made for 5G, GNSS, and Wi-Fi coexistence.
Soitec does not say which phones use them.
LN modulators write data onto light in fiber links; thin-film LN chips drive 1.6 Tb/s reference transceivers.
Silicon photonics and InP compete; TFLN market share is not public.
Fiber-optic gyroscopes use LN integrated optical circuits to split and modulate light; Exail states over 25,000 FOGs sold.
Vendor figure.
Periodically poled LN turns infrared laser light into green; used in Corning lasers for MicroVision pico-projectors (2010).
Cheap green pointers are not claimed to use LN; no primary source found.
Xanadu's Aurora system used TFLN chips; PPLN makes entangled photon pairs.
PsiQuantum uses barium titanate, not LN.
Q.ANT builds TFLN-based photonic processors.
Performance figures are vendor claims.
LN Pockels cells and Q-switches switch laser pulses on and off.
Catalog listing, not market data.
TFLN IQ modulators are offered for FMCW LiDAR; LN modulators for distributed temperature sensing.
Niche and industrial so far.
Nearly all niobium comes from Brazil; one 6-inch wafer holds about 26 g of it.
Calculated, not measured.
| # | Object | Sources | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phone radio filters | Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.; Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.; Soitec SA; Microwave Journal | F/T/E |
| 2 | Wi-Fi, GPS, and 5G in one phone | Soitec SA | F |
| 3 | Internet and AI data centers | Business Wire China; Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. | F/V |
| 4 | Navigation in aircraft, ships, satellites | Exail | F/V |
| 5 | Green laser light | Laser Focus World (J. Hecht) | T |
| 6 | Quantum computers and links | The Quantum Insider; Optica (corporate member news) | T/F |
| 7 | AI photonic processors | Evertiq | T/V |
| 8 | Lasers in labs and factories | Korth Kristalle GmbH | F |
| 9 | LiDAR and sensing | Advanced Fiber Resources (Zhuhai) Ltd.; Exail | V/F |
| 10 | The rock in the chip | U.S. Geological Survey; section 8.1 L3 estimate | F/E |