By 2023, Tunable Filter Market Estimated to Grow at 8.86%

Tunable RF filters are commonly used in various lab environments for testing many frequency bands that include WiFi, UHF, PMR, Tetra, PCS and LTE. Tunable notch filters or band-rejection filters are an excellent solution for band selection or frequency discrimination with high attenuation greater than 50 dB. This allows you to achieve excellent noise, harmonic and adjacent-band reduction.

Tunable filters are useful for other environments as well, such as medical, military and commercial applications and implementations. This demand for various applications is driving the growth of tunable filter markets. However, the growth of tunable filter market growth is still limited due to factors such as high initial cost and R&D expenses.

Applications of tunable filters:

Wireless Test Environments

Tunable filters are commonly used by RF engineers in EMC/ wireless test environments in order to ensure that the systems are operating efficiently in a crowded RF/microwave spectrum environment. They are extremely useful for rejecting unwanted interference and pre-tuning desired signals.

Military applications

All key military communications and surveillance platforms around the world make use of tunable filters. They are useful for performing high-quality communications based on requirements during harsh environmental conditions and critical performances. Military applications need communication and surveillance systems with electromagnetic and environmental capability, nuclear resistance, and electrical characteristics of digital interfaces (Brunner, NB Herard, THE TUNABLE FILTER MARKET IS ESTIMATED TO GROW FROM USD 122.0 MILLION IN 2017 TO USD 203.1 MILLION BY 2023, AT A CAGR OF 8.86% BETWEEN 2017 AND 2023, 2018). Due to this military applications held some of the largest shares of the tunable market in 2016.

Improve laboratory measurements

A tunable notch filter could be useful in a demanding environment such as laboratories that need exact and accurate results and measurements. Tunable notch filter or band reject filters are useful for providing rejection of high power blockers with large frequency tuning range (Klumperink, 8-Path Tunable RF Notch Filters for Blocker Suppression, 2012).

Medical environment

In medical environment, tunable notch filter or band reject filters are useful for operating machines such as the electrocardiogram (ECG) machines that help conduct hassle-free operations.

Commercial usage

Tunable filters are useful in public address systems or speakers for ensuring quality audio without interruptions. They are also useful in telephone technologies for reducing line noise and in internet services for cancelling out any type of interference as much as possible. There are various other commercial applications such as radio devices, optical communication technologies etc.

With the rapid adoption of wireless communication technologies by various countries including India and China, the growth of the tunable filter market seems to be pacing at an immense speed by 2023.

Importance of a Tunable Filter in Mobile Applications

The process of communication has changed drastically over the years. The initiation of integrated electronic chips, development in computers, etc has given rise to advancements in telecommunications, as well (Brainly, WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF CHANGES OF TELECOM REVOLUTION ON THE HUMAN LIFE STYLES, 2015). The development in technology has led to the invention of smart phones. The number of smart phone users has increased from 1.57 billion, in 2014 to 2.32 billion in 2017 (Statista, NUMBER OF SMARTPHONE USERS WORLDWIDE FROM 2014 TO 2020 (IN BILLIONS)).  Hence, it has become important for wireless mobile phones to have tunable radio frequencies, since mobile phones need to operate over multiple bandwidths. This can be done with the help of a tunable notch filter. This is a kind of an electric filter, whose frequency can be varied by adjusting its components. Due to this feature, it makes the filter useful for devices that need to operate on different frequencies. The following points explain more in detail about the importance of tunable filters:

Requirement

With the arrival of 4g mobile phones in the market, it has become important with tunable solutions such as tunable RF filters, due to their varied benefits. Some of these include lower operating frequencies, higher data rate expectations from potential consumers, return on investment expectations from operators, etc (books.google.co.in, TUNABLE RF COMPONENTS AND CIRCUITS, 2015). This type of a filter is an integral component for its performance in software-dominated cell phones, instead of hardware ones. Tunable filters can help allow faster and better quality of communications. Along with this, it can also help to increase the life of devices, in which they are being used.

Market overview

Tunable filters have varied benefits and can be used in different technologies. However, the use and market growth of these filters is still at a very early stage (books.google.co.in, TUNABLE RF COMPONENTS AND CIRCUITS, 2015). One of the reasons, for this might include the absence of many manufacturers of these types of products. However, in the coming years the growth of tunable RF can be expected. It is also estimated that by 2020 the commercialization of 5g technology will begin; thus, increasing the chances for challenges and developments for tunable solutions (books.google.co.in, TUNABLE RF COMPONENTS AND CIRCUITS, 2015). Businesses can buy tunable band-reject filters, RF shield boxes, etc from Ranatec. More information about their different products and services can be found on their website.