Our everyday life is unimaginable without wireless information and communication technologies. Since 2019, 5G digital systems offer improved speed, bandwidth, and decreased energy consumption. Mobile operators invest $160 billion worldwide in the deployment of 5G each year. Over the last decades, RF filters based on Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) occupied the entire market. But their usage for 5G high-band (26 GHz in EU) is impossible. Moreover, the utilisation of Bulk Acoustic Waves (BAWs) is still left to be explored due to their significant damping, challenges with confinement, and complex fabrication. The solution is offered by the propagating excitation in the spin system of a solid magnetic body - Spin Waves (SWs), which can efficiently replace acoustic waves in the RF devices for all frequency bands. The key advantages of SWs are: (i) frequency range from 1GHz up to hundreds of GHz, (ii) manufacturability of SW transducers using conventional photolithography, (iii) strong confinement of SWs, and (iv) additional nonlinear functionalities.

The ERC StG MagnonCircuits finished with success and delivered the methodology and know-how for fabrication and characterisation of magnonic nano-structures; explored SW physical properties in them; and identified robust, reliable, and efficient phenomena for applications. In the follow-up ERC PoC 5G-Spin, we have brought all these findings closer to the realisation of nanoscale SW RF devices.

In this research project, we are focused on the development of bias field-free, and industry-ready SW-based RF filters and multiplexers for mid- and high-band 5G communication systems. The developed technology has the potential to be utilised in various information and communication technologies beyond cellular networks, including WiFi, GPS, IoT, MUOS, and communication links for self-driving vehicles.