Examples of Technology Application ~Product Introduction~ Murata's MADE IN JAPAN multilayer LC filter series, boasting advanced technology and a long track record

Murata's multilayer LC filter series is a product series that forms inductors and capacitors on ceramic sheets and utilizes electrical resonance in a multilayer structure.

The lineup includes LC filters that block unwanted signals while passing the required ones, diplexers that separate two frequency bands, couplers, and baluns that perform impedance conversion between balanced and unbalanced circuits.

The manufacturing process involves forming the circuit patterns for inductors and capacitors on ceramic sheets mixed with glass components. These thin sheets are stacked, pressed, fired, cut, and plated with external electrodes to complete the product.

The incorporation of glass components enables low-temperature firing, allowing the use of copper (Cu) with low conductor resistance for internal wiring. Using copper suppresses ion migration, achieving low loss and excellent electrical characteristics.

By integrating inductors and capacitors into a single package and employing a multilayer structure, we achieve miniaturization.

Murata's multilayer LC filter series is manufactured entirely within Japan, ensuring high quality and low variation.
Our proprietary CC Co-fire technology enables compact and low-profile designs, while flexible fine-tuning of product characteristics contributes to improved design efficiency.

• Integrated Manufacturing: By managing and manufacturing all stages—from design and material selection to procurement, production, sales, and service—entirely within Japan, we achieve stable quality and reduced performance variation.
• Compact and Low-Profile: CC Co-fire is Murata's proprietary technology capable of simultaneously sintering up to three different ceramic materials. This enables the realization of high-performance filters combining miniaturization with low insertion loss and high attenuation. By reducing the ceramic sheet thickness to less than half that of competitors, we achieve a low-profile product, enhancing its suitability as a module-embedded component.
• Fine-Tuning Product Characteristics: Minor adjustments to frequency bands or characteristics can be easily made simply by modifying the internal inductor or capacitor patterns. Since the inductor and capacitor are integrated into a single package, customer matching adjustments are unnecessary. This simplifies design, reduces component variation, and improves space efficiency.
• Extensive Lineup: We offer a wide variety of standalone filters, diplexers, couplers, and more, covering frequencies from 300 MHz to 40 GHz. This allows us to propose all necessary filters for Wi-Fi^TM and RF circuits together, contributing to more efficient component selection.

Benefits of Adopting CC Co-fire Technology

Murata's LC filter lineup has evolved into high-performance, highly reliable communication components by diversifying products in line with evolving communication standards and achieving compact, low-profile designs through proprietary technologies.

In 1989, leveraging material and multilayer technologies cultivated in Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors (MLCC), we developed filters for cordless phones. Subsequently, with the proliferation of mobile phones and advancing communication standards, we expanded into diplexers, couplers, baluns, and other components. In 2000, we commercialized the world's first balanced-matched filter for Bluetooth^®.

As communication technology advances, demands for smaller mounting spaces and multi-band compatibility grow. We are driving miniaturization and low-profile designs while maintaining high performance through CC Co-fire technology and thin-film ceramic sheets. The size, which was 5.7mm × 5.0mm at inception, has evolved to 1.0mm × 0.5mm, while the height has decreased from 2.25mm to 0.3mm.

We adopted an LGA (Land Grid Array) terminal structure, placing external electrodes on the package bottom, reducing the distance to adjacent components and enabling narrow-pitch mounting.

Furthermore, we commercialized “Shield Robust,” which minimizes performance degradation caused by interference from the metal shield adjacent to the top of the filter. Even as the low profile of mobile phones increases component density, we provide products with stable performance.

Murata's multilayer LC filter lineup continues to respond flexibly and rapidly to the ever-evolving communications market and new technological demands.

See large image

Murata's multilayer LC filter series is utilized in a wide range of applications requiring wireless communication, including mobile devices such as smartphones, routers, and wearable devices, as well as base stations, communication infrastructure, automotive equipment, medical devices, IoT devices, and smart home appliances.

Particularly for communication infrastructure, lightweight and compact products significantly contribute to drones, which are expected to play a role in disaster relief, logistics to sparsely populated areas, and factory automation (FA) environments.

In the wearable and medical monitor fields, multilayer LC filter arrays compliant with public standards and passing rigorous reliability tests are employed.

Moving forward, as wireless communication diversifies and advances, their applications will continue to expand. We will persist in providing products that combine reliability and performance across a broad spectrum of fields.