A thin film SAW device comprises a carrier substrate (CA), a TCF compensating layer (CL), a piezoelectric layer (PL), and an IDT electrode (EL) on top of the piezoelectric layer. A functional layer (FL) is arranged between piezoelectric layer and TCF compensating layer to further reduce the TCF. The material properties of the functional layer match those of the piezoelectric layer in view of acoustic velocity, density and stiffness such that they do not deviate from each other by more than 10% without having piezoelectric effect. The functional layer my be of the same crystalline constitution as the useful piezoelectric layer but without piezoelectric properties.