diff --git a/lib/RefBackend/RefBackend.cpp b/lib/RefBackend/RefBackend.cpp
index d40d02d43ffc..6470e25ea30b 100644
--- a/lib/RefBackend/RefBackend.cpp
+++ b/lib/RefBackend/RefBackend.cpp
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Math/Transforms/Passes.h"
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Tensor/IR/Tensor.h"
 #include "mlir/Dialect/Tensor/Transforms/Transforms.h"
+#include "mlir/IR/BuiltinTypes.h"
 #include "mlir/Transforms/DialectConversion.h"
 #include "mlir/Transforms/GreedyPatternRewriteDriver.h"
 #include "torch-mlir/Dialect/TorchConversion/IR/TorchConversionOps.h"
@@ -56,7 +57,7 @@ void mlir::torch::RefBackend::registerRefBackendPasses() { ::registerPasses(); }
 static bool isArgMemRefTypeValid(Type type) {
   if (auto memRefType = dyn_cast<MemRefType>(type)) {
     Type elemTy = memRefType.getElementType();
-    if (isa<Float16Type, Float32Type, Float64Type>(elemTy)) {
+    if (isa<Float16Type, Float32Type, Float64Type, BFloat16Type>(elemTy)) {
       return true;
     } else if (auto integerTy = dyn_cast<IntegerType>(elemTy)) {
       if (integerTy.isSignlessInteger(64))
@@ -90,6 +91,8 @@ static Type getAbiTypeForMemRef(Type type) {
 static std::string getTypeToken(Type type) {
   if (type.isSignlessInteger())
     return ("i" + Twine(type.getIntOrFloatBitWidth())).str();
+  else if (isa<mlir::BFloat16Type>(type)) // only the 16 size exists in mlir
+    return "bf16";
   else if (isa<mlir::FloatType>(type))
     return ("f" + Twine(type.getIntOrFloatBitWidth())).str();
   else if (auto complexTy = dyn_cast<mlir::ComplexType>(type))
@@ -150,10 +153,10 @@ static LogicalResult mungeFunction(
     auto type = arg.getType();
     if (!isArgMemRefTypeValid(type)) {
       return emitError(arg.getLoc())
-          .append("argument must be a memref of f32, f64, i32, i64, i8, i1, "
-                  "c32, c64, but "
-                  "got ",
-                  type);
+          .append(
+              "argument must be a memref of f32, f64, bf16, i32, i64, i8, i1, "
+              "c32, c64, but got ",
+              type);
     }
     auto cast = b.create<memref::CastOp>(arg.getLoc(), type, arg);
     arg.replaceAllUsesExcept(cast, cast);