Analysis on gamma irradiation sensing mechanisms of thin film bulk acoustic resonators

Abstract

Experiment shows that thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) is feasible to detect gamma irradiation, but the sensing mechanism is not studied deeply. For this problem, different sensing mechanisms are proposed to explain the resonance frequency shift after gamma irradiation according to two different FBAR structures. One FBAR structure is four - layers stacked (metal layer - piezoelectric layer - oxide layer - metal layer). After gamma irradiation, a voltage will be formed in the radiation sensitive layer (oxide layer), which is equivalent to impose a DC voltage to the piezoelectric layer that makes resonant frequency shift. There is a semiconductor layer between oxide layer and piezoelectric layer in the other FBAR structure, which is the difference between the two structures. A voltage formed in the oxide layer after irradiation will change the surface potential of the semiconductor and then change the space charge layer capacitor in semiconductor that makes the resonant frequency shift. The results of two mechanisms are obtained by simulation and compared with those in related literature, it is found that the trends and magnitudes of frequency shift are the same, so the two mechanisms are feasible.