Electrode effects on general modes in high-overtone bulk acoustic resonators

Abstract

Generally, in theoretical calculations of high-overtone bulk acoustic resonators (HBAR), metal electrode effects were always ignored. However, the acoustical impedance, thickness and loss of the electrodes affect practically the performances of HBAR operating at high-frequency. For very high-frequency cases, the thickness of the metal electrode is always on the same order of that of the piezo-film and the electrode effects on modes cannot be negligible. In this paper, based on the resonance frequency spectra and Butterworth Van Dyke equivalent circuit of HBAR, the effects of the material, loss, and thickness of the electrodes on the figure of merit, effective electromechanical coupling factor, quality factor, etc. are analyzed. It is demonstrated that the performance of HBAR can also be optimized by using the electrodes with proper impedance, loss and thickness.