Enabling Higher Order Lamb Wave Acoustic Devices With Complementarily Oriented Piezoelectric Thin Films

Abstract

In this work, we present a new paradigm for enabling gigahertz higher-order Lamb wave acoustic devices using complementarily oriented piezoelectric (COP) thin films. Acoustic characteristics are first theoretically explored with COP lithium niobate (LiNbO3) thin films, showing their excellent frequency scalability, low loss, and high electromechanical coupling (k2). Acoustic resonators and delay lines are then designed and implemented, targeting efficient excitation of higher-order Lamb waves with record-breaking low loss. The fabricated resonator shows a 2nd-order symmetric (S2) resonance at 3.05 GHz with a high quality factor (Q) of 657, and a large k2 of 21.5% and a 6th-order symmetric (S6) resonance at 9.05 GHz with a high Q of 636 and a k2 of 3.71%, both among the highest demonstrated for higher-order Lamb wave devices. The delay lines show an average insertion loss (IL) of 7.5 dB and the lowest reported propagation loss of 0.014 dB/μm at 4.4 GHz for S2. Notable acoustic passbands up to 15.1 GHz are identified. Upon further optimizations, the proposed COP platform can lead to gigahertz low-loss wideband acoustic components.