Super-high sensitivity FBAR temperature sensor based on size effect of Ti insertion layer

Abstract

The temperature sensitivity is one of the critical parameters for the thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) based temperature sensors. In this work, FBARs with Au/Fe0.8Ga0.2/Ti/AlN/Mo structure are developed. The size effect of the Ti insertion layer on the temperature sensitivity of the devices is systematically investigated. The devices were fabricated by MEMS process and characterized by a network analyzer under variable temperatures. It is found that the temperature sensitivity of the devices is strongly related to the thickness of the Ti insertion layer. A super-high temperature sensitivity up to 546 kHz °C−1 was obtained with 20 nm Ti inserted thin film; that feature can even reach 825 kHz °C−1 for some devices, showing great potential for ultra-sensitive temperature monitoring. Mason model is used to analyze the extraordinary characteristics of the device and finite element method (FEM) is used to analyze the strain distribution in the device. The supreme performance of the temperature sensor can be explained by the size effect of the temperature coefficient of Young’s modulus (TCE) of Ti film, which means that the TCE was enhanced when the thickness of the Ti film is around 20 nm. This work provides a new approach for the design of high sensitivity temperature sensor based on FBAR.